Jason Nickerson

What an absolute mess. Why would anyone outside of the realm of people apparently 'in the know', believe these were fictional - that is, made up - cases? I don't understand the logic of not disclosing that, other than apparently to generate citations and interest.

No rules of engagement.
No "nation building... no democracy building exercise"
So, a tacit endorsement of war crimes with no particular end game or objective of what they're seeking to accomplish.

Closing the evidence gap for everyday health and wellness to tackle misinformation Heiss and colleagues rightly flag the rise and power of social media influencers on health discourse.1 But a deeper structural matter warrants attention: the gap between evidence based clinical medici...

Here's the shareable link (which I should have used!) bmj.com/cgi/content/...

This letter is based on this thread:

Closing the evidence gap for everyday health and wellness to tackle misinformation Heiss and colleagues rightly flag the rise and power of social media influencers on health discourse.1 But a deeper structural matter warrants attention: the gap between evidence based clinical medici...

Countering the misinformation & disinformation ecosystem needs to involve more than debunking bad information that's circulating - we need evidence-based medicine to answer questions that people have about their every day health needs, no matter how mundane or esoteric. My letter in the @bmj.com

Screenshot from a Globe and Mail online headline that reads "Who is Clavicular, the 20-year-old influencer going viral for looksmaxxing and more?" by Samantha Edwards.

I realize this is newsworthy (to some degree, I guess?), because we live in the absolute stupidest timeline right now, but I can't make it through this article. I have a PhD and I can't make sense of what's going on here (I also just don't care).
Go outside, folks. Have a coffee with another human.

Comme ci, comme ça

Bruuuutallll

4 Months Trapped in a Hospital for an Obsolete Way of Treating Their Disease

Reporting in northern Cameroon, I noticed a few people sitting at the back of a hospital compound. They had drug-resistant TB. They weren't there to get meds or see a doctor: they LIVE there. For months. In isolation. That's government policy. Sanitarium throwback. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/h...

Get a @ottawahealthlaw.ca team together!!!

360 Ottawa | A Perimeter Race Get your team together for 360 Ottawa, 2025! 360 km (ish) relay race around the perimeter of the city of Ottawa. Registration opens soon.

Detour from posting about health and foreign policy

In my not-work life, I run and hike and explore.

This June: We're organizing 360 Ottawa. A race around the entire perimeter of #Ottawa.

Team relay. Whole city. Slightly unhinged. Very fun.

Registration's open.

Come run with us. DM for details.

Second, the economics don't make sense. Companies are not charging these high prices so they can reinvest in R&D and it is not a law of physics that a drug needs to cost $10,000+ per patient, per year - it is a choice.
R&D spending in Canada by pharma companies was 4.1% of sales revenue in 2024.

There are economics and ethics at play here, neither add up in this opinion piece.
First, people should have affordable access to the medicines they need - full stop. To suggest that it is bureaucracy or price controls holding this up, rather than companies protecting profits, is misguided.

Second, the logic of relying on a 2007 study - an era that predates high-cost drugs that can routinely be tens of thousands of dollars per patient, per year - to suggest that today's high-cost drugs deliver substantial savings to health budgets, overall, isn't supported by evidence.

Adding to this because this article pisses me off.
For one, in Canada, drug manufacturers set the prices of their medicines - the author mischaracterizes how this works, implying the PMPRB sets drug prices. The PMPRB does not "[set] a legal maximum price" that then flows to pCPA.

Opinion: Canada’s too-strict drug price controls are a health hazard Canada rates 19th out of 20 OECD countries in making innovative new drugs available to patients

This article is intellectually lazy and mischaracterizes how drug prices in Canada are set and regulated. It uses data that stop in 2002 - decades before today’s extraordinarily high drug prices - to justify its claims. Nonsense.

These parliamentary studies are low-profile but have implications for access to medicines - Healthy Debate Two studies by Parliamentary Standing Committees each have potentially serious implications for medical innovation, pandemic preparedness and access to medicines.

New from @srinmurthy.bsky.social and I at @healthydebate.bsky.social re: studies on university R&D + the private sector (SRSR) & "Canada's pharmaceutical sovereignty" (HESA).
"These parliamentary studies are low-profile but have implications for access to medicines"
healthydebate.ca/2026/02/topi...

“Doing nothing”? Day drinking while you baste the turkey isn’t “doing nothing”

Horrific.
Medical staff are working under impossible circumstances to provide care to patients during an ongoing genocide, where much of the health system has been systematically destroyed. Warring parties have an obligation to protect medical staff. The fighting needs to end immediately.

CEPI backs updated Zaire ebolavirus vaccine that aims to improve vaccine affordability and accessibility $30 million to update manufacturing process and make a vaccine intended to be less costly to produce and easier to deploy.

Lots of potentially good work being done here to improve the affordability and thermostability of the rVSV-ZEBOV Ebola vaccine which currently (1) is, I believe, the most expensive vaccine in use in global health; and (2) requires resource-intensive ultra-cold chain that is not ideal.

Ottawa town hall on human rights ** Assemblée publique sur les droits humains à Ottawa

If you're in Ottawa, join me tomorrow night at the Bronson Centre where I'll be moderating a panel discussion featuring @heathermcpherson.bsky.social and a remarkable group of human rights advocates to talk about Canada's place in the world.

A photo of an asthma inhaler (a metered dose inhaler) covered in a metallic casing over the original inhaler case. The new case is a shiny silver metal and the photo is from a product website, and includes some text about the product which is called the "hale Classic".

I just learned that you can buy a premium metal inhaler case for your MDIs. Also comes in fun colours.
I'm down for zuhz-ing up medical devices that you have to carry around every day (as long as health professionals can still read the label so we know what medication it is!).

Sad to be missing it today! Looks like a great lineup of speakers and work.

Thursday, join me and some very special guests for an important conversation about Canada's Place in the World.

Come be part of this conversation.

RSVP: www.heathermcpherson.ca/ottawa_town_...

I found this particularly interesting:
The trend for youth vaping looked very bad a few years ago as vaping rose from 6% in 2017 to 15% in 2019.
But, most recent data show that 6% of youth reported vaping in 2024 - that's down 60% since 2019. Something's working, here.

This is a good update on the state of tobacco use in Canada, with surprisingly positive results.

In 2024, 13% of Canadians were using tobacco, that's down from 29% in 2001. Good progress.

Smoking among youth hit a record low in 2024: 2% among 12-17 year olds.

www.canada.ca/en/health-ca...

The final Calvin and Hobbes, which appeared in papers 30 years ago today.

They’ve always been committed to access - you just have to have the money to pay them to have access to the drugs, is all. If you have money they are committed to ensuring you have access. Straightforward shit.

Christmas Travellers
Maud Lewis
c. 1960

🧐