Can genetically modified animals help ease the shortage of organs? After years of research into xenotransplantation, the field is at a turning point — yet risks and ethical issues remain. More than 100,000 people in the United States are waiting for a new heart, kidney or some other organ. Many will die waiting. Some scientists see new hope for these people in organs from pigs that have been...
Last Word
Texas Measles Outbreak Nears 100 Cases, Raising Concerns About Undetected Spread
Some private schools have shut down because of a rapidly escalating measles outbreak in West Texas. Local health departments are overstretched, pausing other important work as they race to limit the spread of this highly contagious virus. Since the outbreak emerged three weeks ago, the Texas health department has confirmed 90 cases with 16 hospitalizations, as of Feb. 21. Most of those infected...
A Critical Deficit
Flawed thinking can lead us into a lifetime of pointless arguments and bad decisions. Fixing the problem won't be easy — but we know how to do it. Life in 21st-century America is not for the faint of heart. Nor is it for the faint of mind. Every day seems to pile fresh burdens on us. We have to process a tsunami of unfamiliar and frequently contradictory information, and then make the best...
The Un-Merry-Go-Round of Media, Pharma and Government
A scientific journal on Tuesday retracted the March 2020 study that introduced the world to hydroxychloroquine early in the COVID-19 pandemic – and confirmed that the attention was undeserved from the start…The International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, which is owned by Elsevier and the International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, issued a formal retraction. USA Today,...
Her Mental Health Treatment Was Helping. That’s Why Insurance Cut Off Her Coverage.
ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. Series: America’s Mental Barrier - How Insurers Interfere With Mental Health Care Geneva Moore’s therapist pulled out her spiral notebook. At the top of the page, she jotted down the date, Jan. 30, 2024, Moore’s initials and the name of the doctor...
What are pharmacy benefit managers? A health economist explains how lack of competition drives up drug prices for everyone
PBMs control which drugs insurers cover, for how much and for whom. cagkansayin/iStock via Getty Images Plus ~~~~~ James B. Rebitzer, Boston University Wegovy and Ozempic are weight loss drugs that promise to transform the treatment of obesity, heart disease and other chronic conditions that afflict millions of Americans. But while everyone agrees these drugs have the potential to transform...