Five months from now, health ministers from the 194 sovereign states recognized by the United Nations (UN) will meet in Geneva to discuss and possibly agree to amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHRs), which are intended to “prevent, protect against, prepare, control and provide a public health response to the international spread of diseases.” Ministers will also be asked to approve the text of a new World Health Organization (WHO) convention to combat future pandemics.

While there is a need to coordinate the detection of and response to potential pandemics, it is not clear what role, if any, the WHO should have. Perhaps more importantly, it is uncertain what policies should be put in place (and by whom) to prevent, limit, and respond to any future pandemic. The U.S. government should encourage the WHO to delay both changes to the IHRs and the introduction of a new treaty until several issues are satisfactorily resolved.

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Having analyzed both bodies of research, it is apparent that the research on social media and teen well-being shares many of the same flaws as the violent video game research. They are both largely based on correlational studies which rely on self-reported data and use poor proxies for the effect that they are trying to measure. As we saw in  Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, this alone is enough to create roadblocks for laws banning or regulating the use of social media by children.

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In our last post, we examined the numerous reasons for which the Supreme Court found the State’s evidence to be lacking in the case of Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association. This week we will examine the evidence in the social media debate keeping in mind the qualities that the Supreme Court found to be problematic in establishing a connection between video games and violence.

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As seen in Scalia’s critique, one of the main flaws in the research used by the state of California in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association was its lack of causational evidence. Most of the research concerning the relationship between violent video games relied upon correlational evidence. Correlational studies measure two variables and their relationship to one another. Establishing a correlation between two variables often serves as a starting point for research, but it does not prove causation. Consider the case of ice cream sales and violent crime—as one rises so does the other. The two are correlated, but no one is seriously considering banning ice cream. That is because, upon deeper analysis, it was determined that there is a third cause that drives an increase in both: higher temperatures.

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In 2005, California proposed legislation to ban the sale of violent video games to minors. This law was a culmination of growing concerns that violent video games were causing children to become more aggressive. Commentators noted that perpetrators of mass shootings, as in the case of Columbine, Heath High School, and Sandy Hook, often played video games considered to be violent such as Doom, Grand Theft Auto, and Call of Duty.1 Studies on the connection between video games and aggression came pouring out. In response, policymakers began to introduce laws banning or otherwise regulating the sale of violent video games to minors.

This would seem to be the ideal result. Lawmakers were able to come together and pass a law that addressed the issue at hand. The only problem is that there is little to no evidence that video games, even violent ones, lead to increases in aggressive behavior let alone that they are a driving factor behind school shootings.

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Despite Biden’s attempts to “end fossil fuel” some basic economic analysis indicates his efforts are not in line with what the public wants. If you think back to your Econ 101 class, you’ll probably remember something called revealed preference.

This basic insight of economics says that people’s actions in a market place are a much better indicator of what is going on in their heads than asking them in a poll. Someone might tell you they like Biden’s attempts to kill off reliable, inexpensive energy, but when the rubber meets the road, their purchasing decisions say otherwise.

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This post discusses three important problems with the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) accelerated-approval process. The first is that regulatory authorities and patient groups maintain that, legally, the standards of accelerated approval are the same as standard approval. Yet from a risk perspective, the standards are quite different; by shifting risk taking from regulator to patient, physician, and payer, this creates problems. The second problem is more practical and is generally considered the most significant problem with accelerated approval. Some companies that have received accelerated approval for their products have not done confirmatory studies, as required by their agreement with FDA. This leads to distrust of these companies and their products, and threatens to undermine the accelerated-approval program. The third problem is the issue of approving medicines with marginal benefits.

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Come Thursday (Jan 11), students will receive their 2023 GCE O-Level examination results.

The stress over performance can take on a slightly different dimension at this juncture – on the one hand, there is a greater range of education options from the academic to the practical-oriented; on the other, teenagers will have to start thinking ahead to university and even career possibilities.

As educators, we are often asked by students for advice. In particular, those keen on pursuing the more academic A-Level route seek help deciding which subjects they should take at the Higher 2 (H2) level.

Our short answer tends to be a pragmatic question: Think ahead – what would you like to study at university? Take subjects that open those doors for you.

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