There is a great quote by Milton Friedman which says “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results”. The same can be said of medical interventions. We are constantly told of the crisis in mental health and...
Recently I had the great pleasure of giving a talk to a group of University students who are part of Mannkal Scholars. These are students who are wanting to expand their minds and be challenged by ideas rather than retreat into safe spaces. The topic was the Black...
Let me be very clear upfront. We all have to make a living. Only the government can forcibly extract money to keep itself going. The rest of us need to exchange goods or services in return for money. A business which employs people needs to do the same otherwise it...
Fairly quietly the effectiveness of this year’s flu vaccine in different ages groups has been released. Previously, Australis’s chief medical officer Professor Brendan Murphy, said this season’s vaccine, selected by the WHO, gave “moderate to good”...
The use of antidepressants has exploded over the last 20 years. It is estimated that one in ten people in the USA is on them and as many as one in four women in their 40’s and 50’s. In Australia, the numbers are not as high but not far behind. Yet despite the...
Some numbers are so big that one can struggle to comprehend them. Fierce Pharma reported that in the decade from 2007, drugs losing their patents had total sales of $US915 billion. Of this over US$200 billion was in sales of statin medications. A tablet for high blood...
