Scott Gottlieb

“Why do physicians prescribe powerful antibiotics? Generally not because our patients ask for them. Most people who come in with a sore throat would be just as happy leaving my office with a prescription for Chloraseptic as clarithromycin.”

“It's important to protect the old and the vulnerable, who are at the highest risk of severe illness and bad outcomes. But like most issues of medicine, it isn't a binary choice. Given the uncertainties of how this virus spreads and its high risk of infirmities, it would be unwise to abandon efforts to limit Covid spread wherever possible.”

“While faulty information from a digital health tool can influence people to make bad decisions, the risks are far lower than those posed by the usual products FDA subjects to pre-market review.”

“More government control of doctors and their reimbursement schemes will only create more problems.”

“The nature of food processing had changed substantially in America. Much of it owed to corresponding changes in food packaging and the logistics for faster shipping. The scope of outbreak from foodborne illness no longer has a clear geographic boundary.”

“Accurate diagnostics are key to enabling successful public health measures.”

“Regulators at the Food and Drug Administration have a tough job.”

“In 'Pox: An American History,' Michael Willrich meticulously traces the story of how the smallpox vaccine was pressed into service during a major outbreak.”

“Limiting Covid's impact requires us to think differently about confronting respiratory pathogens in the winter.”

“The pace at which fundamental discoveries of basic science are being uncovered is accelerating, as is the speed at which medical practice is being transformed by these inventions.”

“Americans broadly consent to funding clinical research because they believe in the promise of medical research. But people support scientific work only if they trust that it serves societal interests, respects patient dignity and operates with guardrails.”

“One of the biggest factors fueling the angst over drug prices in the U.S. is that some older medicines that should be sold cheaply as generics are still priced very high, often owing to a dwindling number of generic competitors and the rising cost of producing these drugs.”

“The fact is, many poor patients visit ERs simply because they don't have a family doctor.”

“Historical records show that smallpox was a human scourge for thousands of years. The virus produces high fever, severe back pain and scarring eruptions of flat red spots on the skin that turn into pustules and then into scabs - a two-week process during which the disease is highly contagious.”

“Even with all its political bells and whistles, the Obamacare plans increasingly resemble Medicaid in terms of networks and drug lists.”

“From West Nile to swine flu to Ebola to the global outbreak of dengue fever, the capacity to deal with threats like Zika must be designed into our preparedness posture.”

“President Obama famously promised that the Affordable Care Act would not only slow the growth in health care costs, but would also reverse these trends, making the average health insurance plan cheaper. That isn't happening.”

“Advocacy groups like Families U.S.A. imagine that once Medicaid becomes a middle-class entitlement, political pressure from middle-class workers will force politicians to address these problems by funneling more taxpayer dollars into this flawed program. President Barack Obama's health plan follows this logic.”

“The ability of working class Americans to bargain for health coverage at work gave them access to the same basic packages of benefits as executive management teams.”

“The first nation to develop a vaccine for Covid-19 could have an economic advantage as well as a tremendous public-health achievement. Doses will be limited initially as suppliers ramp up, and a country will focus on inoculating most of its own population first.”