Articles by Henry I. Miller
Avoiding Bad Drug-Trips
It's no secret that medicines can enhance the quality or length of life but may cause problems -- even life-threatening ones -- if they are misused. This was evident from the recommendations made last month by a group of medical experts that...
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The Worst Emerging Disease of All
Cases of H1N1 swine flu continue to appear -- especially in Australia, which has seen a quadrupling of cases in a week, with the number of confirmed cases surpassing 1200. But that is hardly a surprise: Flu virus is transmitted...
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The Fajita Flu
Influenza pandemics are the stuff of nightmares. My father was able to recall the "Spanish flu" pandemic during the winter of 1918-19, when classes in his Philadelphia grade school were canceled for weeks, shops were closed, and open horse-drawn wagons...
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FDA's Woes Will Grow Under New Leadership
The FDA, which regulates products worth more than $1 trillion -- a quarter of every consumer dollar -- has over the past two decades become a dangerous impediment to patients' getting the medicines they need. Drug development costs are up,...
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Putting Congress to the Test
It's hardly a secret that the U.S. congress performs miserably: The Gallup annual poll on confidence in institutions, released several months ago, found "just 12% of Americans expressing confidence in Congress, the lowest of the 16 institutions tested this year,...
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Mr. Dingell's Bullying Pulpit
Most of the coverage of the departure of Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) from the powerful chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee has focused on his anti-environmentalism and his staunch defense of the interests of dysfunctional Detroit automobile manu
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Will Animal Biotech Bring Home the Bacon?
An F.D.A. policy published for public comment on September 18 threatens the health of a promising new field: the production of animals with novel and valuable traits. After more than 20 years of deliberation, the F.D.A.'s Center for Veterinary Medicine...
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When Peer Review Fails, Where Do We Turn?
Those of us who regularly seek out information about scientific and medical subjects have learned that there's a hierarchy of reliability: the "facts" in a random blog or a New York Times' news article are on average less trustworthy than,...
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Felon-Friendly Congress
Often, what emerges from Congress is a parody not only of good government, but of common sense. The chairman of the House subcommittee on the federal work force thinks the feds should actively recruit felons into government employment. "The federal...
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Why It Takes a Village (To Afford a Prescription)
I once heard columnist George Will refer to a general election as a futile narcissistic exercise. I thought that proposition ridiculous at the time, but now I find it harder to argue against. The Bush administration has embroiled us in...
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