A disease doesn’t have to be real to cause worldwide damage “While I am deeply concerned about the long-term existential threat of AI and synthetic biology to create new or modified pathogens, my extensive experience detecting and controlling outbreaks around the world makes me fear a more immediate threat: a rogue actor using existing AI tools to simulate a bioterrorism attack that would destabilize a region or the world. [..] Freely available AI tools now permit people to create “deepfakes” that are almost impossible for a person to differentiate from reality without special tools. It’s not simply a question of whether … Read More
All posts in Health Policy
“The largest health care companies in the US are no longer just health insurers, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), physician practices, home health agencies, hospices, data warehouses, data analytics firms, or hospitals. They are increasingly all of the above. A small number of unavoidable health care intermediaries are incorporating these services into essential platforms that simultaneously serve as payers, providers, and everything in between. While these companies claim to rationalize health care and realize the promise of coordinated, integrated care, the reality may be quite different. The creation of “big health care” platforms risks worsening the already serious problem of monopoly … Read More
STAT reviewed dozens of studies, interviewed chronic disease experts, and landed on three focus areas for RFK Jr. to boost health Excerpt – Among Kennedy’s primary focuses so far has been convincing food companies to remove chemical additives and artificial dyes: an admirable goal, many nutrition experts say, but not the kind of change that would substantially improve people’s health when compared to other needed reforms. He will need to go bigger, they told STAT. However, some researchers say Kennedy is right to keep his eyes on the environment Americans inhabit — the products in their supermarkets, the toxins in … Read More
“Two major, interconnected problems afflict organ transplantation today: the widening gap between the demand for organs and their supply and the illegal, exploitative organ trade. [..] Organ trade profits from this gap by preying upon both patients waiting for and willing to buy an organ and potential donors living in poverty and willing to sell one. In particular, the principle of financial neutrality has been questioned. This principle states that a donor or their related family should not lose, but also not gain, monetarily as a result of donation, implying that the organ does not become a commodity and money … Read More
“Many patients and their families understandably wish to delay death. Others find the experience torturous: the ever-mounting costs, the endless cycle of interventions, the literal and figurative sterility of the hospital environment. Some doctors and nurses secretly wonder whether these practices are in the best interests of their patients. I am one of them. Some years ago, I began to advocate a revival of the medieval practice of ars moriendi, or the art of dying — a more accepting, less fearful, more community-based approach to the end of life. I believe that in many cases, it is wise to forgo … Read More
“The chief risk of developing general AI [artificial intelligence] too rapidly is misalignment—when an AI system’s objectives diverge from human values. The AI research community has identified several considerations that increase misalignment risk, illustrated in the Box using neurology-specific examples. These illustrative cases might seem straightforward to detect and correct. However, if we succeed in developing a general AI that far exceeds human intelligence, the stakes become higher and intervention more difficult. In neurology, superintelligent AI could become essential for tasks like diagnosing conditions, personalizing treatments, managing hospitals, and making critical decisions. If a superintelligent AI conceals misalignment, however, it … Read More
“To help put alcohol taxes in perspective: the federal tax on a pack of cigarettes is now approximately $1, and states and localities can layer on additional taxes. Customers in New York City, for instance, pay a $5.35 state tax and an additional $1.50 city tax for a combined total of $6.85 per pack — far beyond the average state tax of $1.93 nationally. Meanwhile, since the mid-20th century, relative alcohol tax rates have receded by roughly three quarters and have fallen well below those in other high-income countries, in contradistinction to trends in taxation of nicotine products. It has … Read More
“[Introduction] Despite spending more than any country in the world on health care, life expectancy in the US is comparably worse than that of most other high-income countries and declining both in absolute value and relative rank. However, life expectancy across US states varies just as markedly as it does across high-income countries, from 81.8 years in Hawaiʻi to 74.7 years in Mississippi in 2019—a divergence that has been increasing over time. US states vary considerably on policy decisions related to the spending, regulation, and provision of health care; reproductive health; tax policy; social welfare programs; and in relation to … Read More
The Trump administration is manipulating government-sponsored research to get the answers it wants. “Since its first days, the new Trump administration has clearly shown where it thinks scientific attention should not be focused: It has attempted to censor federal scientific data, cut billions in government spending on research, and compromised care for some of the world’s most at-risk populations. Now, as the nation’s leaders have begun to encourage inquiry into specific areas, they are signaling that they’re willing to not just slash and burn research that challenges their political ideology but to replace it with shoddy studies designed to support … Read More
A plan was set in motion with no idea of how to stop it. “While federal public-health officials made recommendations regarding schools, the actual closures were carried out at the state and local levels, in response to misplaced public fears and aggressive campaigning by teachers’ unions. Randi Weingarten, the high-profile head of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a February 8, 2021, New York Times article that she hoped things would be “as normal as possible” by the following fall. Class-action lawsuits in multiple states had been filed on behalf of children with special needs on the claim that … Read More