Newsletter

We will divert a bit from our usual newsletter format focusing on a single issue to give you quick summaries and links to several important issues on our radar screen. Here goes: * Natural immunity endures: To follow up on our newsletter from last week about the strength of natural immunity, Dr. Marty Makary of Johns Hopkins and co-authors report in their new study in … [Read more...] about Quick Takes

Dr. Marty Makary has been a voice of clarity and sanity in the Covid pandemic response, and his latest piece in The Wall Street Journal may be his most important yet.  He writes in “The High Cost of Disparaging Natural Immunity to Covid” that “Public-health officials ruined many lives by insisting that workers with natural immunity to Covid-19 be fired if they weren’t fully … [Read more...] about Listen to the Doctors

A year out, the Biden administration’s health policy agenda is on life support, both with its Covid response and overall agenda. While there are many externalities that Washington can’t control, the main failures are mis-management, politicization, and pushing ideas far outside the mainstream. Paul Mango, who has written a book about the Trump administration’s widely-praised … [Read more...] about A Failing Grade

The Good:  Yes, we should celebrate the Supreme Court’s decision yesterday that OSHA does not have the power to force employers to force 84 million Americans who work for them to get Covid vaccines. But the decision is on narrow grounds, and it didn’t protect 10 million other Americans.  The court’s decision involving the Biden administration’s employer vaccine mandate … [Read more...] about The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Independent physician practices have been under attack for decades, with government using its payment and regulatory powers to exert control. Today, more and more physicians are being forced to sell their practices to hospitals or join mega-practice groups to survive.  Others sadly close shop. A 2020 survey by The Physicians Foundation found that 12% of all U.S. doctors … [Read more...] about Priorities

The Build Back Bureaucracy bill blessedly has stalled in the Senate, ending President Biden’s plans for a vote before Christmas.  Sen. Lindsey Graham said Wednesday he thinks the bill is “dead forever, and let me tell you why: because Joe Manchin has said he's not going to vote for a bill that will add to the deficit." Sen. Graham, the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget … [Read more...] about Galen’s 25th anniversary

The announcement today that inflation has hit 6.8%, the highest since 1982, puts a deep crimp in Senate plans to finish work on the big government give-away bill before Christmas.  Sen. Joe Manchin has repeatedly said he wants to press pause on the tax-and-spend Build Back Better bill, largely over his serious and very legitimate concerns about inflation. Pouring … [Read more...] about Another Devastating Blow

Our friend Joel White, who heads the Council for Affordable Health Coverage, has a terrific piece today in The Wall Street Journal comparing the historic success and efficiency of Operation Warp Speed to the massive and destructive government tax-and-spend “Build Back Better Bill” now before the Senate. (Unfortunately full access requires a subscription so I’ll … [Read more...] about Crying Wolf