The $21 billion settlement between the attorneys general of several states and pharmaceutical distributors will make the lawyers rich (they get roughly 10 percent of the total) but will do nothing to affect overdose rates. Dr. Jeffrey Singer tells us why.
Policy & Ethics
If we want people to refuse COVID vaccines, a recent CNN segment featuring political pundit Max Boot illustrates how we can do it.
For a minute, let’s suspend political views about COVID-19 vaccinations, masking, drugs; let’s put aside beliefs about vaccine acceptance, hesitancy, or refusal. Ethical considerations might help address the conflict between the forces that drive current positions: individualism and autonomy on one side versus solidarity and collectivism on the other. An ethical inquiry may promote a more equitable, practical, and effective approach. Let’s tease out the principles and see.
Biopharmaceutical companies, insurers, pharmacy benefit managers and the government can and must work together to keep each other accountable and embrace value-based or outcomes-based reimbursement. The guiding principle being that “IF” the new innovative medicine delivers the outcomes and value promised to patients and the U.S. economy, the therapy will be rewarded.
Are open methods, open data, and access are essential requirements underlying transparency. But are they enough to establish the integrity of research? How frequent is “research misconduct,” and what factors would encourage such behavior? A new study reaches some tentative conclusions.
The DEA lifted its 2007 ban on methadone clinics sending out mobile units to reach people in communities underserved by the clinics. But patients are required to take the methadone in the presence of clinic staff. A better solution is to let doctors prescribe take-home methadone, like they do in Canada, UK, Australia--and they were permitted to do as an emergency measure during the pandemic.
A recent vaping-related lawsuit in North Carolina illustrates the problem with public health's black-or-white thinking about the effects of electronic cigarettes.
A new study suggests that vaccine lotteries won't boost COVID-19 immunizations. Politics and hypocrisy may help explain why these incentive-based campaigns yield disappointing results.
In recent months, the media has called on celebrities to open up about their COVID vaccination status. Immunity is a shared space, the argument goes, and pro-vaccine pop-stars can convince the public that getting immunized isn't just a personal choice. There's some truth to this, but the argument raises touchy ethical questions about privacy that need to be answered.
Last year the American Medical Association directly challenged the CDC's disastrous Guidance for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain, which was issued in 2016. Not surprisingly, Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing (PROP), a group that was (for some mysterious reason) directly involved with the CDC, responded defensively. Here are my comments on PROP's disingenuous rebuttal.
The other day, the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, hosted a webinar for stakeholders on maintaining the scientific integrity of their work. I have pulled a few images from their “slide deck” to share.
A detailed investigation has exposed troubling connections between Scientology-affiliated lawyers and anti-GMO, anti-vaccine groups. For years, these forces have colluded to attack safe medicines and pesticides, while slandering scientists and organizations that challenge activist rhetoric as "Monsanto shills."