My interview with Alison Morrow

It turns out that hydroxychloroquine has been tested in a couple of hundred clinical trials–BEFORE Covid-19 appeared–for an extraordinarily wide range of medical conditions.  Just to give you a feel for the range of illnesses the drug was tried on (I stopped making a list when I got to 30), they include obesity, the prevention of…

From the Aug 1, 2009 Lancet online: Last week, Australia and the USA announced that they would begin trials of an H1N1 vaccine. Vaccination against H1N1 will be an important development in controlling the impact of the pandemic. However, several thorny issues exist around vaccine manufacture and approval. All countries will require the vaccine but…

With 45 million doses expected October 15, and 20 million vaccine doses available weekly thereafter, 85 million high-risk Americans will be able to receive their single needed swine flu vaccination during October.  By the end of November, another 80 million (lower risk) Americans could be vaccinated. That will probably cover everyone who wants to be…

https://www.statnews.com/2021/10/07/cdc-director-defends-decision-to-overrule-expert-panel-on-covid-booster-shots-for-health-workers/ Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Thursday defended her decision to overrule an expert panel on whether health care workers and other frontline workers should be offered Covid-19 booster shots, saying it was based on how she would have voted, had she been able to cast a vote….

Interesting comments were made at the last meeting of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, reported on the Commission blog.  They include the following: Anita Allen, J.D., Ph.D., Commission member and Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania: “Military families are subject to extraordinary pressures on the need…

On February 9, 2012, I wrote about how Merck manages to evade FDA regulations on advertising by funneling money through third party intermediaries: educational institutions and education/PR companies.  These third parties then pay doctors to provide advertising to other professionals in the form of continuing medical education.  Merck can then have the doctors speak about…