Opinion: Needed: an Operation Warp Speed for the opioid epidemic
Despite early challenges in scaling diagnostic testing for Covid-19 and a halting start to the…
Category: First Opinion
Opinion: Listen: A medical historian on infectious diseases as the ‘third army’ of the Civil War
In this episode of the “First Opinion Podcast,” medical historian Jonathan S. Jones explains the…
Opinion: H.R. 3’s international reference pricing misses the mark
The White House and Congress have declared that reining in Medicare prescription drug costs to…
Opinion: STAT+: Investment in antimicrobials was up in 2020, but much work remains
The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic generated renewed interest in the development of vaccines and…
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Opinion: In Covid’s grip, India gasps for air: ‘If there is an apocalypse, this has to be one’
MUMBAI — Working hard to keep her composure, Lavanya Sharma tweeted a short video on…
Opinion: STAT+: More pharma companies should make the move toward B Corps sustainability
The gradual global shift towards sustainability, with an increased focus on climate change and environmental…
Opinion: Vaccinations are plateauing. Don’t blame it on ‘resistance’
The signs are clear: The U.S. vaccine rollout is plateauing. A remarkable 230 million shots…
Opinion: What’s next for diagnostic labs, a ‘bright spot’ during Covid-19?
As U.S. diagnostic labs began confronting the Covid-19 pandemic in early March 2020, they faced…
Opinion: End fracking exemptions, a threat to maternal and public health
The adoption of safe, clean, renewable energy is an essential element for sustaining the U.S….
Opinion: To create value, pharma companies should prioritize innovation, not shareholders
Biogen announced its quarterly earnings on April 22 and revealed it had repurchased $600 million…
Opinion: Congress: stand up to the paper lobby and abolish outdated paper labeling for clinicians
There’s no place in health care for practices that fail to serve the best interests…
Opinion: Real-world data, not predictions, should drive decisions on Covid-19 and school opening
The United States has exceeded 31 million Covid-19 infections (a messy data point) and is…
Opinion: Academic medical centers need to go beyond statements condemning racism
As predictable as mushrooms popping up after rain, condemnation of racism from leaders at academic…
Opinion: Climate change and human immunity: invest now or pay more later
World leaders, beckoned by President Biden, are assembling on Earth Day, April 22, to create…
Opinion: Needed for long Covid: a less authoritarian approach to understanding, treatment
The public has become increasingly concerned about long Covid — ongoing symptoms and disabilities after…
Opinion: Listen: A Baghdad-trained physician on the barriers to getting a medical license in the U.S.
In this episode of the First Opinion Podcast, I speak with Lubab al-Quraishi, a Baghdad-trained…
Opinion: FDA: make medical apps reliable, not risky
The fear of Covid-19 catapulted symptom checkers from the periphery of public attention to the…
Opinion: Low-tech but high-value: Don’t stop reimbursing phone-only telehealth visits
At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and…
Opinion: For people of color, ‘where is our pause’ from being killed by police?
Each night, after our 7-year-old son falls asleep, my wife or I go into his…
Opinion: FTC’s challenge to Illumina’s vertical merger with Grail is all wrong
My mom died of stage 4 cancer in February 2008. Had the technology existed then…
Opinion: Catching Covid-19 after being vaccinated isn’t a myth. It happened to me
When I was vaccinated against Covid-19, I felt a deep sense of relief: no more…
Opinion: STAT+: The FDA should embrace remote and automated drug inspection technology
While pharmaceutical regulatory authorities in other countries are employing creative ways like video-based remote inspections…
Opinion: For-profit nursing homes and hospices are a bad deal for older Americans
Nursing homes and hospice care are supposed to provide safe refuges for older people and…
Opinion: Lessons learned — and forgotten — from the horrific epidemics of the U.S. Civil War
As the U.S. approaches 600,000 deaths from Covid-19, it is hard to fathom that this…
Opinion: STAT+: Developers of microbiome-based drugs face challenges. There are ways to overcome them
Manipulating the human microbiome appears to be an effective approach for treating a range of…
Opinion: A ketogenic diet brought me back to life. Will believing in its effectiveness make me a pariah in medical school?
My awareness of the limits of medical knowledge began when I was diagnosed with osteoporosis…
Opinion: It’s time to get health care value assessment right
Trying to gauge the value of new drugs and devices is becoming increasingly important in…
Opinion: STAT+: Rethinking triage in an era of vaccine nationalism
Just about every schoolchild learns that Napoleon Bonaparte was a small man. But few know…
Opinion: Listen: Two addiction specialists debunk the myth of ‘excited delirium’ used in police encounters
In the tenth episode of “The First Opinion Podcast,” I talk with two physicians who…
Opinion: Looking back at 15 years of sharing viral genomes to forge ahead
Anniversaries represent an opportunity for revisiting the past to make a leap forward. I’m using…
Opinion: Beware the ‘last mile, first smile’ syndrome when we near the end of the Covid-19 pandemic
Fatigue, distracted attention, and the sense that a crisis will soon be over contribute to…
Opinion: Building the perfect wearable for clinical trials
The pace of innovation in wearable technology has never been faster. As often as once…
Opinion: No evidence that patents slow access to vaccines
At this point in the exhausting and deadly Covid-19 pandemic, people around the globe are…
Opinion: STAT+: Three steps toward creating a functioning U.S. biosimilars market
The development of safe, effective, and innovative biologic medicines is one of modern medicine’s far-reaching…
Opinion: Make it easier for employers to help get America vaccinated
Businesses across the country are ready, willing, and able to help America get vaccinated. They…
Opinion: What a century-old painting taught me about being present as a physician today
I was clearing out old files not long ago and came across a copy of…
Opinion: Autism: awareness, acceptance, and the places in between
In its efforts to rebrand April, currently designated as Autism Awareness Month, the Autism Society…
Opinion: ‘It shouldn’t be this hard’ for foreign-trained health professionals to work in the U.S.
When people ask if they should call me “doctor,” I’ve always answered, “Please, call me…
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Opinion: STAT+: Unprecedented development of Covid-19 vaccines, treatments points to biopharma’s future
Business as usual has not been the mantra for companies developing Covid-19 vaccines and drugs….
Opinion: How humility can save us from Covid-19
“I was wrong.” That simple statement should have been at the top of the soundtrack…
Opinion: Listen: Antibiotic experts on the threat of antimicrobial resistant superbugs
This week’s “First Opinion Podcast” takes a look at antimicrobial resistance, a topic that should…
Opinion: India shouldn’t insist on ‘bridging trials’ in the middle of a pandemic
India is facing a brutal second wave of Covid-19, with daily case counts approaching 100,000….
Opinion: A skeptic’s take on Neuralink and other consumer neurotech
The titans of Silicon Valley say that the brain-computer interface revolution is coming, and neurotech…
Opinion: To stem the pandemic, the U.S. needs a national Covid-19 genomic sequencing effort
More than a year into the pandemic, the United States is at yet another critical…
Opinion: Excited delirium: valid clinical diagnosis or medicalized racism? Organized medicine needs to take a stand
The “diagnosis” of excited delirium, a term often used to justify and defend police brutality,…
Opinion: Tax exemptions for nonprofit hospitals: It’s time taxpayers get their money’s worth
Many U.S. hospitals provide charity care to financially disadvantaged patients without the expectation of getting…
Opinion: ‘Authorization’ status is a red herring when it comes to mandating Covid-19 vaccination
Covid-19 vaccines offer a way out of the global crisis that has upended — and…
Opinion: Thank private risk-taking, not public funding, for Covid-19 vaccines, therapies
A growing chorus of lawmakers and activists is calling on the Biden administration to invalidate…
Opinion: How a rally after the Atlanta shootings helped heal Asian American health care workers
In March 2020, when New York City became the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in…
Opinion: Corporate versus public control of science and technology: Forging a framework for the 21st Century
“Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity.” Louis Pasteur said that in 1876….