Preventing the next pandemic: Infrastructure and global equity
In the final piece of a three-part series, Ben Hargreaves explores how manufacturing infrastructure was rapidly built up to the required capacity to ensure sufficient […]
vaccinations
Sen. Ben Sasse tests positive for COVID-19
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) has tested positive for COVID-19, according to a statement from his office. Communications director James Wegmann said on Thursday that Sasse […]
Poliovirus detected in London sewage
Officials in the United Kingdom are investigating after they detected poliovirus in sewage samples from North and East London. The U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA) […]
DeSantis escalates feud with White House
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is escalating his feud with the White House over the COVID-19 response as he positions himself for a possible presidential […]
Is making mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases profitable?
COVID-19 vaccines have had a huge beneficial impact on patient health. One study found that between December 2020 and June 2021, COVID-19 vaccines saved 240,000 […]
What HCPs think about mandatory vaccination
What HCPs think about mandatory vaccination The practice of making vaccinations mandatory within a population has always been controversial. Historically, the first example of this […]
Characteristics of neighborhoods with high and low COVID-19 vaccination rates
What do the vaccination rates look like in the largest U.S. cities? In these cities, how do the characteristics of individuals in neighborhoods with low […]
The “Secret Sauce” – A Comparison of TSMC and Pfizer
By MIKE MAGEE This week’s Tom Friedman Opinion piece in the New York Times contained a title impossible to ignore: “China’s Bullying Is Becoming a Danger […]
NFL Rosters and COVID-19 Vaccination Status
Today teams in the National Football League (NFL) made their final roster cuts. In most years, your ability to make the final roster of an […]
Uncertainty and Vaccination Decisions
An interesting result from Courbage and Peter (2021): …uncertainty about the probability of side effects and the efficacy of the vaccine always reduces take-up under […]
Boost vaccination rates with frictionless self-scheduling
As the country strives to ramp up the pace of COVID-19 vaccinations, providers need to take new approaches to drive registration volume. Healthcare experts are […]
Boost vaccination rates with frictionless self-scheduling
It’s time to accelerate the pace of COVID-19 vaccinations. Healthcare experts are increasingly concerned about the rapid spread of the highly contagious delta variant, which […]
Medicare vaccine coverage (including how the COVID-19 vaccines are covered)
How does Medicare cover vaccines? Are the paid for by Medicare Part B or Part D? MedPAC’s June 2021 report provides a nice overview. Medicare […]
CMS ups Medicare payment for at-home vaccinations to about $75 per dose
CMS is increasing the payment for administering at-home Covid-19 vaccinations from around $40 to $75 per dose. The move comes amid the Biden administration’s push […]
Nutritional Yeast to Help Prevent Common Childhood Infections
The amount of beta-glucan fiber in just a dusting of nutritional yeast a day is put to the test in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial […]
“Mr. Biden is wrong”
That was the conclusion of The Economist on his decision to suspend intellectual property protections for the makers of COVID-19 vaccines. In the article “Ten […]
COVID-19 vaccination update
This weekend I received my second COVID-19 vaccine. While I certainly feel lucky to live in a country with ample vaccine supply, other countries are […]
Telehealth aside, providers look to invest IT dollars in cloud services, data analytics
Though telehealth will continue to account for a large portion of healthcare IT budgets in 2021, there are other technology-based services driving provider interest. These […]
OIG: Pandemic forced hospitals into ‘survival mode’
A new report from the HHS’ Office of Inspector General lays bare the varied challenges hospitals faced in the past year — and continue to […]
Does Nutritional Yeast Trigger Crohn’s Disease?
Is the exaggerated reaction of many Crohn’s disease patients to baker’s, brewer’s, and nutritional yeast just a consequence of their inflamed leaky gut, or might […]
COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers capture less than 2% of total social value
How can we best accelerate vaccine availability? This is the question that Ahuja et al. (2021) try to answer in their Becker-Friedman Institute (BFI) working […]
The perfect COVID-19 vaccination strategy
Who should get the COVID-19 vaccine first? Since I am an economist, let’s try to figure this out mathematically. Let’s give each person or group […]
Historical compliance with multi-dose vaccines
It’s not great. From Nelson et al. (2009): Among those who received a first dose of varicella (n = 16 075), hepatitis A (n = […]
Resourceful or risky? The UK’s controversial COVID-19 vaccine strategy
As COVID-19 vaccines are hastily deployed in the UK for priority groups, a debate rages over the government’s controversial strategy to delay time between vaccine […]
COVID-19 vaccine: More good news as Moderna releases results
Looks like more good news on the COVID-19 vaccine front. Dr. Fauci’s prediction that the Pfizer/BioNTech foreshadowed positive news for future vaccines appears to have […]
COVID-19, nursing home quality and vaccination
Interesting findings from an NBER working paper by Cronin and Evans (2020): Higher-quality nursing homes, as measured by inspection ratings, have substantially lower COVID-19 mortality. […]
How long does it take to bring a vaccine to market?
Given the incredible speed in which vaccine development for COVID-19 is occurring, it merits thinking back on the typical development and approval time of previous […]
Positive news on a COVID-19 vaccine
Great news on progress for a COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer. From their press release: Vaccine candidate was found to be more than 90% effective in […]
Data hackathon analyses truth behind TB vaccine and COVID-19
Is a century-old vaccine a ‘game-changer’ for COVID-19? Anita de Waard from Elsevier and Radoslav Kirkov from Estafet tells us how a hackathon is harnessing […]
The Role of Meat and Dairy Viruses in Cancer
“Nearly 20% of cancer cases arising worldwide can be linked to infectious agents, including viruses.” Seven viruses are now conclusively tied to human cancers, and, […]
What is the “reputational value” of developing a COVID vaccine?
COVID-19 is a global pandemic and finding a vaccine for COVID-19 would be a boon to societal. The value would be enormous. One study found […]
Vaccines provide good value for money in low- and middle-income countries
That is according to a Health Affairspaper by So Yoon Sim et al. (2020). We estimated economic benefits using cost-of-illness and value-of-a-statistical-life approaches and combined […]
Eating Seaweed Salad May Boost Immune Function
Eating seaweed salad may boost the efficacy of vaccinations and help treat cold sores, herpes, Epstein-Barr virus, and shingles. Billions of pounds of seaweed are […]
How to Prevent the Infection that May Trigger Type 1 Diabetes
The compelling finding of Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis (MAP) circulating disproportionately within the bloodstream of type 1 diabetics was subsequently confirmed by culturing it straight out […]
