This is a policy choice. As Dr. Gottlieb recently put the issue on CNBC: if we substantially reduce vaccination rates, "we're going to have to build new pediatric hospitals." www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8CJ...
Regulating DTC #microbiome tests academic.oup.com/jlb/article/...
"...often misleading to consumers..."
"...the tests lack analytical and clinical validity."
"...may have many 'false positive' or 'false negatives' and can harm consumers."
Needed: more stringent regulation!
“The anti-vaccine movement is not a spontaneous expression of grassroots concern. It’s an industry.”
"It is going to get so much worse."
For the first of two end-of-the-year episodes of @pandemia.bsky.social, I talked to @drdemetre.bsky.social about what happened in 2025 at the CDC and how he thinks about the future of vaccines and public health in the US.
A quick 🧪🧵
The right answer for marijuana is to legalize and regulate. Instead, we’re going to keep the ridiculous Wild West patchwork gray market we have now for THC (worse w/the new restricted definition of hemp) & both subsidize *and* underregulate CBD, assimilating it to pro-supplement woo.
Very well-deserved congrats, @bridgetdooling.bsky.social, but an even bigger congrats to Ohio State for snagging such a superstar scholar, teacher, and colleague in the first place! We're lucky to have you.
(And I-O!)
Since 2020, our team has iterated on a model for “rapid research” to help surface, analyze, & resolve rumors about election administration. This work demonstrates an innovative role for researchers to support public sensemaking during rapidly unfolding events.
uw.pressbooks.pub/rapidresearc...
"One agency source said at least one division is having to pour all of its resources into reviewing drugs that received a voucher, taking time away from other medical products."
Vaccines cause adults
Summarizing the current state of pricing and coverage for GLP1s in the US with @rachelsachs.bsky.social in @nejm.org this week!
Read it before things change (again)!
www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
And for background on the project, check our our piece in @jhppl.bsky.social:
read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/articl...
I am *really* excited about this work and the opportunity to work with @hollylynchez.bsky.social & @reshmagar.bsky.social, and grateful to @arnoldventures.bsky.social for the support.
We're looking to hire a post-doc, please apply or send candidates our way!
postdocs.yale.edu/posts/2025-1...
Now up at Health Affairs Forefront, Kristi Martin and I identify important aspects of the 2027 Medicare drug price negotiation cycle, including its interactions with other IRA drug pricing reforms. www.healthaffairs.org/content/fore...
Lots more detail in the paper (jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...), but our findings provide the first evaluation of FDAAA and its enhanced safety-related regulatory authorities, and its impact on drug safety and public health, and informs current PDUFA VII negotiations! @reshmagar.bsky.social (5/5)
New paper from @yalecrrit.bsky.social out today in @jamainternalmed.com - The 2007 US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Amendments Act (FDAAA) expanded the agency's safety-related regulatory authorities, including enhanced postmarketing safety surveillance and new clinical study requirements (1/5)
As @bridgetdooling.bsky.social and I argue in a new paper (link below), corporate directors play a role in law enforcement. They have a special duty to ensure their companies don't break the law.
It is heartening, therefore, to see a few companies stand up for the rule of law. As they ought.
Love this optimism! #GoTeam!
Chris Whitty: Why health misinformation spreads www.bmj.com/content/391/...
"Through every single one of the past 160 years there was extensive misinformation about health—and yet the improvements continued."
"This is a battle that is winnable."
As many others have posted, a must-read by 12 former FDA commissioners laying out what's so deeply troubling about the substance of and process used for recent changes to vaccine policy at FDA: www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
But @jasonlschwartz.bsky.social perhaps summed it up best 👇
Congratulations to the CMS career staff for completing the negotiations for the 2027 cycle of the Medicare drug price negotiation program - the negotiated prices are now public. More later, but for now one note on attempts to compare these savings to the 2026 savings. 1/2 www.cms.gov/files/docume...
Tragic. Critical to promote reliable information from the biomedicine community.
Yikes.
I was just walking back to Drinko from a meeting and had the exact same thought.
This is going to be a terrific discussion re: AI & health insurance coverage decisions that’s open to the public if you are interested. @umnconsortium.bsky.social
When the evidence in favor of vaccination is compelling, CDC should make a recommendation ... and the American people deserve to hear it.
Our case in @jama.com
w/ Tom Frieden and William Scaffner
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
“We can have an active, robust discussion as a group of medical experts spontaneously, and so we’re doing more of that,” Makary said of his preference for convening roundtables.
Guess what roundtables don't have? FACA requirements to occur in public with the opportunity for public comment.
Ridiculous. So maddening.
Yes, complex. But there is NO doubt that antivaxx misinformation big part of problem.
Canada loses measles elimination status after three decades, health agency says www.reuters.com/business/hea...
I don’t mind the office view…
Seems like a good time to do a special issue of @jhppl.bsky.social on the Politics of Private Health Insurance. Call for papers will be out soon, so stay tuned. There’s seem to be, uh, a few politically relevant topics to discuss. @mirandayaver.bsky.social @adrianna.bsky.social
