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April 16, 2020 Blog, Coronavirus, Policy Proposals

President Trump announced at the White House coronavirus press briefing on Tuesday that the United States will immediately halt all funding for the World Health Organization, because it had caused "so much death" by "severely mismanaging and covering up" the coronavirus' spread, putting "political correctness over lifesaving measures." Other government officials, health experts, and analysts also have raised concerns about the WHO’s bungled response to the pandemic, accusing it of being too trusting of the Chinese government, which initially tried to conceal the outbreak in Wuhan. Rather than taking Beijing to...

April 14, 2020 Blog, Coronavirus, Policy Proposals

The coronavirus pandemic is threatening to stretch many hospitals to their breaking point. Beds are filling up with stricken patients, and public health officials are concerned about whether we'll have enough doctors and other healthcare professionals to care for them. So they're scrambling to roll back years' worth of regulations on the healthcare labor market—many of which never should've been in place to begin with. There's no shortage of red tape for policymakers to cut to boost the supply of care...

April 13, 2020 Blog, Coronavirus

Bill Gates announced on April 2 that his foundation would fund the construction of facilities to produce seven possible coronavirus vaccines. The Microsoft founder acknowledges that only two of those vaccines will likely succeed – and the foundation will thus waste billions of dollars on the failed candidates. That's a small price to pay to ensure the prompt delivery of vaccines, save countless lives and restart the economy, he says. And yet, "Billionaires should not exist," according to Sen. Bernie Sanders. "Every...

April 10, 2020 Coronavirus

As Americans endure the privations necessary to “flatten the curve” of new cases of coronavirus COVID-19, we wish that our leaders could manage even a fraction of the comity and tolerance exhibited every day by ordinary people throughout this country. Sadly, we see too much of the opposite. Putting aside the machinations of politicians, there seems to be a widespread need to blame any misstep, or even uncertainty, on somebody or something. The ubiquitousness of social media and the internet drives the...

April 9, 2020 Blog, Coronavirus, Radio

Sally C. Pipes joined the the Pat Miller Show in Cincinnati, Ohio to discuss the enormous benefits of the American private sector in the fight against the coronavirus epidemic. Pipes breaks down how the private sector industries in the United States are pushing innovations in the fight against the coronavirus epidemic including necessary equipment and medical innovation. Click here to listen to the entire interview. ...

April 9, 2020 Blog, Coronavirus, Radio

The nationally-syndicated Lars Larson Show brings back Dr. Henry Miller for his weekly appearance on updates and discussion on the novel coronavirus pandemic. Lars Larson and Dr. Miller look at the defective tests that many countries like the United Kingdom bought from China and how internal flawed testing in the United States led to a slow response to the coronavirus in the United States. ...

April 9, 2020 Blog, Coronavirus, Radio

Dr. Henry Miller continues his regular appearance on the John Batchelor Show to discuss updates with the coronavirus pandemic. Dr. Miller talks about case studies from previous vaccines, and breaks down the different stages of testing a coronavirus vaccine including a safety study, random and placebo testing, and a larger controlled test group to ensure the vaccine is safe and how the Gates Foundation is helping to build large-scale manufacturing facilities for some of the vaccines being tested. Click here to...

April 7, 2020 Blog, Coronavirus

In response to the coronavirus outbreak, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has rolled back regulations on hospitals and health care providers. Hospitals are no longer barred from treating COVID-19 patients in outpatient facilities. The feds are also freeing nurse practitioners, physician assistants and medical residents to provide more care on their own. CMS is even issuing waivers that allow hospitals to provide meals, laundry service and child care while health care personnel are working. Apparently, it takes a pandemic for policymakers to acknowledge that so...

April 6, 2020 Blog, Coronavirus, Multimedia, Radio

PRI Senior Fellow in Health Care Studies Dr. Henry Miller joins PRI's Next Round podcast with an update on the fight against the coronavirus. He offers much-needed perspective on what public health officials are doing to “flatten the curve,” efforts to find vaccines and treatments, the efforts of other countries to contain the virus, when we can expect to get back to business as usual, and whether we should expect more viruses like these going forward. https://youtu.be/1FlElnaB3Ps...

April 6, 2020 Blog, Coronavirus

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued guidance for healthcare facilities in response to the COVID-19 virus including asking all U.S. healthcare facilities to “explore alternatives to face-to-face triage and visits.” The CDC has issued this recommendation to help contain the spread of the virus, protect healthcare workers from unnecessary exposure, and protect the health of patients who do not require face-to-face medical visits (particularly patients with underlying health issues including those with heart, kidney and weakened immune systems). In light...

April 6, 2020 Blog, Coronavirus

The new coronavirus outbreak has put enormous pressure on the American health care system. In response, federal officials and private insurers have rushed to improve patient access to video consultations and other forms of virtual care. It may have taken a public health emergency to bring “telehealth” to the mainstream, but these services are nothing new. We would do well to expand our reliance on telehealth long after COVID-19 is behind us. Telehealth involves the use of technology to deliver medical care...

April 6, 2020 Blog, Coronavirus

As the outbreak of the novel coronavirus continues to gain momentum in the United States, there is intense interest in the development of a vaccine. Several US drugmakers have begun working on a vaccine, independently or with federal agencies like the National Institutes of Health. The public is hungry for news about vaccines, and progress on their development is, at times, exaggerated. Fox Business reported: “We were able to rapidly construct our vaccine in a matter of about three hours once we had...

April 6, 2020 Blog, Coronavirus

The federal government’s efforts to combat the ongoing coronavirus pandemic illustrate why we shouldn’t put our full trust in government to find a cure. After all, they badly botched the testing, costing valuable time in identifying new cases and limiting its spread. Fortunately, private-sector innovators are leading where government has underwhelmed, conducting speedy research and development into potentially life-saving cures, while providing critical support in other areas where government action was lacking. The first version of test kits from the Centers for...

April 2, 2020 Blog, Coronavirus

Title: COVID-19 Pandemic Delaying Treatments of Hematologic Cancers By: John Schieszer Institutional restrictions due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic are taking a large toll on patients with hematologic cancers. Some medical centers have canceled treatments and all centers have altered their policies and procedures. Starting in March, elective and semielective surgical procedures at most hospitals throughout the United States were put on hold, and uncertainty remains regarding when these procedures will start up again. . . . . . Because there is...

April 2, 2020 Blog, Coronavirus

For anyone following the COVID-19 pandemic – and who isn’t? – it’s evident that we’re awash in punditry, speculation, and modeling. But we two are Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates, and we’re looking past the noise to what critical data we don’t yet have that will affect the management of the outbreak – which will, in turn, affect both public health and our economic recovery. On the medical front, let’s consider what we do know. First and foremost, the situation in the...

March 31, 2020 Blog, Coronavirus

Private pharmaceutical companies and the National Institutes of Health have outdone themselves. Thanks to the funding provided by the NIH, a Phase 1 clinical trial for a COVID-19 vaccine  is underway. In separate efforts, Inovio, Sanofi, Vaxart, GlaxoSmithKline, and Johnson & Johnson are all developing potential vaccines. In total, “about 35 companies and academic institutions are racing to create a vaccine, at least four of which already have candidates they have been testing in animals. The first of these – produced by Boston-based...