“Arrogance may not be a uniquely American trait, but I must say, you do it better than anyone.” This could be a line delivered by Ursula von der Leyen, a German politician and president of the European Commission, to her American counterparts when she delayed plans for retaliatory tariffs after President Trump’s abrupt decision to pause his trade war. Instead, it was another German who said this to Captain America in the Marvel movie Captain America: The First Avenger. I explain how we seem to be in that movie right now, complete with special effects made possible by biotech advancements and government players, in the One Thoughtful Paragraph.
This week’s news highlights involve other computer-generated special effects:
- Last week, the U.S. Senate confirmed Dr. Mehmet Oz as CMS Administrator. During his first all-staff meeting, Dr. Oz promoted the use of AI agents in clinical visits with patients.
- Last week, the White House Office of Management and Budget released two memos about how federal agencies should use and purchase AI. The memo on accelerating federal use of AI directs agencies to identify a Chief AI Officer and invest in U.S.-developed tools. The memo on efficient acquisitions of AI sets a 200-day deadline for the creation of an online repository of AI procurement tools.
- Healthcare IT News unpacks how the HHS layoffs of internal IT departments will impact federal health programs.
“The insanity of the plan is of no consequence.” This may be what people are saying about the on-again-off-again tariff whiplash, but it is also a line from the villain scientist character employed by the evil HYDRA program in the first Captain America movie. He was hired to build an army of super-soldiers, which is what a new report from the National Commission for Emerging Biotechnology suspects China is doing. For those of us that paid less attention in science class, biotechnology isn’t just about studying living organisms – it’s about using them to design new things like plants that can survive any season, targeted cancer treatments, and genetically enhanced soldiers. Captain America, for instance, was injected with a serum that made him a super-duper soldier (and very, very good-looking). This week, the National Commission for Emerging Biotechnology released its final report on how the U.S. should create a simple pathway for drug approvals and defend against national security risks, because it thinks China is making very good-looking soldiers and other sophisticated biotech for warfare purposes (this is my interpretation and slight paraphrase). Specifically, the Commission proposed $15B in funding to accelerate U.S. biotech innovation and slow China’s roll in this arena. This makes President Biden’s 2022 suggestion to put $2 billion into the Department of Defense and HHS’ strengthening of our homegrown biotech-related medical breakthroughs look like child’s play. It is like in the movie, when a great scientist experimenting with a new substance says (right before an explosion): “Seems harmless enough. Hard to see what all the fuss is about.”
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