JUST POSTED ON TAP ONLINE: IT'S MEDICAL FRIDAY! Three pieces relating to health care/medical issues are up today. Maggie Mahar raises doubts about Merck's much-hyped new cervical cancer vaccine, and argues that the drug's ascendancy illustrates a good deal about American health care inefficiencies and inequities. Meanwhile, following Humana's recent announcement of higher-than-expected earnings last quarter due to the Medicare prescription drug program kicking in, Barbara Dreyfuss gives us the gory details of how it and other insurance companies rigged the Medicare drug bill in their favor three years ago.
And finally, Aziz Huq talks to Steven H. Miles, author of the new book Oath Betrayed: Torture, Medical Complicity and the War on Terror, about military physicians' role in aiding and abetting detainee abuse in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay.
--The Editors