5 Matching Annotations
  1. Mar 2019
    1. Monitoring Antibiotic Use to Reduce Antibiotic Resistance

      This reminds me of a Forbes article I read recently by Bruce Lee (who is a really super guy, by the way): https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2018/09/22/fda-here-is-the-2019-strategic-approach-to-combat-antimicrobial-resistance/#1e92fd203210

      Two of the AMR strategies that the FDA announced for 2019 were to enhance surveillance methods and support antibiotic stewardship. So these seem to recurring themes, yet, at least following Scott Gottlieb's statements, we don't seem to be making any major progress. Kind of feels like shouting into the void.

    2. Recommendations for Improving U.S. Data Collection

      There's a lot of interesting innovations in this area right now. The CDC launched the AMR Challenge back in 2018, and a lot of different organizations from a variety of different sectors "took the pledge" to fight AMR. One of which is Walmart, which is employing blockchain technology to trace antibiotic use in animal proteins in its supply chain. I wonder if this technology could be used to improve data collection in general.

      Conduent is working to provide IT solutions to the data collection issue. They're creating the "Midas Cloud" to collect data and improve data sharing. Pretty cool stuff.

      For those interested: https://www.cdc.gov/DrugResistance/intl-activities/amr-challenge.html

  2. Feb 2019
    1. This paperprovides important new information to policymakersand the public regarding the substantial savings in bothhuman health and government expenditures that couldbe achieved by the proposed tax on SSBs.

      This article was just published in AJPH which shows that SSB consumption fell significantly in Berkeley (3 years after the tax was implemented). This journal article can't make conclusions about obesity rates declining, but it does show promising declination in SSB purchasing after implementation of the tax. And despite the argument that people would just go to other cities to buy SSBs, the data was collected from frequency questionnaires, not from stores. People are actually buying less soda.

    1. Calling it a regressive flat tax, Kim said that it "unfairly burdens low-income communities" similar to other sin taxes such as high taxes on cigarettes.

      A potential ally against the SSB tax.