Tag: healthcare

Biden Admin Proposes New Rules That Would Make It Harder for Americans To Get Certain Medications

Telehealth’s days are numbered as the COVID-19 pandemic wanes, at least for powerful painkillers and medications prescribed to treat ADHD.

Changes to pandemic era telehealth guidelines have been proposed by the Drug Enforcement Administration. The proposal would require at least one physical visit to a doctor before patients could be prescribed opioids like OxyContin or Vicodin.

The rule change limiting telehealth prescriptions would also apply to attention deficit treatment drugs like Adderall and Ritalin.

The New York Post further reported:

The Biden administration moved Friday to require patients see a doctor in person before getting attention deficit disorder medication or addictive painkillers, toughening access to the drugs against the backdrop of a deepening opioid crisis.

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A Primer on Medical Gaslighting

One of the classic ways an abuser controls their prey is to manipulate the environment so that the abused individual begins doubting their own observations regardless of what is occurring in front of them.

In the 1944 movie, Gaslight, this was accomplished by the villainous husband (played by Charles Boyer) adjusting the intake to gas-powered lights (causing them to flicker) and simultaneously denying that any change was occurring to his mentally abused wife (played by Ingrid Bergman). The term gaslighting originated from this classic movie.

In modern times, this is accomplished by having medical providers all echo the same message that a patient’s injury has nothing to do with the pharmaceutical (or other medical procedure in question). Most commonly, it instead is argued that the symptoms they are experiencing are due to pre-existing psychiatric issues the patient has (e.g., anxiety), which are treated with medications that often create additional issues.

Before we go any further, I want to emphasize just how miserable this is to go through as an injured patient. Imagine what it would be like if (due to the medical injury) the world you had previously known collapsed around you and every single person you trusted (including your friends and family who defer to the judgment of “experts”) told you that it was all in your head and you just needed psychiatric help. It’s a perfect recipe for going insane.

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The sick reality: Drugs advertised most on TV have LEAST health benefits, according to analysis of $6bn-a-year industry

The drugs that are advertised most on TV are also the least effective, according to a major analysis.

Johns Hopkins University researchers found that spending on promoting prescription drugs rose from $1.3 billion in 1996 to $6 billion in 2016. Ninety-two of 135 drugs included in the study, or nearly 70 percent, were deemed to have little health benefits. 

Dr Michael DiStefano, the lead author of the study, said: ‘The findings suggest that shifting promotional dollars to direct-to-consumer advertising potentially reflects a strategy to drive patient demand for drugs that clinicians would be less likely to prescribe.’

‘When a consumer sees these advertisements on TV or social media, they should really question if it’s the best drug for them and have a conversation with their provider.’

The findings come amid lingering ethical questions regarding TV drug advertising and come just weeks after a Harvard study found a similar discrepancy between the amount spent on medical adverts and the benefit the medicines provide to patients.

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Doctors in USA admit they killed Patients during the Pandemic by putting them on Ventilators

In a jaw-dropping article published by The Wall Street Journal – ‘Hospitals Retreat From Early Covid Treatment and Return to Basics’ – physicians admit to ventilating patients who did not need it as a step in their protocol – get this – not as a treatment that was likely to benefit the patient, but rather as a fruitless and callous way of attempting to stop the spread of covid-19.

Last spring, with less known about the disease, doctors often pre-emptively put patients on ventilators or gave powerful sedatives largely abandoned in recent years. The aim was to save the seriously ill and protect hospital staff from Covid-19.

Now hospital treatment for the most critically ill looks more like it did before the pandemic. Doctors hold off longer before placing patients on ventilators. Patients get less powerful sedatives, with doctors checking more frequently to see if they can halt the drugs entirely and dialling back how much air ventilators push into patients’ lungs with each breath.

“We were intubating sick patients very early. Not for the patient’s benefit, but to control the epidemic and to save other patients,” Dr. Iwashyna said “That felt awful.”

Yes, euthanising humans is illegal. Especially for the benefit of other patients. It should feel awful.

Last spring, doctors put patients on ventilators partly to limit contagion at a time when it was less clear how the virus spread when protective masks and gowns were in short supply. Doctors could have employed other kinds of breathing support devices that don’t require risky sedation, but early reports suggested patients using them could spray dangerous amounts of virus into the air, said Theodore Iwashyna, a critical-care physician at University of Michigan and Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Subsequent research found the alternative devices to ventilators, such as delivering oxygen through nasal tubes, weren’t as risky to caretakers as believed. Doctors also gained experience with covid-19 patients, learning to spot signs of who might suddenly turn seriously ill, some said.

The WSJ article describes a study conducted that now allows doctors to predict who needs a ventilator and who does not:

It found more doctors now follow the pre-pandemic protocols, which have reduced the number of deaths and shortened the time patients spend on ventilators, HCA’s chief medical officer said.

Before the pandemic, between about 30% to more than 40% of ventilator patients died, according to research. Numbers were sharply higher in the pandemic’s early hot spot in Wuhan, China. As the pandemic grew, hospitals in the US reported death rates in some cases of about 50% for ventilated covid-19 patients.

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Woke Lancet Announces ‘Medical Urgency’ of Climate Change

The once-venerable UK Lancet medical journal is charging ahead in its climate change crusade, proclaiming “the ethical and medical urgency of the climate crisis” in its latest issue.

After calling climate change the “biggest global health threat of the 21st century” earlier this month, the Lancet has now praised “health-care professionals participating in Extinction Rebellion action [who] blocked the entrance to the UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to protest about impotent responses to climate change.”

In a woke mea culpa confessing that health care is “part of the climate problem,” the Lancet notes that in 2014 “the global health-care industry emitted 2 gigatons of carbon dioxide (CO2), or 4.4% of the world’s total.”

“Visible examples include operating rooms overflowing with trash generated by disposable sterile supplies and surgical equipment, parking areas filled with private transportation reliant on fossil fuels, and constant energy flow to digital monitors and other technologies,” the journal acknowledges.

Moreover, the Lancet continues, “pharmaceuticals — many of which are produced from fossil fuels — are the second most carbon intensive part of health care, after medical instruments and equipment.”

To be more environmentally responsible, physicians can reconsider the carbon impact of some routine prescribing practices, the journal advises.

For example, doctors should consider refusing to participate in the distribution of free drug samples and in this way “help reduce medication overuse and reduce the carbon impact when samples go unused.”

Physicians could also avoid starting patients on 30-day medication supplies by starting with just a 1-week supply, “even at the cost of some convenience to the doctor and patient,” the Lancet counsels.

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To gain total medical control the New Zealand Government is waging war against the use of Natural Health Products

Just before Christmas our Government introduced the Therapeutic Products Bill for its first reading. Public consultation is being rushed through the summer holidays here in the southern hemisphere and closes on 15 February. The Bill contains 423 pages of dense provisions with countless cross references. I am not sure whether any Members of Parliament actually read it before voting for its acceptance or whether the public could stand to do so. You can view my video summary of its draconian provisions below.

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ARPA-H: The Nosy Love Child of DARPA and the NIH

On March 15, 2022, President Biden signed a law allowing for the creation and funding of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The agency received $1 billion for fiscal year 2022.

ARPA-H’s stated mission is  to“accelerate better health outcomes for everyone by supporting the development of high-impact solutions to society’s most challenging health problems.”  So, the federal government is tossing another billion into the black hole that is the American health care system.  Okay.

We’re already spending a fortune on healthcare.

Let’s think about this for a minute.  The U.S. already spends far more per capita than any other nation in the world.  We spend an average of $11,495 per person, per year.  Most other First World countries hover between $5000 and $6000.  (source)

Health care in the U.S. represented 17.7% of the economy as of 2018, and has been projected to increase to 19.7% in 2028.  That means that more than 1 in 6 dollars spent in the U.S. is being spent on healthcare.

So, is this paying off?  Are Americans the healthiest people in the world?

No.  We’re sick and have been getting sicker.  Our life expectancy dropped again last year, to 76.4 years, which is the lowest since the 1990s.  Meanwhile people in dozens of other countries can expect to live into their 80s on average, American life expectancy just continues to drop. I don’t think we’re getting what we pay for.

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Scientists Develop Gelatinous Robots to Crawl Through Human Body to Deliver Medical Payloads or Diagnose Illnesses

Scientists have developed miniature gelatinous robots that can crawl through the human body to deliver medicine or diagnose illnesses.

The “gelbot” is powered by little more than temperature changes, and its innovative design, which resembles an inchworm, is one of the most promising concepts in the field of soft robotics, according to Jill Rosen of John Hopkins University.

“It seems very simplistic, but this is an object moving without batteries, without wiring, without an external power supply of any kind—just on the swelling and shrinking of gel,” said David Gracias, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Johns Hopkins University and a senior project leader.

“Our study shows how the manipulation of shape, dimensions, and patterning of gels can tune morphology to embody a kind of intelligence for locomotion.”

The 3D-printed robot, which is made out of gelatin, is intended to replace pills or intravenous injections, which could cause problematic side effects.

The prototype was announced in the journal Science Robotics, on Dec. 14.

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Quebec Approves Magic Mushrooms Under Public Health Coverage

Quebec, Canada last week approved the used of psilocybin – the primary psychoactive in “magic mushrooms,” as a valid therapy under the state’s medical system.

Advocates hope the move will set a precedent for other Canadian provinces to take similar action, Forbes reports.

“This decision is a huge step forward for the use of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy as a legitimate medical treatment,” wrote TheraPsil, a nonprofit group that advocates for the advancement of psilocybin therapies, in a Dec. 15 statement. “It not only provides greater access to this potentially life-changing treatment for patients in Quebec, but it also sets a precedent for other provinces to follow suit.”

Clinical research and other studies into psychedelics such as psilocybin have shown that the drugs have potential therapeutic benefits, particularly for serious mental health conditions such as depression, addiction and anxiety. Research published in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Psychiatry in 2020 found that psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy was an effective and quick-acting treatment for a group of 24 participants with major depressive disorder. A separate study published in 2016 determined that psilocybin treatment produced substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer. -Forbes

As we noted in April, psychedelic mushrooms are becoming increasingly popular in the US as a possible treatment for psychiatric disorders, with their main active ingredient, psilocybin, moving from the fringes of medicine, to become increasingly mainstream. It appears that Canada, however, is actually making moves to bring the benefits to actual patients.

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Governments are NOT the “One Source of Truth” – Public Debates challenging Policies and Narratives are essential

The New York Times is a respected broadsheet newspaper. It maintains a staunchly pro-vaccine stance. On Nov 26 2022 it published a catch-up article ‘Happy Birthday, Omicron’ (since the variant is now one year old). The article is written by their well-known science correspondent Carl Zimmer, author of 14 books.

Zimmer interviews numerous researchers working in the field who point out that there has been an evolutionary explosion of Omicron variants. Hundreds are now circulating which according to virologist Dr. Jesse Bloom “is making it more challenging for scientists to plan new vaccines and treatments.”

This was not unexpected. Even before the pandemic it was well known that vaccines which fail to prevent transmission drive variant mutation towards the development of strains resistant to vaccines. See this 2015 paper in Plos Biology for example: ‘Imperfect Vaccination Can Enhance the Transmission of Highly Virulent Pathogens’.

The NYT article reports: “In February, Theodora Hatziioannou, a virologist at Rockefeller University in New York, and her colleagues ran an experiment that suggested Omicron was primed for an evolutionary explosion. Dr. Hatziioannou’s team tested Omicron against 40 different antibodies that could still block the variant. They discovered that it was remarkably easy for a few extra mutations to make it resistant to almost all of those antibodies.”

The net result is that even the latest versions of Covid vaccines and treatments are easily evaded by a growing number of variants: “The new mutations are building up quickly, most likely because they are providing the viruses with a big evolutionary edge” the NYT article reported. “The [viral] evolution that’s happening is the fastest rate it has been up to this point,” Sergei Pond, a virologist at Temple University in Philadelphia, said.

The outcome is something you are probably already aware of through personal experience or through that of your friends. Covid vaccines are not working. Researchers are trying to develop new approaches, but I think you can see that the rate of mutation and adaptation of the Covid-19 virus is likely to outstrip these efforts, as is the case for example with other coronaviruses such as the common cold and the flu. Fortunately, Omicron variants are at this stage still relatively mild, but their future trajectory remains uncertain which is concerning.

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