Professor of Marketing at Stern School of Business, New York University. Studies consumer psychology, experimental research methods, and decision making.
New York City
Joined September 2011
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A month ago, this self-test kit sold for $4 in Europe, $24 at Walgreens, & $14 at Wal-Mart (now $20 & largely unavailable). It costs $1 for Abbott to produce a test. Serious price gouging by name brands during a public emergency. We need(ed) real competition & gvmt action🧵
It's expensive, but we spent trillions on stimulus to counter-act the economic effects of this pandemic. We're talking $1 tests here - we can have every child tested every day in school/at home so we can keep schools open without infecting parents/grand-parents. 6/
Here's what Malaysia is doing: sending each poor family masks and tests. 7/7
teapawt.org/drng/status/1478965961…
Pfizer's Paxlovid is our best treatment for omicron complications. Unfortunately, NYC's limited allocation is already exhausted.
Who's eligible to receive it?
- immuno-compromised
- nursing home residents
- elderly with a risk factor BUT ONLY IF THEY HAVE NOT BEEN VACCINATED
So if you're elderly with diabetes & asthma and have severe COVID symptoms, you are only allowed to receive this very scarce, effective, and coveted drug if you refused to be vaccinated?
I understand the risk-based reasoning, but it doesn't feel great.
coronavirus.health.ny.gov/or…
They told me "she should stop testing and gotten out of quarantine after 5 days since people test pos up to 90 days." Not with antigen tests! So, my Dr's office said that my likely contagious wife should stop quarantining from her immuno-compromised husband based on CDC BS. 6/
This also affects MDs/RNs. My wife tested positive with a at-home antigen test and went into quarantine. When she was still testing positive with the antigen test 6 days later, I reached out to my Dr's office for advice since I'm severely immuno-compromised. 5/
Or CDC's reluctance to push people to wear N95 masks instead of cloth/surgical. CDC seems to assume that saying this will lead those without N95 to stop wearing masks altogether.
Would be nice if N95 were cheaper/more available, but obfuscation doesn't change reality. 4/
CDC knows many are still contagious after 5 days & 2 neg antigen tests would rule this out. But bc tests are hard to find (partly bc of CDC & FDA policy) & bc they're afraid people will stop masking, they do not require the neg test (official argument: "it's not perfect"). 2/
Another excellent article by @zeynep on how the CDC has let us down. A lot seems to come down to CDC officials making psychological assumptions rather than being straight with people. 🧵 nytimes.com/2022/01/05/opini…
Excellent thread on Omicron from the always thoughtful @jburnmurdoch . Not alarmist, but also none of that “we should only care about deaths” BS so many seem fond to push.
Omicron hospitalisation risk only one third of Delta (UK data).
But confirmed cases have increased 4x to +10x in many places (NYC, Miami, DC, PR), without even counting most antigen tests.
Still seems bad for health care (on top of staffing shortage)
reuters.com/business/healthc…
Best (balanced and comprehensive) summary I've seen about what we know about omicron (so far) and how that affects cases, health care, etc.
