1.  To talk to a runfluencer in yoga pants…

…who posts daily vids extolling the latest fad workout, offer a reminder that GLP-1s are just getting started:

Competition could drive down the costs of treatment, as first-generation drugs, or those that offer slightly poorer top-line results, command lower prices. Some government-funded health systems are likely to make population-scale deals in the coming years, which could broaden access. And as the patent for semaglutide expires in many markets (but not America and Europe) in 2026, generic manufacturers will be able to make cheap copies and expand availability in countries such as Brazil, China and India.

2. To talk to someone sneezing on the hors d’oeuvres…

…who hasn’t yet been vaccinated for the flu, remind them about bus schedules:

The forecasters I talked to raised one other point of uncertainty: does the flu work more like a dice roll, or like a bus? Dice rolls are uncorrelated with their predecessors; even if it’s been a hundred rolls since you last rolled a 6, your chance this time is still 1/6. But buses come at fixed intervals; if the buses are hourly, and you haven’t seen a bus in the past 59 minutes, then your chance of seeing a bus in the next minute is very high. It’s been 16 years since the last flu pandemic; these pandemics come (on average) every 20 years. I don’t think anyone has a good sense of how to think about this.

3. To talk to your niece just back from the Peace Corps…

…who’s teary-eyed about the future of global public health, share what Ntobeko Ntusi, President and CEO of the South African Medical Research Council, had to say after USAID was cut:

Countries in the global south must identify their own priorities and define, fund and implement them — and not be reactionary to the politics of the global north. If African nations, for example, had stepped up and taken ownership of HIV treatment in the region, a rollback of PEPFAR would have limited impact. If Africa had a regional vaccine-manufacturing system, the continent would not have been left behind during the COVID-19 or mpox crises.

4. To talk to an American threatening to move to Europe…

…who sees nothing but greener grass across the Atlantic, share the op-ed written by the CEOs of Novartis and Sanofi, lamenting Europe’s biopharmaceutical marketplace:

European price controls and austerity measures reduce the attractiveness of its markets. Launch prices are suppressed, patented medicines’ growth capped, and prices reduced when new applications are found. The US and China are finding ways to incentivise innovation, while Europe is penalising it. Recent data shows that over 30 per cent of medicines approved in the US were not available in Europe after two years. Over time it is inevitable that clinical trials and R&D will further shift to the US and China.

5. To talk to tech-skeptic grandparents…

…who pine for the olden days of house-calls and black doctor bags, talk about how some seniors are embracing AI:

From Rest of World, where Viola Zhou discusses her mother: She has told me that whenever she steps into her nephrologist’s office, she feels like a schoolgirl waiting to be scolded. She fears annoying the doctor with her questions. She also suspects that the doctor values the number of patients and earnings from prescriptions over her well-being.

But in the office of Dr. DeepSeek, she is at ease.

“DeepSeek makes me feel like an equal,” she said. “I get to lead the conversation and ask whatever I want. It lets me get to the bottom of everything.