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NY Times Editorial Criticizes FDA for Being Too Fast, Too Lenient. Here's Why They're Wrong
Times have changed at The Times. Not for the better.

June 22, 2018  •  Daily Caller

The New York Times' coverage of science and medicine used to be stunning — the province of reporters who knew their trade and devoted decades to it.

Harold M. Schmeck, Jr., the dean of U.S. science writers for decades, was at the paper for 32 years. Medical writer and physician Lawrence K. Altman for 40. (Dr. Altman, who is now a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., and is in his eighties, is still an occasional contributor.)

They were really good. As Mr. Schmeck's 2013 obituary noted, he had written "with conversational clarity on complicated subjects." That's an understatement; he made the arcane not only understandable but relevant and fascinating.

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USDA Is Supposed to Regulate Animal Health, Not Animal Happiness
Let's get the government out of promoting wasteful, dishonest organic practices

June 19, 2018  •  Regulation

Last December, regulators at the U.S. Department of Agriculture ruffled a lot of feathers by withdrawing a regulation published on the final full day of the Obama administration that would have created new requirements for producers of "organic" eggs and poultry.

Called the Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices (OLPP) rule, it would have, among other things, specified that to boast the coveted "USDA Organic" seal, animals would need to be raised with certain minimum amounts of space, light and access to the outdoors.

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Diane Feinstein's Unscientific Chemical Scare Bill
The purpose of regulation is not to mollify rent-seeking activists

June 15, 2018  •  Washington Examiner

Some years ago, when one of us (Dr. Henry Miller) was an assistant to Dr. Frank Young, the head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a woman approached Dr. Miller after she had heard Dr. Young give a lecture about the importance of regulation. She was quite appreciative of the FDA's efforts because, "My entire family and I are allergic to all known chemicals."

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California's Java Joke Is a Wakeup Call on Cancer Warnings
The International Agency for Research on Cancer is known to cherry-pick data to reach politically motivated findings

June 6, 2018  •  San Jose Mercury News

It's often said that California is a bellwether, a place where nationwide trends begin. For the sake of farmers, particularly those in poor countries where coffee is an economically important crop, let's hope not.

Last month a California judge ruled that because of the state's decades-old notorious Proposition 65, which has given rise to warnings about non-dangerous chemicals everywhere from supermarkets to libraries, coffee sellers must now post warnings about the possible cancer risk posed by a compound in coffee.

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The 'Right to Try' Bill Wasn't Worth Passing
This is nothing more than a right to beg a company, and that right already exists

June 4, 2018  •  Wall Street Journal

I was surprised by your editorial "A Right to Try Arrives" (May 23), which praises just-passed legislation that would permit terminally ill patients to seek drugs not yet approved by the FDA directly from the manufacturer. This alters the status quo hardly at all. As NYU School of Medicine bioethicist Arthur Caplan said, right to try is "nothing more than a right to beg a company, that right already exists, and you're really not doing much to help anybody gain access to much of anything."

Moreover, federal regulators are already implementing a version of right to try. From 2010-15 the FDA approved more than 99% of applications for "compassionate use" of unapproved drugs, and since then has worked to simplify the process.

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