Britain's 'Lockdown Files' Reveal the Sordid Thinking Behind Pandemic Policy
Eye-opening insights into the messy motivations behind restrictive COVID-19 responses.
Health
Shoddy Research Reinforces Anti-Vaping Narrative
Thanks to tendentiously sloppy research, most Americans think vaping is just as dangerous as smoking. That’s not true.
Biden's New Budget Would Hike Taxes and Wage Class Warfare
The higher taxes on small businesses and entrepreneurs could slow growth. Less opportunity means more tribalism and division.
Spoonies: The Culture of Staying Sick
Online communities have made their diagnoses their identity.
Is Internet Spoonie Culture Keeping People Sick?
While the FDA keeps experimental treatments out of reach, the spoonie world makes a diagnosis into an identity.
Texas Man Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Friends Who Helped His Ex-Wife Obtain an Abortion
"I know either way he will use it against me.... And after the fact, I know he will try to act like he has some right to the decision," said the woman in text messages to her friends named as defendants in the suit.
Short on Adderall? Blame DEA Production Caps
Each year, the DEA sets production limits for certain drugs, including some ingredients in common amphetamine pills like Adderall.
Yes, There Are Libertarians During Bank Runs
Plus: The editors recommend the best books for sparking interest in free market principles.
Five Women Sue Texas Over the State's Narrow Abortion Exception
The law allows abortions when there is a "medical emergency"—but what qualifies as an emergency?
The End of Obesity?
The advent of effective new weight loss drugs offers hope for millions of overweight people.
Ridiculous Spending on Museums May Be Here To Stay
Handouts for tourist-trap museums will be part of the federal funding battleground in the next two years.
Mask On, Mask Off: New York Trying Everything Except Not Telling People What To Do
Mayor Eric Adams frets that COVID-19 masks are making it too easy for shoplifters to evade facial recognition.
Massachusetts' Tobacco Ban Went as Badly as You'd Expect
And now the state thinks it needs to crack down even more.
Biden's Budget Will Raise Taxes Without Addressing the Federal Government's Spending Problem
Biden is set to propose a new tax on unrealized investment gains and to quadruple a recently imposed tax on stock buybacks.
Dr. Vinay Prasad: You're Right Not To Trust Public Health
The outspoken critic of the CDC and FDA explains what went wrong—and what went right—with COVID policy.
Studies Link Marijuana Legalization to All Sorts of Positive Public Health Outcomes
Plus: San Francisco claims to have "significantly disrupted" sex trafficking, a nationwide injunction on abortion pills, and more...
How the Media Got the Vinyl Chloride Risk All Wrong
The Ohio train accident was frightening enough. Spreading inaccurate information won’t help the citizens of East Palestine.
TikTok and How Congress Treats Americans Like 'Unruly Children'
Plus: The editors puzzle over Donald Trump’s latest list describing his vision for America.
TikTok Admits It's as Clueless on Teens as the Rest of Us
A new 60-minute screen time warning on TikTok won’t stop kids from scrolling.
Decades of Subsidies Have Made the Essentials of Middle-Class Life Increasingly Difficult To Afford
The basics of middle-class life are too expensive. But more subsidies won't help.
Be Skeptical of the New Artificial Sweetener Scare
Plus: Liberal teens are more depressed than conservative ones, the outsize role of immigrants in U.S. innovation, and more...
Dr. Vinay Prasad: Stop Trusting the Public Health Establishment
Join Reason on YouTube at 1 p.m. Eastern for a discussion of mRNA vaccines and America's public health establishment with UCSF's Vinay Prasad.
Global Disinformation Index, Inform Thyself
Time and time again, so-called disinformation watchdogs fail their own tests—the lab leak is just the latest example.
Prison Deaths Spiked by Almost 50 Percent During Early Months of COVID-19 Pandemic
Plus: ACLU urges Congress not to bank TikTok, a backdoor way to subsidize childcare, and more...
Where Do We Go To Get Our Mask Apology?
Plus: The editors reveal their favorite issues and articles from the Reason magazine catalog.
Need an Adderall Prescription? Good Luck Getting It Over Telehealth.
On Friday, the DEA unveiled a plan to restrict doctors' ability to prescribe controlled drugs over telehealth.
U.S. Energy Department Endorses Lab Leak Theory of COVID-19's Origins
The push to label the lab leak thesis a racist conspiracy theory now looks even more foolish.
State Lawmakers Help Farmers by Improving Consumer Access to Raw Milk
The raw milk restoration is underway.
Social Media Making Kids Depressed? Send Them Outside To Play
When society criminalizes outdoor independence, it makes smart phone addiction more likely.
More Immigration Leads to Better Nursing Home Care, Says New Paper
Immigrants have a proven ability to address a mounting need for the aging American population. Politicians crafting immigration policy ignore this at their own peril.
Paul Krugman Says Social Security Is Sustainable. It's Really Not.
Krugman sees benefit cuts as "a choice" but believes that implementing a massive tax increase on American employers and workers would be "of course" no big deal.
FTC Investigating, but Not Thwarting, Amazon Acquisition of One Medical
Since the Federal Trade Commission didn't sue in time, the deal went through. But will FTC Chair Lina Khan keep trying to attack Amazon for its bigness?
The Answer to Population Decline Is More Immigration
Politicians' go-to fixes like child tax credits and federal paid leave are known for creating disincentives to work without much impact on fertility.
Facebook Says Noting the CDC's Scientific Misrepresentations 'Could Mislead People'
The social media site slapped a warning on a column in which I criticized the CDC for exaggerating the evidence supporting mask mandates.
'Patient Zero' Is Not Hate Speech
Reason talks with the transgender historian who used the term to describe a revolutionary gender-affirming treatment for teens.
Reason Files FOIA Lawsuit Against Bureau of Prisons for Inmate Death Records
Reason reported in 2020 on allegations of fatal medical neglect inside two federal women's prisons. The Bureau of Prisons heavily redacted reports that would show if women died of inadequate care.
Social Security and Medicare Cuts Are Coming, Whether Politicians Do It or Not
As legislators refuse to act, benefits will be cut without any possibility of sheltering those seniors who are poor.
U.S. Will Add $18.8 Trillion in New Debt by 2033
Plus: Age verification for social media, a bill to ban cannabis "gatherings," and more...
We Need New Laws To Protect People in Pain
The CDC’s revised prescribing guidelines retain an anti-opioid bias and do nothing to reverse the harmful policies inspired by the 2016 version.
Under No Circumstances Did Joe Biden Save Social Security
Plus: a listener question on prohibition and a lightning round on the editors' favorite Super Bowl moments
Across the Globe, Government Health Care Systems Are Failing Us
By restricting private health care choices, the NHS and other beloved single-payer systems were doomed from the start.
The Fight To Criminalize Opioid Prescribing
Over 88 percent of opioid overdose deaths now involve either heroin or fentanyl. Targeting prescriptions is not an efficient way to address mortality.
The New York Times Warns That Freedom of Speech 'Threatens Public Health' and 'Democracy Itself'
The paper is unfazed by First Amendment objections to the Biden administration's crusade against "misinformation" on social media.
Biden's Drug Price Controls Will Kill More Patients in the Long Run
And increase total health care costs to boot.
Remembering the Great Pizza Funeral of 1973
Fifty years ago, dozens of people gathered in Ossineke, Michigan, for one of the strangest funerals in American history
The Fight Over the Debt Ceiling Is Just Beginning
Legislators will increasingly argue over how to spend a diminishing discretionary budget while overall spending simultaneously explodes.
