‘Tech Is Not Good Or Bad, But Neither Is It Neutral’: What We Heard This Week

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MedPage Today published a roundup of remarks its reporters heard during the week, spanning AI in health care, flu vaccination access and findings across several medical fields. The quotes capture the speakers’ perspectives; the roundup itself does not provide the underlying study details or independently establish the claims discussed.

MedPage Today published its October 18 weekly roundup of comments heard by its reporters, featuring views on artificial intelligence in health care, access to a new mRNA flu shot and research on several clinical topics. The collection is a snapshot of what experts said during the week, not a standalone report detailing or validating each study mentioned.

The roundup opens with Mishal Khan, PhD, of the UC Berkeley Labor Center, reflecting on AI in health care: “Tech is not good or bad, but neither is it neutral.” The brief item does not provide further detail on the particular AI system or use case behind the comment. Her statement frames technology as something whose effects depend on how it is developed and used, rather than as inherently beneficial or harmful.

Other remarks address practical access and clinical evidence. Amesh Adalja, MD, of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said people seeking the new mRNA flu shot, mFlusiva, would need to use its website or call around. The roundup also quotes researchers and clinicians discussing pregnancy and benzodiazepines, pulmonary vascular resistance after heart transplantation, cancer risk among people with sickle cell disease, HIV treatment, and pediatric obesity screening.

The remaining comments include Kelly Killeen, MD, criticizing the plastic surgery depicted in the early-2000s television show “The Swan”; Krista Huybrechts, MS, PhD, describing findings on early-pregnancy benzodiazepine use and congenital malformations as reassuring while cautioning that the drugs are not risk-free; and Ahmed Zayed, MBBCh, arguing that pulmonary vascular resistance should not be interpreted in isolation. The roundup gives short attributions and topics, rather than full interviews or study summaries.

Expert Views Span Care and Research

The collection brings together issues that affect both medical decisions and how health care is delivered. AI’s role in care and the access route for mFlusiva raise questions about how tools and services reach patients, while the research-related remarks underline the need to interpret evidence carefully. The roundup does not answer those questions, but records how named experts characterized them.

Several quotes explicitly resist overstatement. Huybrechts called the pregnancy findings reassuring but said benzodiazepines are not risk-free. Zayed said pulmonary vascular resistance should not be discarded, but should not be read alone. On cancer risk in sickle cell disease, Vijay Sankaran, MD, PhD, said the burden of proof remains. These qualifications matter because brief summaries of medical research can lose important limits if uncertainty is left out.

The comments also point to patient differences that may be obscured by simple measures. Ligang Liu, PharmD, MPH, said two adolescents with similar body mass index can have very different health profiles. That observation, as presented in the roundup, supports a broader discussion of screening, but does not supply a specific screening recommendation or evidence threshold.

A Weekly Collection of Comments

MedPage Today describes the item as a collection of quotable remarks heard by its reporters. The supplied report is dated October 18, 2026, and gives each speaker’s name, credentials, affiliation and a short description of the subject discussed. Its format differs from a single study report: it places comments on unrelated areas of medicine together without presenting the methods or full results behind each research reference.

The subjects range from health technology and vaccination access to surgical television portrayals and clinical research. Fiona Cresswell, MBChB, PhD, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Uganda Research Unit, said advanced HIV disease is mostly a problem of disengagement rather than late diagnosis, in a discussion of long-acting therapy for people with HIV. The brief entry does not explain the research design or define how disengagement was measured.

““Tech is not good or bad, but neither is it neutral.””

— Mishal Khan, PhD, UC Berkeley Labor Center

Study Details Are Not Included

The roundup does not identify the specific AI applications behind Khan’s comment, provide a link or instructions for the mFlusiva website, or state where the shot is available. It also omits the titles, authors, sample sizes, methods and full results of the studies referenced in the quotes. The underlying evidence cannot be assessed from the roundup alone.

Some remarks summarize or interpret research rather than state a complete finding. The item does not provide the data behind comments on pregnancy, transplantation, sickle cell disease, HIV or obesity screening. It is also unclear what follow-up, if any, speakers or researchers plan to provide. Readers should not treat these excerpts as clinical guidance or as substitutes for the full studies.

Full Research Provides the Next Step

The next step for readers seeking to evaluate the medical claims is to consult the original studies and fuller reporting behind each topic. The supplied roundup does not announce a follow-up article, publication date or new policy action. It also does not say whether MedPage Today will provide more information about access to mFlusiva.

For now, the confirmed development is the publication of a weekly set of attributed comments. Further conclusions about the research, the availability of the flu shot or the effects of AI in health care would require details beyond those provided in the roundup.

Key Questions

What did MedPage Today publish?

It published a weekly collection of quotes heard by its reporters, dated October 18, 2026, covering technology, access to a flu shot and several medical research topics.

What did Mishal Khan say about AI in health care?

Khan said, “Tech is not good or bad, but neither is it neutral.” The roundup attributes the remark to a discussion of artificial intelligence in health care, without naming a specific system or use case.

What information does the roundup give about mFlusiva?

Adalja said people seeking the new mRNA flu shot would need to use its website or call around. The item does not provide additional details about supply, eligibility or locations.

Does the article include the studies behind the quotes?

No. It briefly describes research topics but does not provide study methods, full results or citations in the supplied material. The excerpts alone are not enough to assess the evidence.

Source: rss