Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir-ritonavir) is effective at preventing hospitalization and death from COVID-19, but few people use it. A paper by SteelFisher et al. (2024) surveyed 1,430 American adults to find out why. Their survey revealed patients had a lack of awareness of the treatment as well as misinformation about the treatment (among those who were aware…
Could COVID-19 be more efficacious than effective? This could be the case if individuals receiving COVID-19 engaged in ‘risk compensation’. In short, without a COVID-19 vaccine, individuals may have refrained from travel and engaged in social distancing. After a COVID-19 vaccine, these same individuals could have been more likely to travel and less likely to…
A paper by Meyer et al. (2020) has a nice summary of potential mechanisms through which the presence of COVID-19 could impact clinical trial results. What should a researcher do when a clinical trial is impacted by COVID-19? Here are some analysis considerations. The full article is interesting throughout.
Perhaps according to a report from Stat News: A groundbreaking clause in a new deal between the Department of Health and Human Services and the pharmaceutical company Regeneron marks the first time the Biden administration has directly used its leverage to challenge drugmakers’ list prices, experts told STAT.The contract between Regeneron and the government requires…
More likely according to: Lepinteur et al. (2023): The theoretical effect [of risk aversion on COVID-19 vaccination] is ambiguous, as both COVID-19 infection and vaccination side-effects involve probabilistic elements. In large-scale data covering five European countries, we find that vaccine hesitancy falls with risk aversion, so that COVID-19 infection is perceived as involving greater risk…
Results below from UNESCO data. Presented without commentary. HT: Marginal Revolution
That is the title of a very interesting paper by Casey Mulligan (2023) [NBER WP version]. The full title includes the phrase “Peltzman revisited”. This refers to a paper by Peltzman (1973).When speaking of the 1962 “Drug Efficacy Amendment” (EA) to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act a key piece of research was Peltzman…
Interesting paper from Ziedan, Simon and Wing (2023): The contraction in health care consumption at the start of the pandemic provides insight into central economic questions of waste and productivity in the U.S. health care system. Using linked mortality and Electronic Medical Records, we compare people who had outpatient appointments scheduled for dates in 30…
That is the title of an FTI White Paper published this year where I was a co-author alongside Antoine Mialhe, Sabiha Quddus, Anne-Sophie Deman, Suhail Thahir and Agnes Sipiczki. The role of Intellectual property (IP) in the development of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics became a central tenant in discussions on how to ensure access to…
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 lives (Vilches et al. 2022). The figure below shows that as the Delta and Omicron variants spread in the fall of 2021, COVID-19 vaccines prevented significant number of deaths according…