The hottest Health data Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Health & Wellness Topics

The NHS Data Goldmine

Odds and Ends of History • 335 implied HN points • 09 Mar 26
🏥 Health Politics Health data
  1. OpenSafely gives scientists access to nationwide NHS GP data, creating a powerful resource for large-scale medical research.
  2. Moving to Net Zero makes energy pricing much more complex, introducing new technical and market challenges that experts are working to resolve.
  3. These topics are being explained and shared through podcasts and newsletters so people can follow expert discussions and find further resources.

Medicaid Data Dump: Billing Codes Explode Up to 10,000%, LA Mental Health Dept. Highest Biller in the Nation

OpenTheBooks Substack • 429 implied HN points • 21 Feb 26
🏥 Health Politics Health data
  1. A new HHS data release shows over 270 million Medicaid payments from 2018–2024 totaling more than $1 trillion, with monthly spending rising sharply after 2020.
  2. One billing code, T1019 for personal/home care, accounts for a huge share of spending and grew about 144% from 2018 to 2024, with a few organizations (mostly in New York) collecting over $1 billion each.
  3. Dozens of other billing codes ballooned—some up hundreds to over 10,000%—largely for home-based and coordinated care, concentrating large sums quickly and raising questions about oversight and possible fraud.

Six Years After '15 Days To Slow The Spread,' Data Continues To Prove COVID Policies Were A Historic Failure

Unmasked • 62 implied HN points • 14 Mar 26
🏥 Health Politics Health data
  1. Research shows lockdowns, mask mandates, and similar policies had little to no effect on COVID deaths, so those measures failed to change the main outcome they targeted.
  2. Early fatality estimates were vastly overstated and highly age-dependent, with true infection fatality rates nearer 0.25–0.35% rather than the initial 3.4% figure, which helped trigger panic responses.
  3. A brief “15 days” plan morphed into years of rolling restrictions and intrusive mandates, producing widespread social and economic fallout while officials saw little accountability for those choices.

Brief JN.1 wave update

Logging the World • 777 implied HN points • 13 Jan 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Health data
  1. There is evidence of a significant peak in infections before Christmas, but recent data shows a convincing decrease post that peak.
  2. The observation of lower hospitalization rates amidst the estimated number of infections suggests a positive trend in managing the virus.
  3. The shape of the curve in future weeks is uncertain, but overall, the current situation seems to indicate no significant exponential growth in infections.
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JN.1 - how worried should you be?

Logging the World • 737 implied HN points • 18 Dec 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Health data
  1. A new faster-growing variant, JN.1, has emerged from the BA.2.86 family, showing potential for significant impact on COVID trends.
  2. The growth rate of JN.1 suggests a concerning pattern of exponential increase over time, raising alarm for future hospital admissions.
  3. Changing social behaviors post-Christmas may lead to a potential decrease in overall growth rates, impacting the severity of future COVID waves.

HHS Open data is here. They will pay you if you find fraud.

Steve Kirsch's newsletter • 8 implied HN points • 15 Feb 26
🏥 Health Politics Health data
  1. HHS has released aggregated monthly Medicaid claims data that anyone can download and analyze using tools like Google BigQuery and the Medicaid Data Explorer.
  2. A federal whistleblower program offers up to a 30% bounty for recoveries when people report Medicare/Medicaid fraud through the FinCEN whistleblower portal.
  3. The claims data shows about a fourfold increase in high‑level emergency ambulance transports (A0433) and in EEG code 95812 across many states, suggesting either a real rise in severe emergencies or potential billing anomalies that merit investigation.

We Just Got More Proof That Nobody Needs To Wear Masks

Unmasked • 65 implied HN points • 26 Dec 25
🏥 Health Politics Health data
  1. Many credentialed doctors and public health experts are still loudly calling for universal masking, especially during winter.
  2. The piece claims data show masks did not stop viruses from spreading and points to Sweden’s avoidance of widespread masking alongside low excess mortality as evidence.
  3. Renewed pushes for universal masking this winter are presented as unnecessary because recent data allegedly contradict the effectiveness of masks.

Brief bonus COVID update

Logging the World • 498 implied HN points • 20 Apr 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Health data
  1. There is a new COVID variant called XBB.1.16, but it may not be as alarming as headlines suggest, with a modest transmission advantage in comparison to previous variants.
  2. The severity of the XBB.1.16 variant is not significantly higher than previous waves, and it currently has a low presence in the UK.
  3. Overall, the impact of the XBB.1.16 variant is expected to be relatively small, akin to ripples rather than a major wave like previous dominant variants.

Outbreak Outlook: Week 6 of DIY disease surveillance

Force of Infection • 79 implied HN points • 09 Nov 25
🏥 Health Politics Health data
  1. COVID-19 cases are low across the country, but there may be a rise coming soon. Most states report minimal emergency department visits for COVID.
  2. Influenza activity is increasing, especially in the Southern states, while RSV is showing regional variations with more cases among young children in certain areas.
  3. Food recalls are happening due to contamination concerns, including infant formula linked to botulism, which is especially dangerous for babies.

Outbreak Outlook - National - Jan 27

Force of Infection • 515 implied HN points • 27 Jan 25
🏥 Health Politics Health data
  1. Flu cases are on the rise again, especially in children, after weeks of decline. It's surprising to see this rebound during the season.
  2. COVID-19 wastewater levels are decreasing, but it's too soon to know if we’ll avoid a larger wave this winter.
  3. Activity for RSV is declining across the country, but caution is still advised, particularly for babies and older adults.

Who is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.?

Who is Robert Malone • 25 implied HN points • 28 Dec 25
🏥 Health Politics Health data
  1. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. moved from environmental law into a prominent role challenging pharmaceutical and public health institutions and now serves as HHS Secretary pushing anti‑corruption reforms.
  2. His policy agenda focuses on three pillars — transparency, detoxification, and decentralization — including public access to raw trial and CDC data, phasing out suspected toxic chemicals, and breaking up concentrated federal health authority.
  3. A major CDC audit under his leadership reportedly uncovered data suppression, conflicts of interest, and questionable handling of autism data, leading to legal referrals, grant freezes, and plans to release terabytes of raw epidemiological data for independent review.

Flu spikes

Force of Infection • 243 implied HN points • 03 Feb 25
🏥 Health Politics Health data
  1. Influenza activity is rising again, hitting high levels not seen since earlier in the season. This increase is particularly strong among young children, leading to more hospital visits.
  2. The data about flu activity is not completely reliable, with federal health data disrupted recently. This makes it harder to track how things are changing.
  3. COVID-19 is still around, with some signs of increased activity, especially in the Midwest, but severe cases are not rising significantly.

A historic flu season

Force of Infection • 191 implied HN points • 14 Feb 25
🏥 Health Politics Health data
  1. Flu activity is increasing, with outpatient visits for flu-like symptoms reaching 7.8%. This shows that more people are getting sick and needing medical attention.
  2. This flu season is hitting all age groups hard, with high severity reported among children, adults, and older adults. It’s a tough time for many families right now.
  3. Emergency department visits for flu symptoms in children have been noticeably high, making it crucial for parents to stay alert for signs of illness. Hospitals are also seeing more severe cases than in recent years.

LatchBio Now Provides Lots of Data

LatchBio • 82 implied HN points • 27 Jun 25
🔬 Science Health data
  1. LatchBio has created a massive cell atlas with 30 million samples covering 150 diseases and 200 tissues. This helps researchers access diverse biological data easily.
  2. They partnered with Pythia Biosciences and Miraomics to enhance data curation and improve how this information is delivered to users.
  3. The introduction of a new Python framework helps scientists curate data more efficiently, making it easier to handle complex biological information.

UK government still ‘withholding data that may link Covid jab to excess deaths’

Steve Kirsch's newsletter • 5 implied HN points • 03 Jan 26
🏥 Health Politics Health data
  1. The UK health agency is refusing to publish detailed, record-level COVID vaccination and death data and has only released aggregated monthly death counts, claiming release could cause distress or privacy breaches.
  2. The Czech Republic publicly released anonymized, linked individual-level data (vaccination dates, death dates, age, sex, region) with standard disclosure controls and allowed independent analysis with no known re-identification harms.
  3. Withholding granular data undermines scientific scrutiny and public trust, and the UK could safely release similarly anonymized data with safeguards and explanatory commentary to improve accountability.

New Czech dataset has ICD10 codes of vaccinated vs. unvaccinated female deaths

Steve Kirsch's newsletter • 4 implied HN points • 20 Dec 25
🏥 Health Politics Health data
  1. A Czech record-level dataset links women's vaccination histories to ICD‑10 underlying causes of death and spans back to 1994, but it only covers women and originally reported events at monthly resolution rather than weekly.
  2. A preliminary ICD‑10 comparison finds different cause distributions between vaccinated and unvaccinated deaths (for example, higher shares of heart failure, diabetes, COVID, and neurologic causes among vaccinated deaths and higher cardiovascular shares among unvaccinated), but aggregate counts are confounded by long pre-vaccine records, older vaccinated populations, and baseline mortality differences.
  3. The data and analysis code are available for further study, and because the file records only underlying cause (not multiple causes) and has limited time resolution, careful age- and time-restricted analyses are needed to look for possible safety signals such as acute kidney injury.

A novel analysis of the Pfizer trial:vaccine effectiveness was nowhere near 95%

Steve Kirsch's newsletter • 5 implied HN points • 24 Nov 25
🏥 Health Politics Health data
  1. The Pfizer vaccine may not prevent infections but only reduce symptoms in those already infected. This means vaccinated people could still get sick without showing symptoms.
  2. The claim that the vaccine was 95% effective against infection is based on flawed assumptions. It assumes that infections were detected equally and that vaccines prevent infections, which may not be true.
  3. Real-world data shows many fully vaccinated people experienced breakthrough infections, suggesting the vaccine's impact on stopping infection was likely very small or none.

Did the COVID vaccine reduce cases? Find out instantly!

Steve Kirsch's newsletter • 10 implied HN points • 12 Jan 25
🏥 Health Politics Health data
  1. Getting vaccinated three or more times may increase your chances of getting infected compared to not getting vaccinated at all. It's surprising to see that more vaccines do not necessarily mean better protection.
  2. The biggest difference in infection rates was seen when people went from being unvaccinated to vaccinated. That change had the most impact.
  3. The numbers showing infection rates were consistent and validated against other surveys, suggesting a trend worth noting. It’s good to examine these findings critically.

The DEATH safety signals in VAERS were obvious if anyone looked

Steve Kirsch's newsletter • 8 implied HN points • 06 Feb 25
🏥 Health Politics Health data
  1. There was a significant increase in death reports after the COVID vaccine was given, over 100 times higher than normal for other vaccines. This raises questions about vaccine safety.
  2. The number of death reports linked with the COVID vaccine is way higher compared to all other vaccines combined, suggesting something might be unusual with the COVID vaccine.
  3. Healthcare providers are required to report any deaths they suspect are related to vaccines, but many have reported difficulties and frustrations with the reporting process, indicating a possible problem with the system.

EXCLUSIVE: The CDPH is unable to explain the rise in the COVID Case Fatality Rate (CFR) after the COVID shots rolled out

Steve Kirsch's newsletter • 9 implied HN points • 23 Dec 24
🏥 Health Politics Health data
  1. The California Department of Public Health struggled to explain why the COVID death rate increased after the vaccines were rolled out. Their response did not make sense.
  2. With a majority of nursing home residents vaccinated, we expected the death rate to go down, but it actually stayed flat for a long time and didn't fall until a new, less deadly variant appeared over a year later.
  3. Questions about the data offered by health officials were often ignored, leading to a distrust in their claims about the effectiveness of the vaccines.