chronic disease
Why isn't alcohol taxed more?
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Overwhelming evidence shows that increasing the price of alcohol — which contributes every year to a substantial number of injuries, diseases, and deaths — can decrease all related types of disasters, from car crashes to violence and sexually transmitted infections. But every time a state tries to raise taxes on these products, the effort is thwarted.
The alcohol industry is a vast and powerful coalition of corporate conglomerates, mom-and-pop producers, retail stores, hospitality workers, trade associations and their lobbyists that exerts influence in statehouses and political campaigns. The proof? One glass of the cheapest spirit cost the average worker less in 2011 than it had for 60 years previously.
"The result is a population with mounting alcohol-related woes and an ever-cheaper, more accessible supply of drink," my STAT colleague Isa Cueto writes in her latest story. Read more in her deep dive on drinking, levies, and loopholes. Isa has done a lot of excellent reporting on alcohol this year. Check out her previous stories that explore the numbers on how much Americans drink, dietary guidelines, and warning labels for alcohol.
one impactful quote
From a premed adviser at a historically Black school
"'Come to our school. We want Black people.' … But you [primarily white institutions] want the ones that everybody wants. The one with that MCAT that's way up there, 90th percentile, you want that person. Everybody's vying for that one person. No, we've got to think about this differently if we're really committed to increasing numbers of underrepresented minorities, especially Black students."
That's from a study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open that involved interviews with more than two dozen premedical student advisers at historically Black colleges and universities. Read more from STAT on why there are so few historically Black med schools and what the end of affirmative action meant to one Black students.
disability
New data on a retinal implant to restore vision
Twenty million people in the U.S. have age-related macular degeneration — a blurring of one's vision when looking straight ahead or reading. Yesterday, Science Corporation published preliminary data from a clinical trial that aims to address this common condition. In a study of more than 30 participants, scientists were able to help people read, on average, nearly five more lines down the classic eye chart (you know the one).
Here's how it worked: A camera mounted on a pair of glasses gathers infrared light from the person's surroundings, then beams it onto an implant in their retina. That prosthetic then stimulates the retina with electrical impulses that get sent straight to the brain.
Cool, right? Read more from STAT's Timmy Broderick.
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