Words about science and hiking
The prevailing narrative on drug prices, especially in the US, is that they are getting ridiculously expensive and unaffordable. That makes a story that’s easy to write – villainous drug companies vs desperate patients unable to afford life-saving medicine. But it’s almost completely wrong. Not the expensive part – the life-saving part. Most drugs – Read More …
On October 10th, President Trump issued a ringing denunciation (which he totally wrote himself) of socialism in general and socialized health care in particular: “Virtually everywhere it has been tried, socialism has brought suffering, misery and decay.” Socialism’s latest threat? To destroy socialized medicine for seniors in the US. If given the chance, socialists will “…give Read More …
Our healthcare system is oriented toward cures, not prevention. Outlays for public health measures have never been more than 2-3% of total healthcare spending, and this small amount is falling – even though we know that every dollar spent returns several dollars in benefits. We could blame greedy doctors or pharmas or hospitals, or more Read More …
The FDA today cleared a new drug for treating influenza, the first in 20 years. Xofluza (baloxovir) appears to have about the same efficacy as oseltamivir in reducing symptoms of patients with uncomplicated influenza infections. Maybe a little better: From Baloxavir Marboxil for Uncomplicated Influenza in Adults and Adolescents Baloxavir attacks a different target (RNA replication) Read More …
I tend to be pretty dismissive of predictions of the superbug apocalypse. Yes, antibiotic resistance is a real problem and causes real deaths now and will cause even more later. But it is a pretty slow-moving sort of apocalypse and there are lots of changes and adaptations that we can make to slow it down. Read More …
In science – especially biology – what you find is often no more important than where you look. The oncogene paradigm of cancer genesis – that mutations to key genes cause cells to become cancerous – has reigned supreme for several decades now. It is a driving factor in the whole notion of personalized medicine, Read More …
Maryn McKenna – one of the better science journalists out there – is the culprit this time. One might argue in her defense that she is simply relaying the views of a top expert, in this case Kevin Outterson of CARB-X who said “…every antibiotic we count on now will be destroyed…antibiotics will be crushed.” Read More …
Published on Forbes and Apple News There’s little question that we have been suckered into taking far more medicine than we actually require. But let’s face it – we want to be suckered. We ask for it, we demand it, and we get it. Pharma companies are enablers, but they are not all-powerful overlords forcing us to Read More …
Another paper about another phage protein isn’t usually cause for notice. There are lots of phage, and they have lots of proteins, and figuring out what they all do could occupy the efforts of scientists for several millennia. Which is precisely my point. What’s sometimes lost in all the excitement about genomics is that it Read More …
Every new discipline goes through an arc of development. First there are the easy discoveries made possible by new technologies or new understandings. Alfred Hershey, who with Martha Chase helped prove that DNA is the carrier of genetic information, once remarked that scientific happiness is “…to have one experiment that works, and keep doing it all Read More …