Smoking Tobacco Kills 1,200 Americans Every Day
I started smoking experimentally when I was 16, and then more while in college. When I graduated in 1967, a much older, but close family friend, told me he was diagnosed with emphysema. His doctor said if he didn’t stop smoking, he would die. He quit, me too. I began to realize smoking was harmful […]
Notes From The Harvest Summit
On Friday (11/10), I attended the Harvest Summit, an exclusive event at the La Crema wine estate in the Russian River Valley of California. The organizers described the gathering as a day during which “250 leaders outstanding in their fields will be thinking, talking, tasting, and transforming.” The conference was a celebration of the art […]
Drug Makers Putting Profit Before The Elderly
The Medpage Today staff reported this week on a CNN investigation of Nuedexta, a drug approved for PseudoBulbar Affect (PBA). The investigation found PBA is being marketed aggressively to the elderly as a therapy for dementia. Even though independent studies indicate PBA is only rarely associated with dementia, Avanir, the drug’s manufacturer, has spent millions of dollars promoting […]
Big Pharma and Politics
At a rally in Kentucky, President Donald Trump said drug prices were “outrageous”. The next day, according to Kaiser Health News, the pharmaceutical industry donated more money to political campaigns than any other day this year. On March 21, eight pharma political action committees made 137 contributions to 77 politicians totaling nearly $280,000. Both Republicans and […]
Hackers and Voting Machines
A number of readers have asked for a perspective on the news story about a Las Vegas conference where hackers were able to easily break in to 30 voting machines. First of all, despite the sensational headlines, the successful hacking should be no surprise. I wrote about this more than a year ago in Election […]
