Matt Bivens is in a unique position to see both ends of the construction of medical misconceptions. He entered the workforce as a journalist. We were co-workers at the Moscow Times, where he covered war in Chechnya and rose to become the paper’s editor-in-chief, publishing a major expose about irregularities in Vladimir Putin’s 2000 presidential election. After leaving Russia, he quit reporting to become a doctor, becoming director of emergency medicine at St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Both his clinical work and ideas for simple, cost-effective reforms in emergency treatment led the Standard-Times to name him Man of the Year in 2017.

Matt’s a close friend, but no one I know has a better eye for spotting gaps between reality and hype in medicine, as he can see issues from the journalism side and the medicine side. He has a particular worry with Paxlovid, which he’s written about multiple times on his site The 100 Days. The most recent article, “The Bad Taste of Paxlovid,” focuses on the scattershot evidence for the drug’s effectiveness and Pfizer’s opportunistic profiteering. Pfizer pulled in an incredible $18 billion from the federal government — more than we’d ever spent for any pill in one year — and when the feds stopped buying it, raised the price for a course from $530 to $1,390.

“What we don’t know — still — is whether this is even a useful medication,” he wrote. “Frankly, it’s starting to feel like a long con.”