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Vinay Prasad

Vinay Prasad MD MPH is a hematologist-oncologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California San Francisco. He runs the VKPrasad lab at UCSF, which studies cancer drugs, health policy, clinical trials and better decision making. He is author of over 300 academic articles, and the books Ending Medical Reversal (2015), and Malignant (2020).

covid drug approvals

Why are Standards So Lax on Covid Drug Approvals?

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Why are the experts who say you can’t extrapolate aducanumab to all’s Alzheimer’s patients not saying you can’t extrapolate Paxlovid to all vaccinated people? Why are those who say accelerated approval is abused not saying that EUA authority is abused when you move to children, who face thousandfold less times the risk?

The Fragmented Trust in Public Health

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Trust in public health is gone not despite the actions of public health, but because of them.  When a star dies, it may shower pieces across the galaxy, and if public health implodes, Americans will seek out snake-oil salesman and charlatans, and we will have only ourselves to blame.

Things the CDC Does Not Know

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There are many things the CDC does not actually know. They did not run the appropriate studies, so they do not have any idea. Let me start with one I have made before, and then move to some new points.

Who Among the Fringe Is Dangerous?

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Bad ideas and poor thinking will always exist, and there are many, varied ways of being foolish and illogical. But what should trouble us all is when illogical people force others to participate in their delusion.

Covid Zero Transitions to Covid Everyone

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As zero Covid advocates recover from Covid, we may eventually reach herd sanity. That is when we stop treating mild covid infections like the boogeyman, and realize that living with others means that there are many infections we cannot avoid.

The 4th Shot: The Flawed Research

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There are downsides to more doses of the old, ancestral mRNA, such as original antigenic sin, which may hurt people when the Omicron on novel mRNA sequence booster comes out. Such people may keep mounting strong immune response to original spike, and not the modification.

The White House is Now Your Doctor!

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In short, the White House is not your doctor, yet they have decided they will act as such. This is a dangerous precedent. The American people will soon be participating in an uncontrolled clinical trial of 4th and 5th doses, possibly with coercive mandates. Not having an advisory committee is a threat to public health. This decision does not bode well.

How the Flu and Covid Shots Are Different

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Someone may argue that society at large— not necessarily the people taking the 4th dose— is still facing an emergency, but that argument is specious. There is no evidence that giving a young healthy person a 4th dose benefits larger pandemic dynamics, and saves an older person. Doctors need to stop making up just-so-stories in their minds to justify coercive mandates on the young, healthy, and those with natural immunity. 

What Happens When Cases Rise?

What Happens When Cases Rise?

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Covid-19 cases will eventually rise. I don’t know when, but we are extremely vulnerable to an ill-formed and schizophrenic response. As we near midterm elections, politicians will be more volatile, and seek to control news that is seen as a threat to political fortunes. That’s the territory for bad decision making.

Most Academics Went Silent. Why?

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Yet, throughout this pandemic, notice how many global health scholars were totally silent on lockdowns. How many global health researchers said nothing as India sacrificed the future of a generation with school closures? How many US based disparity researchers or early childhood advocates were silent on school closure? I believe most were quiet!

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