Tag: health care

The U.S. Disease Epidemic and MAHA

Despite the huge amount of appropriated funds and the strenuous efforts of many individuals working in healthcare, Americans have increasingly suffered from a range of acute and chronic conditions over recent decades. As an influential member of the Trump administration, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will have the opportunity to begin a reversal of this trend. He is developing plans to revamp the Federal agencies that regulate the medical and pharmaceutical industries.

Mr. Kennedy has presented incontrovertible data about the state of our health. He says the first step towards change is reforming policies and restoring compromised government oversight.   

It will take a concerted effort to convert a system that has allowed an array of degrading health conditions and an avalanche of human suffering. The statistics compiled by reliable scientific sources reveal details of this staggering crisis.

~ Six out of ten adults in America are living with a chronic illness. Seventy-four percent of American adults are overweight or obese. Rates of kidney disease and autoimmune conditions are going up. Cancer rates among young people are rising.

~ One-third of American teens are taking a prescription drug and nearly 30% are pre-diabetic. More than 18% of adolescents have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. In 2020, 77% of young adults didn’t qualify for the military based on their health scores, forcing the military to lower its standards.

~ Health problems of young Americans begin at an early age even as they receive vaccines to protect them from illness. The CDC currently recommends at least 70 doses of 18 different vaccines from infancy until age eighteen, yet children have never had more acute and chronic ailments. These vaccination protocols urgently need re-evaluation.

The increasing use of prescription drugs by all Americans presents a dire warning. However, due to the unprecedented influence of lobbyists, elected representatives have allowed the pharmaceutical industry rampant freedom to sell questionable products.

Washington has not solved the problem of the revolving doors between Big Pharma and government regulators. This is the primary reason federal agencies are paralyzed by corporate interests and remain negligent in their protective roles. 

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BlackRock Buys Blood-processing Facility, Pharmaceutical Lab as It Bets on Growing Profits in Healthcare

Global investment management firm BlackRock bought a blood-processing facility and a pharmaceutical lab in Australia as the first seed assets for its $1.5 billion Life Sciences investment platform, Financial Review reported.

The world’s largest asset manager partnered with Australian fund manager Wentworth Capital to make the purchase after the two firms determined that the life sciences real estate sector — including laboratories and research hubs — is a new asset class attractive to global investors and likely to be profitable.

Ben Hickey, head of Australian real estate for BlackRock, said the company thought that the sector is poised for long-term growth “driven by increased government and infrastructure spend[ing]” along with existing industry capabilities.

BlackRock launched the strategy after it surveyed European investors who invest in alternative asset strategies in September and found that a third of them were investing in life sciences real estate, the Financial Review reported.

Life sciences real estate, which refers to facilities built for medicine and healthcare, includes spaces for biotech, pharma and medical device companies. Examples include Merck’s recent expansion of its human papillomavirus or HPV vaccine production facility in Virginia, and Moderna’s new Innovation and Technology Centre for vaccine manufacture and mRNA research being constructed at an “unprecedented speed” near Oxford, England, in partnership with the U.K. government.

Hickey said Australia offered a high-growth low-risk market for the investment strategy and it was likely to see growth trends similar to what is happening in the European Union and the U.S., where rising industry demand is leading to the expansion of the life science and biomedical innovation hubs, according to the financial standard.

JLL, a different asset management company, forecasts in its 2024 report that worldwide pharma sales will be 80% higher by 2030 compared with 2023, driven largely by a doubling of revenue from “biologics.” Those include vaccines, gene therapies and monoclonal antibodies made from living cells that are altered through biotechnological methods. JLL predicts that growth will drive a recovery in the life sciences real estate market, which faltered in recent years.

However, as the number of biotech startups explodes, they are scrambling for new space, the report said, and demand for smaller life sciences spaces is already on the rise and should drive expansion of the market as a whole.

Anticipating this growth, BlackRock purchased two facilities owned by different investment funds previously managed by Charter Hall, an Australian property development and funds manager company, according to Financial Review.

The first is one of only four blood-processing facilities in Australia, operated by the Australian Red Cross Society under the name Lifeblood. BlackRock didn’t reveal what it paid for the 12,700-square-meter 24-hour facility in Alexandria, but Charter Hall paid $159 million for it in 2021.

The second is an 8,113-square-meter laboratory and office building in Macquarie Park currently rented by Israeli multinational Teva Pharmaceuticals, which is the world’s largest manufacturer of generic medicines. Charter Hall paid $53 million for the building in 2021.

BlackRock said it expects its new investments in life sciences to yield returns in line with its assets such as childcare facilities, which typically have a 4.5-5.5% rate of return.

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Healthcare Workers Reject COVID, Flu Shots Amid ‘Tremendous Erosion of Trust’ in Health Agencies

The number of healthcare workers receiving COVID-19 and flu vaccines declined during the 2023-24 cold and flu season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Only 15.3% of acute hospital workers and 10.5% of nursing home personnel received a COVID-19 vaccine during the 2023-24 season — down from 17.8% and 22.8% respectively, the CDC said in its Oct. 31 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Based on data from the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network, flu vaccine rates for the same healthcare worker groups were higher than COVID-19 vaccine rates — 80.7% for acute care hospital personnel and 45.4% for nursing home personnel.

However, the rates remained “persistently below the levels during the prepandemic period.” For example, the flu vaccine rate for hospital workers in 2019-20 was 91%.

The CDC figures also showed that nearly 1 in 100 healthcare workers reported “a medical contraindication” to receiving either the COVID-19 (0.71%) or flu (0.89%) vaccine. The CDC figures did not provide information on the rate of vaccine side effects reported by healthcare workers.

The CDC said more research is needed “to identify effective strategies to improve vaccination at a time when health care personnel are susceptible to low vaccine confidence.”

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Ralph Norman warns US is facing a saline shortage due to shipments to Ukraine and hurricane damage

Republican South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman on Monday warned that the United States was facing a saline shortage because shipments of the critical medical solution have gone to Ukraine.

Medical facilities around the United States are preparing for the shortage after a medical facility in North Carolina closed down because of flooding from the storm, and the shipments to Ukraine. The plant is operated by Baxter Healthcare Corp, which produces approximately 60% of the nation’s supply of IV solutions, according to The News & Observer.

Norman claimed the shortage and shipment of the products to Ukraine was an “assault on our way of life.”

“Just before I went on your show, I got a message from from a pharmaceutical group that saline is a severe shortage,” Norman said on the “Just The News, No Noise” television show. “Saline operations are going to be limited all over the country. Why? A lot of the medicine has been sent overseas, namely Ukraine, which we’re trying to get to the bottom of, but it’s an assault on our way of life. John and Amanda. It’s got to end with hopefully getting them out of office.”

Norman also warned of the shortage on a post to X, claiming that the shortage and destruction in North Carolina constitute a “national emergency that Biden-Harris needs to address immediately.”

“All money going to aid illegal immigrants needs to stop IMMEDIATELY. ESPECIALLY when this is happening in our own states,” he added to the post.

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These 12 Policies Need to Change If We Want True Health Freedom

As a requirement for discussing and appreciating the imperative of health freedom in the U.S., we must first define what is meant by health freedom.

A simple definition is the right of every American to decide what medical interventions to put into or onto one’s body, the right to access and use the medical and healing modalities of one’s choice, the right to maintain one’s health according to one’s conscience and the right to live free of involuntary medication be it via the food supply, the water supply or something airborne.

In a free and moral society, health freedom is not simply a convenience; it’s an imperative.

In this vein, in the event of injury or illness, all Americans must possess the absolute right to choose what medical interventions and treatments to accept and what medical or healing modalities to utilize in order to address illness or injury; Americans must be free to choose how to maintain their health whether that be through nutrition, supplements, herbs, drugs or a myriad of healing modalities; Americans must have access to truthful information regarding how the seeds for plants and animal feed and the food in our food supply has been grown or developed, medicated, processed and packaged; and Americans have the right to exist in a society free of water and airborne medications, insect vectors and chemicals.

Health freedom can only exist in a free and moral society that values each and every member of that society. This prerequisite thus excludes medical mandates of any kind. It is immoral to force another individual to risk their life for the theoretical benefit of another.

Moreover, the government does not have the moral authority or power to dictate what medical products any American puts into or on his or her body. If anyone in government does possess that power, then no American is truly free, nor does he or she possess any meaningful right whatsoever — Americans are merely chattel.

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Florida Migrants Receiving Full Medical Care – Gratis

While traveling in an Uber from Hallendale Beach to the Fort Lauderdale airport this week, I was fascinated by a series of phone conversations my driver had during the ride.

The man did not speak much English, but was fluent in Spanish.

I asked him where he was from – he said recently from Venezuela. He was listening to Spanish radio. He was young, late twenties, and in shape, very dark skinned, in good health.

The phone attached to ‘hands free’ mode rang in the car and the man answered. On the other end of the line, was what I would call an adult female, white, and highly educated. She was acting very ‘compassionate’, and you could tell she believed she was virtuous and ‘doing the right thing’.

She obviously worked for some progressive NGO and had been doing what she was doing for this NGO for some time – she seemed ‘experienced’.

She was calling to confirm the man for an appointment in south Florida for magnetic resonance imaging, otherwise known as an MRI.

This is an expensive medical procedure to scan a portion of a body and obtain internal images, to look for medical problems.

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Detransitioners Booted From American Academy of Pediatrics Conference

A conference hosted by the largest professional association of pediatricians in the United States kicked out a group of detransitioners who sought to share their perspectives with doctors, The Daily Wire has learned.

Detransitioners are individuals who attempted the impossible — to change their gender through hormonal or surgical transgender interventions — before stopping treatments and living as their biological sex. They are largely ignored in the mainstream media and dismissed by medical organizations. But many detransitioned individuals have taken their stories to social media and grown large followings as they spread awareness about the dangers of so-called “gender-affirming care.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics voted in 2023 to reaffirm its 2018 policy statement promoting so-called “gender-affirming care” and authorizing the development of guidance for pediatricians based on a “systematic review of the evidence.” AAP CEO Mark Del Monte promised at the time that AAP will continue to “ensure young people get the reproductive and gender-affirming care they need and are seen, heard and valued as they are.”

Members of the Alliance for Mental Health, a coalition of groups advocating for mental health over medical treatments for gender confusion, attended the American Academy of Pediatrics conference this weekend in Orlando, Florida. Detransitioners Chloe Cole, Abel Garcia, Soren Aldaco, and Nicholas Flowers were present, along with activists Erin Friday and January Littlejohn.

The group spent over $25,000 on a booth where they could easily access attendees, Friday shared with The Daily Wire. Their goal was to communicate with the doctors who were traveling from around the world to attend the conference. And they were successful, Garcia told The Daily Wire, until they were booted from the conference on Monday morning, their third day at the conference.

Video footage shared with The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh shows a security guard claiming that one of the individuals had violated “the code of contact last year.” The guard tells them they need to “leave the event immediately” and return their name badges, giving them about five minutes to disassemble their booth.

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Dead Last: Americans Pay the Most for Worst Health Outcomes, Study Finds

The U.S. healthcare system ranks last among 10 advanced economies, according to a report released today by the Commonwealth Fund.

“Mirror, Mirror 2024: A Portrait of the Failing U.S. Health System,” the eighth such study the Commonwealth Fund has published since 2004, studied five areas of healthcare system performance: access to healthcare, the care process, administrative efficiency, equity and health outcomes.

According to the report, “The U.S. continues to be in a class by itself in the underperformance of its health care sector.”

The other countries studied include Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The report stated:

“The nine nations we examined are more alike than different with respect to their higher and lower performance in various domains. But there is one glaring exception — the U.S. …

“The ability to keep people healthy is a critical indicator of a nation’ capacity to achieve equitable growth. In fulfilling this fundamental obligation, the U.S. continues to fail.”

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Could Psychedelics Transform How Doctors Treat Chronic Pain?

Doctors across the country are beginning to look beyond their prescription pads to explore new treatments for chronic pain management: psychedelics. 

As clinical research mounts, patient stories become more frequent, and a desperate call for new solutions to help people find relief for chronic pain becomes louder, substances like psilocybin and MDMA are entering medical education as promising new treatments.

Healthcare professionals are listening and learning how psychedelics could become part of their practices, offering new hope to patients for whom traditional methods – like opioids and nerve blocks – often fall short. 

Recently at the annual PAINWeek conference, more than 1,400 pain management professionals gathered to learn about advances in the field. Psychedelics took center stage: the 2024 event marked the first time psychedelic medicines had a dedicated track on the agenda.

Retired FDNY firefighter Joe McKay and advocate Court Wing shared their experiences with using psychedelics to combat their chronic pain conditions.

Presentations in the psychedelic track were delivered by patients, healthcare professionals, including Dr. Eugene Vortsman, licensed clinical social worker Erica Siegal, and attorney Deborah Linden Saly, who are each engaged in research, advocacy, or clinical practice with substances like psilocybin, MDMA, LSD, and DMT.

A growing body of evidence shows people living with conditions including chronic low back pain, migraine, cluster headaches, fibromyalgia, traumatic brain injuries, and phantom limb pain often find that existing treatments are either ineffective or come with troubling or dangerous side effects.

The presence and fervor around psychedelics at the conference is the latest example of a growing focus by the medical community on psychedelics as a new and promising treatment for a wide range of chronic pain and physical conditions.

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Nationwide Legalization Of Medical Marijuana Could Save $29 Billion In Annual Health Insurance Costs, Study Finds

New research by the medical cannabis company Leafwell suggests that state-level medical marijuana legalization may significantly reduce health insurance costs. In states with legal medical cannabis, companies paid 3.4 percent less for health insurance premiums compared to where marijuana remained illegal—a savings of about $238 per employee per year.

If all states were to implement medical cannabis programs, the study says, the country could save an estimated $29 billion in health insurance costs annually.

“This report strengthens the case that investing in cannabis care isn’t just beneficial to patient care, it’s also good for business efficiency,” Leafwell Chief Medical Officer June Chin said in a statement about the new findings. “By including cannabis in insurance plans, employers can foster a more inclusive and supportive work environment, enhance employee satisfaction, and ultimately contribute to a healthier, more resilient workforce.”

The study, published this month in the journal Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, looked at data from an annual surveys of employers, analyzing a period from 2003 to 2022.

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