Featured Posts
News Release
FDA commissioner resignation opens opportunity for refocus on science over politics
After a somewhat tumultuous tenure, FDA commissioner Marty Makary is stepping down. While Dr. Makary made his mission to accelerate drug approval and bring…
Blog
Don’t hinder biosimilar development
In its most recent legislative session, the Florida legislature considered precluding pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) from holding an investment interest in biosimilar manufacturing.
Blog
The unseen costs of banning PBM-owned pharmacies in Tennessee
Tennessee lawmakers recently passed the FAIR Rx Act, which would bar companies from owning pharmacies while also operating a pharmacy benefit manager (PBM)…
Search Posts
New York Post
Eric Adams Needs to Expand Vaccine Exemptions to Everyone, Not Just Elites
Mayor Adams has exempted professional athletes and performers from the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private employers. This overdue and commendable action highlights the absurdity…
Blog
FDA’s Dysfunctional Regulation of E-cigs Created the Synthetic Nicotine Problem
Winston Churchill once said that “If you destroy a free market you create a black market” and nowhere is the validity of that…
National Review
Now, Voyager: Ending the Covid Travel-Testing Charade
As Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths continue to plummet, lawmakers around the country are beginning to lift restrictions. The Biden administration, however, is clinging…
New York Post
CDC’s Silly Stalling on Flight Masks
The Transportation Security Administration, following the recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will extend its mask mandate for airplanes through mid-April. Once…
Op-Eds
Watch Us Fight Covid
The Biden administration’s 97-page National Covid-19 Preparedness Plan, released this month, features a “Test to Treat” initiative that would set up…
Reason
Can the FDA’s New Commissioner Save the Agency from Itself?
Public trust in the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is at an all-time low, largely due to its bumbled handling of the pandemic.
City Journal
Leading from Behind
Long after many states and localities dropped their mask mandates, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finally revised its metrics to guide…
New York Post
Biden Wants to Waste More Money on COVID on Top of the Trillions Spent
The Biden administration has released a new National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan that — surprise, surprise — calls for billions in new spending. The initiative is…
National Review
Testing Our Patience
A few days ago, a large, plain manila envelope arrived at my home. It was unmarked except for a mailing label headlined “USPS Connect.”…
The Mike Gallagher Show
AUDIO: CEI’s Joel Zinberg Joins the Mike Gallagher Show
Senior Fellow Joel Zinberg joins the Mike Gallagher show to discuss how Florida managed Covid more effectively than blue states like New York.
New York Post
Without Mandates or Lockdowns, Florida Better Managed COVID than New York
When the final history of the COVID-19 pandemic is written it will likely conclude that most of the non-pharmaceutical public health measures taken to…
New York Post
If There Was Any Benefit To Masking Kids, It’s Long Since Disappeared
States around the nation, including Democratic ones such as New York and California, are lifting indoor mask mandates. But the Centers for Disease Control…
Fox News
Video: Doctor Explains Why Vaccine Mandates are Unnecessary
Senior Fellow Joel Zinberg joins Fox News to discuss why he believes vaccine and other COVID mandates are unnecessary due to natural immunity and falling…
New York Post
Science Shows the Vaccine Mandates Are No Longer Necessary
This is a particularly pressing question now as many unvaccinated workers have or are about to lose their jobs. Nearly 3,000 New York City…
Fox Business
VIDEO: CEI Senior Fellow Dr. Joel Zinberg Discusses Mask Mandates on Fox Business
CEI senior fellow Dr. Joel Zinberg discusses Biden’s mask mandates on ‘Mornings with Maria.’ Click here to view more.
Wall Street Journal
Covid Patients Suffer as the Biden Administration Tries to Practice Medicine
The Biden administration seems to think it knows better than physicians how to practice medicine. But its haphazard micromanagement of monoclonal antibodies to treat…
City Journal
No Benefit, Many Costs
A new study from Johns Hopkins University’s Institute for Applied Economics supports what I and others have long maintained: lockdowns do…
National Review
The Great Lockdown Lie
In the 1927 silent-film classic Metropolis, a dystopian city of the future is divided into elites living comfortably in opulent skyscrapers and workers toiling in…
National Review
Vaccine Mandates: Another Work-Around Doesn’t Work
Meat Loaf, the quirky rock star who just died, had a hit with Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad. The Biden administration wishes it could…
National Review
The Supreme Court’s Vaccine Decisions Are a Blow to the Administrative State
The Supreme Court issued a split decision on two of the Biden administration’s Covid-19 vaccination mandates. In the first, a 6–3 majority stayed the Occupational…
New York Post
The Science Shows Eric Adams is Right in Fight to Keep NYC Schools Open
As new cases of the Omicron variant surge, thousands of schools have delayed a return to in-person learning. Cities including Atlanta, Milwaukee, Cleveland and…
City Journal
Omicron’s Silver Lining
New Covid-19 infections are reaching record levels in the U.S. and Europe. The surge is due both to the…
New York Post
New York’s Racial ‘Risk Factor’ for COVID Treatment is Illegal and Immoral
New York City’s and state’s departments of health have reached a divisive and destructive low. In new guidelines rationing scarce, lifesaving oral antiviral medications and…
National Review
Confronting Omicron: One Step Forward, One Step Static
President Joe Biden’s recent address on the Omicron variant was full of holiday miracles. After nearly a year in office, Biden finally conceded…
The Wall Street Journal
Drug Prices Haven’t Been Going Up
Build Back Better may be dead, but its proposed drug price controls will likely reappear: negotiating prices for high-cost drugs in Medicare and price…
City Journal
Testing Our Patience
It has only been around a little more than a month, but the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19 has taken…
National Review
Covid-19 Treatments and the FDA: A Sense of Urgency Might Help
As the Delta variant surges in various locales and the new Omicron variant expands around the globe, public officials are beginning to reimpose…
National Review
The Covid Mandates Should Be Ignored
the highways in South Florida, the speed limit is generally 55 mph. I don’t know why, but it doesn’t matter: Everyone blows right through…
Letters
CEI Joins NTU-Led Coalition Warns of BBB’s Impact on Drug Competition
Dear Senators and Representatives: On behalf of the undersigned organizations — taxpayer, consumer, and free market advocates from across the country — we…
City Journal
All for Show
New York City mayor Bill de Blasio will end his tenure at midnight, December 31, 2021, but he seems intent on inflicting one last…
National Review
Biden’s Travel Restrictions Don’t Follow the Science
Joe Biden never tires of saying his COVID-19 policies follow “the science.” He recently pontificated that he would battle the emerging Omicron coronavirus variant…
Letters
Coalition Letter to OIRA Re: Request for OIRA to Resolve Interagency Disagreement Concerning IQA Implementation About Medical Marijuana
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) requests that OIRA resolve a dispute between two different agencies concerning responsibility for ensuring compliance with the Information Quality…
Comment
Letter to OIRA Re: Request for OIRA to Resolve Interagency Disagreement Concerning IQA Implementation About Medical Marijuana
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) requests that OIRA resolve a dispute between two different agencies concerning responsibility for ensuring compliance with the Information Quality…
The New York Post
Politicians Are Using Omicron as an Excuse to Return to their Autocratic Ways
Since the start of the pandemic, governors around the country have often struggled to appear to be doing something to stem COVID-19, regardless of…
City Journal
One Size Doesn’t Fit All
In a rebuke of the Biden administration, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed its stay of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA)…
The New York Post
A Reality Check on How we Handle COVID-19 Risks
COVID-19 is still with us. Cases are rising in Europe and to a smaller extent in this country. But the fact that SARS-CoV-2, the…
National Review
What’s Taking the FDA So Long on COVID Drug Molnupiravir?
On October 1, pharmaceutical companies Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics announced that their investigational oral antiviral drug Molnupiravir reduced the risk of hospitalization or…
New York Post
Letter Confirms Wuhan Lab’s COVID-19 Leak was Funded by US Taxpayers
The origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 remains unclear, but recent revelations reinforce the likelihood that the true source was a lab…
City Journal
Mandating Trouble
Thanks to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate for city workers, New York faces the prospect of slower ambulance- and fire-response times, fewer…
News Release
Ill-Advised Nicotine Tax Thrown Back into Democrats’ “Build Back Better” Bill
Upon news that congressional Democrats today put a nicotine tax provision back into President Biden’s ever-changing “Build Back Better” plan (ostensibly aimed at COVID-19…
Blog
The Youth Vaping “Epidemic” Has Ended; So Should Extreme Youth-Centric Anti-Vaping Measures
People will tolerate just about any imposition if they believe it will protect children from harm. Hence, appeals to “think of the children”…
The Dallas Morning News
No, President Biden can’t make you get vaccinated
COVID-19 vaccine mandates are all the rage, with some people anxious to impose them and others vehemently opposed. President Joe Biden recently directed the…
New York Post
Kyrie: Listen to a Doc, the Vaccines are Safe and Highly Effective
Kyrie Irving is a great basketball player, but he won’t be in the Brooklyn Nets lineup this season. The reason isn’t some nagging injury…
News Release
FDA Approves One E-Cigarette for US Market – More Needed to Help Smokers Quit
The Food and Drug Administration on October 12 authorized the first electronic cigarette in the U.S. – one made by tobacco giant R.J.
Op-Eds
Journalists Face Disaster as COVID-19 Deaths Drop
The COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. is ebbing, but you would never know it from the headlines. Bad news, accurate or not, sells. And in…
Blog
Tobacco Tax Equity Act Perpetuates Economic and Health Disparities
Mainstream interest in the issue of structural racism is long overdue. Yet nascent efforts to root out vestiges of racism in the U.S. political…
New York Post
Stop the General Panic: COVID is Dangerous Now Only to Unvaccinated
More than ever, COVID-19 is a pandemic of the unvaccinated, the elderly, and those with pre-existing conditions. Yet there’s a disturbing tendency by the…
City Journal
Follow the (Political) Science
Both before and after the 2020 election, Joe Biden complained that President Donald Trump had politicized the Covid-19 pandemic. Biden insisted that he, in…
The Washington Examiner
OSHA Cannot Constitutionally Coerce People into Vaccinations
President Joe Biden says he will have federal regulators make employers require workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19, or else…
The Vaping Post
The US Vape Industry Grows Discouraged as The FDA Rejects Thousands of PMTAs
The Vaping Post cites CEI on the vapor industry: A recent blog on Competitive Enterprise Institute’s website highlighted that the amount of…
National Review
Injecting a Little Lawlessness
The most far-reaching and questionable part of the Biden administration’s six-pronged COVID-19 Action Plan directs the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health…
New York Post
The US is Nearing Immunity from COVID-19
Despite media claims that “We Can’t Turn the Corner on COVID,” the numbers of COVID-19 cases, new hospitalizations, and deaths…
News Release
Biden Vaccine Mandate Will Fail: CEI Statement
In response to President Biden’s September 9 announcement about new government policies aimed at pressuring private and public sector workers to get vaccinated,…
City Journal
Delta is Dying
Despite media claims that “We Can’t Turn the Corner on Covid,” the numbers of Covid-19 cases, new hospitalizations, and deaths…
National Review
Time to Reclaim the Right to Choose
One of the more entertaining features of the late pandemic period is the ongoing battle between the Democrats’ State Media (CNN, Washington Post) and Red…
Blog
FDA Shows Its Bias against E-cigarettes as Deadline Approaches
After years facing the constant threat of extinction, it seemed the vapor industry would finally be vindicated. The evidence on e-cigarettes regarding their safety and…
National Review
DeSantis vs. Dr. Fauci
The latest skirmish in the blue media vs. red state wars started when Florida governor Ron DeSantis had the temerity to suggest that vaccination…
City Journal
Booster Overkill
Several weeks ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its guidance and recommended that fully vaccinated individuals wear a mask…
New York Post
Biden’s Losing Support for His COVID Handling. Maybe He Should Stop Politicizing it
President Biden is threatening legal action by the secretary of education against Republican governors to get them to OK school mask mandates. This follows…
News Release
Supreme Court Strikes Down CDC Eviction Moratorium, Upholds Rule of Law
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down the nationwide eviction moratorium imposed by the Centers for Disease Control, which was ostensibly aimed…
City Journal
Science Matters—and So Do Individual Rights
As battles over Covid-19 mandates roil the country, it is vital that policies be scientifically based. Well-established legal precedent gives state governments and private…
Real Clear Policy
Sacrificing Truth and Science to Vilify Juul
Two prominent U.S. Senators want Juul to be punished for paying a scientific journal to “rig the science,” as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) put…
New York Post
Lockdowns and Mandates Impede Far Better Voluntary Safety Measures
After a year of start-and-stop public-health measures, more often guided by intuition than by science, studies are confirming what economists long suspected: The COVID-19…
City Journal
Individual Choices, Not Lockdowns
After a year of start-and-stop public-health measures, more often guided by intuition than by science, studies are confirming what economists long suspected: the Covid-19…
National Review
Evicting the Constitution
Few government actions have been more emblematic of bureaucratic overreach than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s nationwide eviction moratorium. After multiple successful…
New York Post
Hasty About-Face Distorts Delta Force
The CDC now urges public indoor masking after a worrisome study on the Delta variant — undermining the vaccine effort. We finally know what…
City Journal
The CDC’s Slender Reed
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reversed its guidance from two months ago and now recommends that fully vaccinated…
Blog
Tobacco Control’s Latest Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
If you want to make something irresistible to teenagers, portray it as a forbidden fruit. That is what has happened in the U.S. with…
National Review
The True Meaning of ‘Misinformation’
Last week Senators Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) and Ben Ray Luján (D., N.M.) introduced a bill designed to suppress dangerous misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines. Like…
National Review
A Defeat for Dr. Leviathan
A recent ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in a seemingly obscure case has important implications for limits on the Food and Drug…
The New York Post
Doctor Says: Stop the Panic Over the Delta Variant
Delta is now the dominant variant in the US of the virus that causes COVID-19. It is more transmissible than earlier variants and has led…
The Tribune-Democrat
The Show Must Go On
COVID-19 cases are rising, vaccinations are low, and most of the host country wants to cancel the event. Yet, the Games should go on.
City Journal
Stay the Course
One cannot open a newspaper, turn on a TV, or scroll through an online news feed without hearing about Covid-19’s new Delta variant. While…
Wall Street Journal
Stealing From Drug Makers Is No Way to Vaccinate the World
The innovative pharmaceutical industry confounded critics by delivering highly effective vaccines for a novel disease in less than a year. The vaccines are working…
The Manila Bulletin
Groups Reveal Report on Bloomberg’s Meddling in PH
The Manila Bulletin cites Senior Fellow Michelle Minton on Bloomberg’s anti-tobacco meddling: The Nicotine Consumers Union of the Philippines (NCUP) and…
The New York Post
Stop panicking about ‘Delta’: Vaccines are effective against ALL strains of COVID
Delta is coming. But contrary to alarmists at home and abroad, there is little reason to panic. Scientists first identified the Delta variant…
Real Clear Policy
Risk, Trust, and COVID
When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced last month that vaccinated people need not wear masks regularly, Americans’ reaction was polarized. Many…
Blog
Exposed: Bloomberg’s Anti-Tobacco Meddling in Developing Countries
Back in February I wrote a piece for Inside Sources titled “Bloomberg’s Philanthro-Colonialism: A Threat to Global Health and Science,” criticizing the behavior…
Blog
It’s up to Drug Reformers to Stop the War on Nicotine
In recent years, a growing number of Americans have been waking up to the failure of the War on Drugs. Officially initiated by…
The Wall Street Journal
Vaccine Slowdown Isn’t Cause for Alarm
The United States has done something amazing: developed and authorized three new vaccines and vaccinated half of its adult population, all within 17 months…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter Opposing H.R. 3, the Lower Drug Costs Now Act
View Full Document as PDF Dear Member of Congress: We urge you to reject efforts to pass H.R. 3, the…
Wall Street Journal
Vaccine Slowdown Isn’t Cause for Alarm
The United States has done something amazing: developed and authorized three new vaccines and vaccinated half of its adult population, all within 17 months…
City Journal
Following the Politics, Not the Science
It is a disturbing prospect, like something out of a science fiction novel, but it’s appearing increasingly plausible nonetheless: the cause of the worldwide…
Blog
The CDC Finally Does the Obvious
Calling Captain Obvious. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has now stated what has been clear to anyone following the scientific literature…
National Review
Punishing Success: the Biden Administration, Vaccines, and Intellectual Property
The Biden administration has apparently learned the wrong lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. In a recent statement, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced the “Biden-Harris…
The Center Square
Wyoming Becomes Latest State To Ban Vaccine Passports
The Center Square cites CEI’s study by Joel Zinberg: A recent study by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian-leaning think tank, argued…
City Journal
Dear Landlord
Among the least logical, most burdensome restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic has been the nationwide ban on residential evictions imposed by the Centers for…
News One
All Cigarettes Matter: Why Ban Just Menthols? Statistics Show 77% Of Black Smokers Prefer Them
News One cites Senior Fellow Michelle Minton on menthol cigarettes: “The issue of tobacco control is no different, Michelle Minton recently wrote for…
Letters
CEI and Other Organizations Sign Coalition Letter Condemning Menthol Prohibition Proposal
We, the undersigned organizations, representing millions of taxpayers and consumers across the united States, strongly urge you to reject any proposed ban on menthol…
City Journal
Safety Cannot Be the Only Goal
It’s been a week since the FDA and CDC lifted their pause on the use of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine. The…
News Release
FDA Menthol Ban Will Spur Illicit Market, Worsen Racial Disparities in Criminal Justice
The FDA today announced it will be banning menthol-flavored cigarettes and all flavors of cigars, with a proposal due out in the months…
The Washington Post
FDA Promises to Move to Ban Menthol in Cigarettes, Flavored Cigars Within a Year
The Washington Post cites Senior Fellow Michelle Minton on menthol cigarettes: The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think tank, warned that…
Blog
CDC Says It Is Safe for Vaccinated People to Unmask Outdoors
After much anticipation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has finally relaxed its guidelines on mask wearing—people who have been vaccinated…
Blog
A Menthol Cigarette Ban Would Perpetuate the Racist War on Drugs
In April the White House announced an apparently historic shift in the U.S. War on Drugs—away from strict prohibition to an approach emphasizing…
C-SPAN
VIDEO: CEI’s Joel Zinberg joins C-SPAN to Discuss Vaccine Passports and Mandates
Senior Fellow Joel Zinberg joined C-SPAN to discuss the debate over COVID-19 vaccine passports and the role of government and the private sector:…
New York Post
The Feds’ Foolish J&J Vax Pause is Already Undermining the War on COVID
A little more than a week ago, federal officials called for a pause in the use of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine. The decision…
News Release
House-passed SAFE Banking Act Would End Federal Threat to Banks Dealing with Legal Cannabis Businesses
The House has passed a bill allowing banks to do business with cannabis companies, the SAFE Banking Act. While Senate action on the…
The Washington Examiner
Racially Charged Atmosphere Could Spell End Of Menthol Cigarettes
The Washington Examiner cites Senior Fellow Michelle Minton on menthol cigarettes: Michelle Minton, a senior fellow at the libertarian Competitive Enterprise…
National Review
The CDC Shouldn’t Treat Racism as a Public-Health Crisis
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was founded in 1946 as the Communicable Disease Center, with a simple goal: prevent the spread of…
Orlando Sentinel
Desantis’ Ban Of Vaccine Passports Could Lead To Showdown With Businesses In Florida
The Orlando Sentinel cites Senior Fellow Joel Zinberg on vaccine passports: “Every business has economic and reputational incentives to ensure that…