Op-Eds
All the news that fits
Newspapers are often criticized for bias in their “news” articles. A prime example was Andrew Pollack's Feb. 14 New York Times piece on…
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We Have It Coming
Americans are about to learn the hard way about the unintended consequences of over-regulation and flawed policy initiatives. Vaccination to prevent viral and bacterial…
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Some Hard Truths About Bird Flu
The issues surrounding the possibility of a pandemic of the H5N1 strain of avian flu are extraordinarily complex, encompassing medicine, epidemiology, virology and even…
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Fill the Moat, Lower the Portcullis
The issues surrounding the possibility of a pandemic of the H5N1 strain of avian flu are extraordinarily complex, encompassing aspects of medicine, epidemiology,…
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Flu pandemic prevention
This month's outbreak of H5N1 avian flu in Turkey—as many as 50 human cases and several deaths—looks very like what we might see…
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Ominous Prospects for Aging
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal described “a growing backlash against the pharmaceutical industry that is already affecting the development and…
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CEOs Should Mind Their Own Business
President Coolidge once said the business of America is business. He might have added that the business of business is to pursue profits,…
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Good Drugs, Bad Rap
These are turbulent times for the pharmaceutical industry and for its regulator, the FDA. Lately, both have focused increasingly on issues of safety.
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The Long REACH of the EU
The European Union's Council of Ministers is expected to vote soon on the proposed chemicals regulation called REACH, an acronym for Registration, Evaluation, and…
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The UN’s War Against Innovation
The leadership of the United Nations is truly the gang that can't shoot straight. Even if the recent incidents of corruption and profiteering—exemplified…
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Making Sense of Drug Safety
Have you ever tried to read the official FDA-approved labeling for a drug? It's tough going even for physicians who are trying to…
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Mad Science
I enjoy a spirited, well-argued political argument as much as anybody, but in “The Republican War on Science,” journalist Chris Mooney offers only a tiresome…
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Ignore Rumors; Teflon Proven to Be Safe
The uncanny ability of President Ronald Reagan to deflect public criticism won him the nickname “The Teflon President.” Ironically, now it is Teflon…
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Are We in a Brave New World of “Personalized” Medicine?
BiDil, a new drug labeled for treatment of blacks with severe heart failure, has begun to arrive in pharmacies. Approved by FDA in…
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More Crop for the Drop
The worst East Central U.S. drought in almost 20 years is decimating harvests of corn and soybeans, threatening farmers’ economic survival and disrupting commercial shipping…
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Noisy Spring: Avoiding the West Nile virus
The six-year-old U.S. outbreak of West Nile virus is a significant threat to public health and shows no signs of abating. Last year, there were…
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REACH and Risk
One of the key reasons the European Union’s proposed constitution was rejected by French and Dutch voters is that they dislike having their lives…
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‘Big Lie’ Enough to Make Drug Industry Ill
Activism can be a good thing. We all benefit from getting to shop in the marketplace of ideas. However, all is not good-faith activism. Take,…
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The UN at 60, by Henry Miller and Gregory Conko
The United Nations, now celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of the signing of its charter, is not aging well. Its officials are being accused…
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Kernals of Truth, by Henry Miller
The world is going corn-crazy and maize-mad . . . again. Five years ago, there was near-hysteria over “contamination” of yellow corn and…
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The UN’s Silent Scandal, by Henry Miller and Gregory Conko
The United Nations is being accused of all manner of criminality and corruption these days, ranging from sexual assaults by peacekeepers in <?xml:namespace…
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Infant Formula Ambush by Henry I. Miller
Self-styled public-health activists often pursue issues that are surrogates for their real agenda. One example is the continuing attack on infant formula. Activists'…
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Infant Formula Fanatics Should Stop Milking the Issue, by Henry Miller
Self-styled public health activists often pursue issues that are surrogates for their real agenda. One example is the continuing attack on infant formula. The…
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If Wishes Were Horses, This Would Be the Kentucky Derby
GENEVA, Switzerland—The 58th World Health Assembly (the World Health Organization's policy-making body) under way here brings to mind the cliché about the contestants…
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What Storm-Tossed FDA Needs
President Bush's nominee to head the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Lester Mr. Crawford, faces daunting challenges. As acting commissioner for most of…
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A Poor Helmsman Navigates FDA’s Perfect Storm
The President's nominee to head the FDA, Lester Crawford, faces daunting challenges. As acting commissioner for most of the past four years, Crawford…
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Bush’s Nominee is Wrong Guy for FDA at this Critical Time
The president's nominee to head the Food and Drug Administration, Lester Crawford, faces daunting challenges. As acting commissioner for most of the past…
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Hysteria over Cosmetics
Europe-envy by Californians may be fine for makers of champagne and foie gras, but it's disastrous for legislators in search of sound regulatory policy.
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Kraft Nod to Gene-Splicing Provides Food for Thought
Full document available in pdf format.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Biotechnology applied to agriculture and…
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California’s Extreme Makeover
If <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />California truly is the bellwether for the rest of the country, get ready for more…
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Bureaucrats upending NIH
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) faces a revolt by its employees over new, draconian conflict-of-interest rules. They ban all consulting (paid or unpaid) for…
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Misnamed Activists Are Thorns In Rose Of Agbiotech Foods
In a spin-dominated world where activists claim—often on the flimsiest of data—that this, that or the other thing causes cancer or threatens the…
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Dying for Regulatory Reform
Full article available in pdf format Congress has a long and ignoble history of exaggerated legislative responses to perceived health…
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Travesties of Regulation: Harmful U.N. policies.
Former Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul Volcker, who heads the inquiry into corruption in the United Nations' defunct oil-for-food program, has just issued…
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Stopping a Flu Pandemic
During the winter of 1918-19, only months after the end of World War I, much of the world was ravaged again, this time…
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Pew’s Parallel Universe
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> The “new biotechnology,” or gene-splicing, applied to agriculture and food production is here to…
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The Danger of Too Much Caution
Congress has a long and ignoble history of exaggerated legislative responses to perceived health crises. They seem to be at it again.<?xml:namespace prefix…
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How lawsuits can kill
This year's flu-vaccine shortfall is just one of many dangerous shortages of essential vaccines—and it need not have happened. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns…
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The Supermarket’s Unnatural Selections
Agricultural practices have been “unnatural” for 10,000 years. With the exception of wild berries and wild mushrooms, virtually all the grains, fruits and…
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The Curse of Too Much Caution
The FDA is the nation's most ubiquitous regulatory agency. It oversees products that account for 25 cents of every consumer dollar, with a…
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Making the Desert Bloom
There is big news from the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Middle East that is unusual in several ways: It's positive,…
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Vaccine Development Needs a Booster Shot
Every year in this country influenza kills tens of thousands and hospitalizes about a quarter-million. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” />…
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The Toxic Politics of Biotech
How far does grass pollen travel? Ask someone who has hay fever, and the response is likely to be “much too far.” But…
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More Crop for the Drop
Your morning espresso at Starbucks will soon be more expensive. Unless, that is, they find a way to make it without water or coffee, both…
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Mr. Rifkin’s Pipe Dream
Professional worrier Jeremy Rifkin's pronouncements always remind me of the characterization by one-time Speaker of the House of Representatives Thomas B. Reed of…
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Nauseating Cases of Product Liability
Morning sickness –the nausea and vomiting that afflict more than half of pregnant women –can be debilitating. There once was…
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The Truth About Marcia Angell
I never knew my maternal grandparents. During the nineteen-teens, my maternal grandmother died of a wound infection following a routine gall-bladder operation. A…
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Bookshelf: Fighting Disease Is Only Half the Battle
As a fresh-faced medical intern, a colleague of mine once greeted a new patient with a breezy, “So what’s your problem?” “Oh, just a touch…
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California Wine vs. Two-Legged Pests
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />California is under attack by parasites, of both the six-legged and two-legged variety. The former are…
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There’s a Cure for Frivolous Drug Lawsuits
Morning sickness—the nausea and vomiting that afflicts more than half of all pregnant women—can be debilitating. There used to be an excellent prescription medication to…