The hottest Regulatory Policy Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top U.S. Politics Topics

Medical Roundup #7

Don't Worry About the Vase • 2374 implied HN points • 17 Mar 26
🏥 Health Politics Regulatory Policy
  1. The FDA is acting inconsistently and retroactively on approvals, and that behavior is chilling investment and innovation in vaccines and other drug development.
  2. Clinical trials and oversight are inefficient and expensive—practices like 100% source data verification and rigid IRB processes waste resources and slow progress, so risk-based monitoring, standardized trial infrastructure, and more flexible accredited reviews could help.
  3. Medical and market developments are moving care forward—AI can improve cancer screening, GLP-1 competition is driving down prices, and simple habits like daily walking give big health benefits—but regulatory and cultural barriers risk limiting their impact.

What are the Influenza Vaccine Risks?

Who is Robert Malone • 10 implied HN points • 23 Mar 26
🏥 Health Politics Regulatory Policy
  1. Vaccine risks and benefits are not the same for everyone — they vary a lot by age, vaccine formulation, whether other shots are given at the same visit, and the type of flu season; older and high‑risk people get clear net benefit while healthy younger adults and some children often see much smaller gains.
  2. Serious adverse events are rare but real: anaphylaxis occurs on the order of 1.35–1.6 cases per million doses, Guillain‑Barré syndrome about 1–2 per million, and febrile seizures are measurably increased in young children, especially when the flu shot is co‑administered with PCV13 and DTaP (these seizures are usually brief and benign).
  3. Policy and communication should reflect the nuance and data limits — NNV versus NNH calculations strongly favor vaccination for older adults but are less decisive for low‑risk groups, surveillance systems have known biases, and one‑size‑fits‑all mandates or generic counseling miss important individual considerations.

RED ALERT: IS FDA'S QUIET OCTOBER REORGANIZATION CREATING A NEW POLICING ARM A RESPONSE TO WEF'S DEMANDS TO CONTROL OR SHUT DOWN LOCAL FOOD PRODUCTION?

Popular Rationalism • 1486 implied HN points • 13 Oct 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Regulatory Policy
  1. The FDA has created a new Office of Inspections and Investigations, which gives it more power to regulate food production. This raises worries that the agency might focus on favoring big corporations instead of local farmers.
  2. There are concerns that the FDA's actions might align with global agendas, particularly from organizations like the World Economic Forum, which could limit local food production and farmers' rights in the name of environmental goals.
  3. If the FDA continues to enforce regulations that prioritize industrial farming over local agriculture, it could threaten food sovereignty, making the U.S. more reliant on centralized agricultural systems instead of supporting local food sources.

Monopoly Round-Up: Corporate Lawyers and Fat Envelope America

BIG by Matt Stoller • 19481 implied HN points • 21 Dec 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Regulatory Policy
  1. Lobbyists and well‑connected corporate lawyers are buying influence over antitrust enforcement, pushing mergers through and sidelining career officials and tougher scrutiny.
  2. The leading antitrust bar groups are largely defending big business and promoting merger‑friendly policies, remaining quiet instead of calling out suspected pay‑to‑play behavior.
  3. There is growing pushback from judges, state enforcers, and whistleblowers who are using court oversight, the Tunney Act, and congressional testimony to demand documents and challenge suspicious settlements.
Get a weekly roundup of the best Substack posts, by hacker news affinity:

Housing reform should actually add housing

Slow Boring • 5699 implied HN points • 18 Jan 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Regulatory Policy
  1. Housing reform proposals should focus on actually increasing housing supply rather than just affordable units.
  2. Affordable housing regulations limit the creation of new housing and may not always be the best solution for addressing housing shortages.
  3. When proposing housing reforms, it's important to ensure that the policies align with the goal of increasing housing supply and economic growth.

Why would anyone want the FDA to approve drugs without real evidence they work?

Unreported Truths • 44 implied HN points • 06 Mar 26
🏥 Health Politics Regulatory Policy
  1. Regulators should insist on solid, placebo-controlled evidence that a treatment actually works and is safe before approving it, because without that any risk may be too much.
  2. Drug companies and their investors often push for lower approval standards to make big profits, using weak comparisons or non-placebo studies to claim benefits.
  3. Politics and media hype can pressure regulators to relax standards, which increases the chance that unproven, risky treatments reach patients and cause harm.

The FDA’s New “Transparency” Database

Who is Robert Malone • 13 implied HN points • 11 Mar 26
🏥 Health Politics Regulatory Policy
  1. The FDA launched AEMS to merge seven legacy adverse-event databases into a single, real-time searchable system that should improve access and save money.
  2. Adverse-event reports are early-warning signals, not proof of causation, and the data remain incomplete and noisy, so consolidation may help spot patterns but won’t fix underreporting or data quality issues on its own.
  3. True transparency depends on culture and response—making data visible is useful, but real openness requires that outside researchers can analyze the data freely and regulators honestly investigate and act on safety signals.

Radiophobia

Gordian Knot News • 271 implied HN points • 17 Jan 26
🔬 Science Regulatory Policy
  1. Regulatory overreach and strict radiation rules helped create and amplify public fear of radiation, rather than public fear being the original cause.
  2. Energy market changes in the late 1960s and early 1970s made nuclear much more expensive and removed market limits on how hard regulators could push, contributing to the collapse of new nuclear orders.
  3. A large ecosystem of regulators, labs, health-physics professionals, cleanup contractors, and parts of industry benefited from strict rules and had incentives to perpetuate radiophobia.

Dismantling by Attrition (Part 3)

Who is Robert Malone • 8 implied HN points • 12 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Regulatory Policy
  1. A congressionally created pandemic office was hollowed out and left empty by not replacing staff or appointing a director. Key programs were canceled and coordination moved into the opaque NSC, leaving preparedness infrastructure effectively dismantled.
  2. Both major parties share blame: one used executive power to pressure platforms and overreach constitutional limits, while the other ignored a statutory mandate and dismantled an office by attrition. Recognizing both failures is necessary for a serious conservative critique.
  3. Pandemic preparedness matters even when a specific threat like H5N1 currently seems limited; monitoring, coordination, and countermeasure capacity must be preserved so risks can be detected and managed. Congress has clear tools—funding conditions, reporting requirements, and confirmation hearings—to enforce compliance but has not used them.

America's Digital Fortress Is Finally Being Built

Who is Robert Malone • 13 implied HN points • 07 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Regulatory Policy
  1. The strategy shifts U.S. cyber policy from passive defense to active offense, promising to impose real costs on attackers through cyber operations, sanctions, and other consequences.
  2. It favors practical, industry-friendly measures over heavy compliance, aiming to modernize federal networks with zero-trust and post-quantum cryptography, harden critical infrastructure, and partner with the private sector.
  3. It elevates AI and technological superiority and commits to building a strong cyber workforce, backing AI-powered autonomous defenses to fight at machine speed and keep the U.S. ahead of rivals.

Nuclear Power Needs Realism And Freedom

QTR’s Fringe Finance • 23 implied HN points • 01 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Regulatory Policy
  1. Nuclear power in the U.S. has relied on heavy federal support and strict regulation, which helped cause uncompleted projects, big cost overruns, and made it an expensive way to produce electricity without subsidies.
  2. New reactor promises, including Small Modular Reactors, are getting a lot of hype but carry unclear risks and contractual fine print, so their timeliness and cost performance should be questioned.
  3. The proposed policy approach is to end federal subsidies and insurance, shift to private insurance and industry best practices, and make plant owners responsible for waste and decommissioning so the market can decide competitiveness.

Proposing an NIH High-Leverage Trials (HILT) Program: Large-scale Research for Repurposing and Supplements

The Good Science Project • 78 implied HN points • 28 Jan 26
🏥 Health Politics Regulatory Policy
  1. Many supplements and off-patent drugs never get large, definitive trials because companies lack the financial incentive, leaving patients with uncertain benefits and the public paying avoidable costs.
  2. Create a dedicated NIH High‑Leverage Trials (HILT) program to sponsor and run large, pragmatic Phase III trials, hold INDs when needed, and coordinate with FDA and payers to translate results into labels and coverage.
  3. By running efficient, large-scale trials and focusing on high public ROI, HILT could improve safety and care, unlock low‑cost treatment options, and save substantial public and private healthcare dollars.

Leaked docs reveal extensive noncompete agreements at Epic Systems

HEALTH CARE un-covered • 519 implied HN points • 27 Mar 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Regulatory Policy
  1. Epic Systems uses strict noncompete agreements that limit former employees from working with many companies, affecting their job prospects.
  2. These agreements can also hurt companies trying to hire Epic alumni, as they may face increased costs or lose software access.
  3. The Federal Trade Commission is looking to ban noncompete clauses, which could improve job opportunities and wages for millions of workers.

The FDA Policy that Kills Animals

Who is Robert Malone • 20 implied HN points • 19 Feb 26
🏥 Health Politics Regulatory Policy
  1. New FDA rules now require veterinarians' prescriptions for many livestock antibiotics, making basic treatments more expensive and harder to obtain.
  2. There is a widespread shortage of large-animal and avian veterinarians in rural areas, so the prescription requirement often leaves farmers unable to get timely care for sick animals.
  3. Farmers are being forced into greater self-reliance and community support—using human medicines, alternative remedies, or stockpiling—because regulations have outpaced rural veterinary infrastructure and increase preventable animal suffering.

What the Polls Say about the Pharmaceutical Industry and Vaccines

Who is Robert Malone • 16 implied HN points • 22 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Regulatory Policy
  1. Public trust in the pharmaceutical industry and in vaccines has fallen dramatically, with growing doubts about safety, effectiveness, and the childhood vaccine schedule.
  2. Some influential polls are poorly designed or biased and can be used to steer political messaging; people should scrutinize question wording and methods before treating one poll as decisive.
  3. A large share of voters across parties favor more choice over vaccinations and strongly oppose liability shields for vaccine makers, making liability repeal and choice popular political issues.

Medical Groups Are Suing the HHS Over Vaccine Policies—and It’s a Good Thing

Who is Robert Malone • 22 implied HN points • 22 Jan 26
🏥 Health Politics Regulatory Policy
  1. HHS narrowed the childhood vaccine schedule and shifted vaccines like flu, COVID-19, and rotavirus to shared clinical decision-making, making the U.S. schedule more like those in some European and Asian countries.
  2. Several major medical organizations sued to block those changes, and the complaint leaned heavily on appeals to authority, claims about inconvenience and financial impact, while offering little direct medical evidence.
  3. The case highlights debates over informed consent and patient choice, suggesting some doctors see patient questions or refusals as a nuisance and raising concerns about how trust and profit influence vaccination practices.

Never Forget What They Told Us About COVID Vaccines

Unmasked • 48 implied HN points • 13 Dec 25
🏥 Health Politics Regulatory Policy
  1. A recent memo says researchers found a link between COVID vaccines and the deaths of at least ten children and alleges earlier officials either hid or didn’t look for that link.
  2. Early experts and officials strongly claimed vaccines would stop transmission or even eliminate the virus, but those promises didn’t hold up and the public messaging shifted over time.
  3. Given these changing claims and possible concealment, people should do their own due diligence, ask questions, and demand transparency when making vaccine decisions.

Breaking: Children’s Health Defense Hits AAP With RICO Suit Over Fraudulent Vaccine Safety Claims

Who is Robert Malone • 17 implied HN points • 22 Jan 26
🏥 Health Politics Regulatory Policy
  1. Children’s Health Defense filed a federal RICO lawsuit accusing the American Academy of Pediatrics of running a decades‑long scheme to promote the childhood vaccine schedule, alleging undisclosed financial ties to vaccine makers and incentives for pediatricians to hit high vaccination rates.
  2. The plaintiffs include parents who say their children were injured or died after routine vaccinations and doctors who say they were professionally punished for questioning AAP guidance; the complaint alleges suppression of contrary research and reliance on a theoretical 2002 paper to justify the schedule.
  3. The lawsuit seeks monetary damages and court orders forcing the AAP to disclose gaps in safety testing and stop making unqualified vaccine‑safety claims, and it compares the AAP’s conduct to Big Tobacco while highlighting ongoing legal battles over recent vaccine policy changes.

Toxic Avengers

Daniel Pinchbeck’s Newsletter • 13 implied HN points • 03 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Regulatory Policy
  1. The administration is rolling back chemical and environmental safeguards and reallowing toxic substances like paraquat, chlorpyrifos, and PFAS, which will raise cancer, neurological, and developmental harms.
  2. These policy changes will hit farmworkers, low-income and minority communities hardest and contaminate water and food for millions, creating huge long-term health and cleanup costs other countries are trying to avoid.
  3. The drive to deregulate is driven by prioritizing corporate profit and political power over public health, treating harm as an acceptable externality and sustained by misinformation and loyalist support rather than rational self-interest.

The Affordability Equation

QTR’s Fringe Finance • 20 implied HN points • 06 Dec 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Regulatory Policy
  1. How affordable a good is depends on how much output each hour of labor produces (labor productivity) multiplied by a discount factor that reflects time preferences and production delays, so higher productivity and faster production make things cheaper in labor-hours.
  2. Affordability rises when labor becomes more productive — through better technology, skills, more capital and natural resources, or a smaller labor supply — and when people save more so investment can finance longer production processes.
  3. Government actions like taxes, large spending, regulation, and state-run production tend to reduce affordability by lowering wages, discouraging investment, bidding up prices, and misallocating resources, so cutting taxes/spending and removing restrictions is presented as the way to improve affordability.

Are the Changes to the Vax Schedule Finished?

Who is Robert Malone • 9 implied HN points • 10 Jan 26
🏥 Health Politics Regulatory Policy
  1. HHS revised the childhood and adolescent vaccine schedule on January 5, 2026, cutting routine recommendations from about 17–18 to 11 vaccines and moving others (like flu, COVID‑19, hepatitis, rotavirus, RSV) to high‑risk or shared clinical decision‑making, while keeping all vaccines available and covered by insurance.
  2. The administration ordered more rigorous research—double‑blind, placebo‑controlled trials when ethical and expanded long‑term observational studies—and said advisory committees and agencies will continuously reassess recommendations, so more schedule changes are likely as data emerge.
  3. The move is highly controversial: some medical groups warn it could risk disease resurgence and call placebo trials unethical when effective vaccines exist, while supporters praise greater scientific rigor and parental choice; there are also concerns that CDC management of many trials could introduce bias or face capacity limits.

Big Data, Small Payoff: Madrid Study Finds Pediatric mRNA Vaccine Benefits Thin—and Safety Questions Still Linger

Who is Robert Malone • 9 implied HN points • 31 Dec 25
🏥 Health Politics Regulatory Policy
  1. mRNA COVID-19 vaccines cut hospitalizations by only a few cases per 100,000 children, with almost no measurable benefit in 6–11-year-olds and a modest reduction in 12–17-year-olds.
  2. Serious outcomes like hospitalizations, MIS‑C, and myocarditis were rare overall, and while heart inflammation was uncommon, it was not clearly lower in vaccinated adolescents.
  3. Because absolute benefits are tiny and uncertainty is wide, the findings support shifting away from universal pediatric vaccination toward individualized, risk‑based recommendations.

American Sovereignty is Back

From the New World • 70 implied HN points • 09 Jan 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Regulatory Policy
  1. Mark Zuckerberg is planning to work with Trump to resist European laws that he feels limit American tech companies. This shows a shift in power dynamics between the US and Europe regarding tech regulations.
  2. American tech companies have relied heavily on European markets but are pushing back against strict regulations like the GDPR and Digital Markets Act. They believe it's time for the US to take back control over its tech landscape.
  3. The competition in technology, particularly around AI, is now seen as a matter of national security. American companies want to innovate freely without foreign interference, which aligns with the values of freedom of speech and democracy.

Law Firms Pocket Millions Helping Nonprofits, Bureaucrats Expand Environmental Regulations

OpenTheBooks Substack • 4 implied HN points • 03 Dec 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Regulatory Policy
  1. "Sue and settle" lets environmental groups privately settle lawsuits with federal agencies so agencies agree to new rules, which can bypass Congress and public rulemaking.
  2. Taxpayers have paid over $20 million in plaintiff attorney fees since 2013, with payouts growing under recent administrations and those payments are often opaque and hard to oversee.
  3. The practice creates conflict-of-interest risks because lawyers and staff move between agencies, nonprofits, and firms, and efforts to curb the practice have been inconsistent so the issue remains unresolved.