Alicia Mundy

Alicia Mundy was a New America Foundation fellow from 2003 through 2006, during which time she worked on a variety of media projects involving the pharmaceutical industry and the shortcomings of the current regulatory process.

Key articles published by Mundy during her fellowship can be found below.

The phone rang shortly after 6 a.m. on Feb. 13, 2002, at Superior Judge Ernest B. Murphy's home in Dover, Mass., southwest of Boston. His wife, Mary Keenan, answered. "Have you turned on the news this morning?" a friend asked her. "Do you know what's in the Herald?"

The friend told her that a large photo of her husband was on the front page of the Boston Herald under the headline "Murphy's law: Lenient judge frees dangerous criminals." The story… more

WASHINGTON -- In devastating testimony before a Senate panel yesterday, a whistle-blower at the Food and Drug Administration shocked a packed hearing room when he listed five drugs now on the market that he thinks are dangerous and accused the agency of stifling its own scientists who raise safety questions.

Dr. David Graham, an FDA drug-safety official, said the agency and drug giant Merck, didn't move fast enough to take the painkiller Vioxx off the market.

He said that because… more

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In an apparent affirmation of church tradition, Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane yesterday was elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at its annual fall meeting.

The election came just five days after Skylstad announced his diocese would file for bankruptcy within the month, and amid clamor by critics in Spokane that Skylstad should not be elected president because he had failed in the past to deal firmly with complaints about sexually abusive clergy.

Skylstad,… more

Tort reformers complain about "frivolous" lawsuits. But at a time when government has stopped protecting citizens, trial lawyers have become the regulators of last resort.

On July 5, John Edwards slipped into a high-rise at One Boston Place to greet some of his and John Kerry's top contributors among plaintiffs' attorneys. At the offices of Robinson & Cole, Edwards shook hands with Alex MacDonald, a partner there who had helped raise $600,000 for the campaign. Much of the crowd… more

The iconic cartoon of this presidential race may have been one from the Newark Star-Ledger, showing Vice President Cheney cuddling a drooling baby golden retriever with a loopy look on its face. Cheney's stern visage stared out, with the warning: "If you make the wrong choice in November, terrorists will attack this puppy."

That's been the war cry for the Bush reelection team. Bush-Cheney campaign squads portray Kerry as "weak on terrorism," and "Al-Qaeda's candidate."

But do Americans really believe that terrorists… more

The Association of Trial Lawyers of America has just lost New York senator Charles Schumer. It wanted his vote to block a major new tort reform bill. But the Democrat Schumer's gone and he does not want to be found. Not by ATLA and not by the media, whose calls he and his staff have avoided since he switched sides.

The Class Action Fairness bill, which Schumer long opposed and now supports, would move almost all class action suits, such… more

As medication becomes a way of life for more and more Americans, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been remodeled to fit the times. Of the 296 drugs the FDA has approved in the last decade, most have been lifestyle drugs, or copycats of already existing medicines, or both. There have been multiple obesity treatments, allergy medicines, hair-loss cures, impotence pills, and drugs for the newest "disease," irritable bowel syndrome. Despite offering consumers few additional health… more

Will a man who cheats on his wife cheat on the public? Virginia voters faced that question a decade ago after enduring a stream of reports about then Senator Chuck Robb's embarrassing extramarital exploits. Old Dominion residents clamored about being appalled at Robb's behavior. Come November 1994, however, Robb won reelection, edging out Oliver North. Conservative Virginia voters, it was said, intoned, "Robb is one of ours."

Pollster John Zogby pinpointed a similar paradox. He had fielded a survey… more

Tracy Patton had just arrived at a community theater rehearsal in August 2000 when she felt such a searing explosion in the back of her head that it knocked her to her knees.

At the hospital in Louisville, Ky., doctors said Patton, then 37, had suffered a catastrophic stroke, and they predicted she wouldn't survive the night.

Patton defied the odds. But nearly four years later, she is so overwhelmed by simple tasks that she must post a… more