#pharmaceutical industrial complex

[hourback]

Anthony Fauci is directly responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic that ruined my life, as well as many others.

https://hourback.notion.site/So-basically-Anthony-Fauci-created-the-COVID-19-pandemic-4b89a1afda534efaa8ad9d0da0e70663

[battleangel]

Ghost In The Capitalist Machine

The West, in service of capitalism and the medical and pharmaceutical industrial complexes, purposely severs the mind-body connection.

Just like corporate silos teams, departments and functions from one another within individual companies so that noone is ever really communicating and truly collaborating with one another, the West purposely silos your mind, body, heart, soul and spirit from one another so that nothing is truly holistically integrative and aligned.

This sets it up for it to be very difficult for you to ever experience your ego death, discover the true self, self-awaken, self-actualize, self-ascend, align and activate all seven chakras, open your third eye, experience a kundalini awakening, activate your pineal gland, receive esoteric downloads from the Akashic library and realize that what we call "reality" is actually a 3D three dimensional virtual reality videogame simulation of the actual real reality, which is the 10D ten dimensional dreamscape which we all travel to every night when we "fall" asleep and "dream", rapid eye movement "REM sleep" and "dreaming" is nothing but you shifting your consciousness via modulating your brainwaves and entering a meditative state that allows you to temporarily shift yourself back to the dreamscape from which you originated.

The 10D ten dimensional dreamscape is every possibility at one time, its the Big Bang, its traveling at light speed, its lush, its lurid, its visceral, its a kaleidoscopic explosion, its a constellation of lights, its walking through walls and walking on water, its falling endlessly through the sky without dying, its limitless, endless, eternal -- its your imagination.

Intrinsically, this just makes sense. We all know our mind and our imagination is the one thing that has no limits, no limitations, cant be controlled. We can think of anything we want. Thats all the dreamscape is.

We all originated from a kemetic explosion of source energy and love that created all of us at an infinity inflection point that, at the moment it happened, shot eternally into the past and into the future and in that one moment all living beings, aliens, humans, angels, creatures, unicorns, mermaids, sirens, vampires, werewolves, universes, star systems, galaxies, planets, nebulas, black holes, wormholes, suns, moons, stars, comets, asteroids, event horizons and supernovas were created in that one instant shot out eternally over all of time.

Our time in "reality" -- where I am typing this and you are reading this -- is very short-lived versus the eternity in which we have all existed in the dreamscape.

"Reality" is just a very temporary manifestation of our eternal energetic limtless selves as physical human beings and we are simply here to rediscover our true eternal selves by awakening, ascending, and self actualizing to our 3rd eye open selves after killing our own egos.

You have to kill your ego.

You have the ability to heal yourself from 90%+ of the physical and mental maladies and dis-eases.

But then that doesnt make Sudafed, Robitussin, Dimetapp, Vicks, Mucinex and Halls any money.

So, they suppress and sabotage your natural ability to heal yourself and natures ability to naturally heal you and invariably, no matter what the issue is, they are going to suggest a pill, a shot and/or a knife.

They wont ask if your gastrointestinal issues are being caused by anxiety at work, abuse in your relationship at home, stress from living paycheck to paycheck like 80% of all Americans, depression from being laid off and having your worker bee work slave identity obliterated, they wont ask how youre feeling emotionally and mentally, they wont ask when the last time was that you were out in the sun just to bask in natural sunlight, breathe fresh air, be near trees, walk barefoot in grass, they wont ask if you sit at a desk all week every week for 40 to 60+ hours chained to your desk non stop Slack email Teams Google Meet notifications non stop demands only getting up for a half hour or hour max to grab lunch from Wendys KFC Taco Bell Burger King McDs Sonics Arbys Chick Fil A Subway Five Guys before running right back to your desk the milisecond lunch is over for hours of useless masturbatory self-aggrandizing agendaless meetings noone actually needs to sit back down and work the rest of your life away...

They'll just grab a notepad, scribble an Rx for a chemical stimulant and laxative, tell you to try to drink more water then move on to the next patient on the assembly line.

Youre not a person, just a "digestive system thats out of whack".

Then they never try to get to the root causes of why its "out of wack" -- environmental, lifestyle, mental, diet, work, relationships, finances, social -- they just give you a stimulant and laxative and tell you to call them in the morning.

Most modern OTC medicine (Sudafed, Benadryl, etc) and pharmaceuticals (presciption medications) are toxic, synthetic, lab made, harmful, unnecessary and at the absolute most typically just temporarily mitigate symptoms without actually alleviating and resolving them.

A quick fix that isnt even a fix yet is relentlessly pushed on us from the literal time we are children.

Pop a pill, get a shot, get Tylelon from the school nurse, swallow your Dimetapp.

Pepto Bismol, Advil, Tylelnol, Excedrin, Bayer, Midol, Pamprin, Zyrtec, Allegra.

The relentless societal lie that modern medicine is the supposed answer and cure to all of lifes ills is simply to endlessly fuel and fund the OTC drug and pharmaceutical companies and industries to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars a year.

The vast majority of physical and mental issues and maladies can be resolved naturally through medicinal herbs & plants, essential oils, breathwork, regulating nervous & PSNS, regulating vasovagus nerve, daily movement, being in nature (natural sunlight + fresh air + trees) every day for 20 minutes to an hour, sound healing baths, mhz audio, self healing reiki, yoga exercises, stretching, meditation, journaling, daily creative expression, self reflection, introspection, drinking 64+ oz of water a day, eating fresh fruits & vegetables 80%+ of the time, minimizing meat intake, minimizing soda, juice, caffeine, cofee and alcohol, eliminating processed and prepackaged snacks, minimizing sugar, fat, sodium, gluten & dairy, avoiding toxic and synthetic chemicals, GMOs, pesticides, additives, preservatives & artificial flavors in food, drinks, household & personal care products.

Counterbalance constant indoor artificial unnatural lighting and indoor recycled unnatural air, air conditioning & heat which purposely and by design disrupts our circadian rhythym, depletes our melatonin levels, contributes to insomnia and sleep disorders by ensuring you go outside in nature every day for a walk whenever weather allows for 20 to 60 minutes a day to soak in natural non-artificial non-fluorescent lighting aka sunlight, breathe in fresh unrecycled air, be around trees, put barefeet in grass, go in streams if possible...🏞🏞🏞

Modern society purposely severs our connection to nature by keeping us penned indoors like animals at almost all times (home; school; work; cars/buses/trains; malls/theaters/restaurants/salons/stores).

We are either inside of a building or we are inside of an artificial machine on our way to a building 99%+ of the time and this is totally and completely unnatural, toxic, harmful, dangerous and deadly.

Nature naturally heals us as well as activating our own natural self-healing properties which is why they do everything they can to keep us penned up inside like animals at all times.

Attending school, working, streaming, binge watching, scrolling, social media, gaming, messaging apps, reality TV, sports, competition shows, malls, movie theaters, restaurants, stores, salons, cars, buses, trains, prisons, daycares, grooming everyone to expect and demand total comfort in environment at all times - 70 degrees air conditioning in summer & 80 degree heat in the winter -- anything and everything to keep us indoors at almost all times and never outside in nature.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) cautions against taking unnecessary antibiotics as most sinus problems are caused by viruses, which antibiotics don’t treat and even those brought on by bacteria don’t usually improve any faster with antibiotics, the agency says.

So, whats an alternative to antibiotics?

Ive had severe sinus, nasal and chest congestion all week. I havent been able to lay down comfortably or sleep for more than an hour at a time. I have also had a pressure headache in my sinus and forehead area. My chest is also extremely congested and filled with mucus and I have been coughing non-stop.

Is it time to get the Mucinex? Antibiotics?

No.

2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar in warm water and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Peppermint herbal tea with 1/4 tsp each of ginger, cinnamon, turmeric and cayenne pepper and a tbsp of honey.

Essential oils in a diffuser for 3 to 6 hours (2 to 3 drops each of eucalyptus, peppermint, orange, grapefruit, lemon & cinnamon).

Drink 64+ oz of water.

Blow your nose one nostril at a time, while pressing the other nostril closed, then repeat on the other side. Blowing both nostrils at the same time actually inflames and swells the blood vessels in your sinus which will actually lead to more mucus being produced and can also lead to a sinus infection.

What does traditional indigeous medicine have to say?

Ayurvedic medicine is traditional Indian medicine.

Similar to TCM (tradional Chinese medicome), Ayurveda teaches that physical maladies and diseases are a result of blocked channels or srotamsi just like TCM teaches that physical maladies and diseases are a result of blocked chi or life energy force.

Specifically, Ayurvedic medicine teaches that congestion issues are caused by a mind-body imbalance called Vata which is caused by several factors including excessive stress & changes in climate.

If you were alive this winter, its been hard to ignore that it was 80 degrees on Halloween and I am typing this on December 2nd and its literally in the 40s but the humidity is fucking 91%!

Humidity over 50% means too much of the airs moisture has dried up, the air becomes excessively dry and even indoors it will feel uncomfortable.

So, imagine 91% humidity.

Even with this ridiculous bullshit, nothing substantive is ever done about climate change, same performative bullshit, same pretense on social media, same capitalist excess that has killed millions of humans, made tens of thousands of animal species extinct, currently melting the polar ice caps and glaciers, causing more natural disasters, filling endless landfills, destroying endless rainforests, damaging endless ecosystems, polluting endless oceans, endless carbon footprints, endless fossil fuels, endless Congolese dying for cobalt for a fucking iPhone 15 noone needs, endless overextraction of earths resources, endless raping and pillaging Mother Earth, endless fast fashion landfills filled with SHEIN and Fashion Nova fits that were only worn once, endless landfills filled with Amazon Prime Day deals that were humped pumped and dumped after one use, endless oil and gas, endless coal, endless nuclear waste, endless food waste, endless methane gas, endless fuel emissions, endless highways to nowhere, endless private jets for no fucking reason, endless McMansions constructed, endless overfishing, endless sweatshops, endless exploitation, endless slave wage labor, endless child labor...

Vata mind-body imbalance caused by excessive stress & changes in climate cause symptoms including respiratory congestion, restriction and breathlessness.

I have had severe difficulty breathing this week to the point where it has woken me up as I was unable to breathe.

So...time to grab the Sudafed or Mucinex?

Notice the pattern in Western medicine that any doctor in the West asribes to:

1️��OTC medicine➡️

If symptoms not alleviated⬇️

2️⃣Prescription drugs➡️

If symptoms still not alleviated⬇️

3️⃣Surgery➡️

If symptoms still not alleviated⬇️

4️⃣Gaslighting, feigned disbelief, frustration, half-assed suggestions about a "lifestyle change or two".

For every single issue no matter how seemingly benign or innocuous or how easily addressed by the one thing these Western doctors will never ask you: How do you feel NOT physically?

Western medicine dehumanizes and commodifies the human body in the same degrading and militaristic way that capitalism does.

Youre not a person, youre a worker.

Youre not a person, youre a digestive issue, skin rash, migraine, ulcer, sinus infection, erectile dysfunction, vaginal dryness, acne, back pain, tedonitis, neck pain, shoulder pain, tinnitus, food allergy, seasonal allergy, cold, fibroids, hypertension sufferer...

Look at the body part in question, never the person that embodies the body.

There is no ghost in the machine.

This is why your gastroenterologist doesnt talk to your dermatologist who doesnt talk to your rheumatologist who doesnt talk to your ENT doctor who doesnt talk to your general physician who doesnt talk to your gynecologist who doesnt talk to your pain management doctor who never talks to your therapist, psychiatrist, counselor, psychologist or life coach.

Youre not a person, youre a body to be endlessly sectioned off into completely separate and siloed pieces, never to ever be put back together or considered as one holistic entity that is a whole being with not just a body but a heart, mind, soul and spirit.

All 3 "solutions" endlessly, pathetically and purposely pimped by modern Western medicine (OTC & Rx pill, injection/shot, knife/surgery) all have potential harmful and even fatal side effects, include toxins & synthetic chemicals and mostly just mitigate, lessen or temporarily alleviate symptoms at the absolute most and never actually resolve or solve the symptoms entirely nor address or cure the actual root cause of the issue.

Just like everything else in the West.

Crash diet, quickie Vegas wedding, quick nip and tuck.

Everything in the West is wham, bam, thank you ma'am.

Whats the quickest fix and solution where I dont have to miss work?

How do I drop 20 pounds in 2 weeks?

What will make my symptoms go away where I can still eat a Big Mac every week?

The quick fixes that Western medicine promises to us as our eternal salvation and proof of "modern medicine" actually provides nothing more than the most temporary of relief at absolute best.

Thats all the West is.

Quick fixes, bandaids and half-assed "cures" that dont actually cure a damn thing and never actually address the root cause of anything nor even eliminate or the symptoms.

Then its back to school, back to work, back to taking the kids to soccer practice.

Everything in the West is based on total and complete mindlessness.

Congestion can be caused by a cold, the flu, allergies, pollution, COVID-19, or even just dry air.

Like extreme humidity of 75% to 90% in wintertime in freezing temperatures and constant indoor central heating blasting obnoxiously throughout the entire winter season?

Similar to the migraines I had last year where I didnt call my GP for medication and instead I switched my cell phone and laptop to Dark mode, turned off all the lights in my apartment, got off my phone completely and just rested with the blinds shut and, for once, shut myself off versus the previous 15 years where I had been in corporate HR, recruiter at Dow Jones and Bank of America, career advisor at Yale University, owner of career coaching and resume writing business with 100+ executive clients, freelance recruiter...and the migraines cleared up on their own.

The digestive issues I had a few months ago I resolved by simply eating healthier (vegetarian 80% of the time - fresh fruits and vegetables - homemade salads & salad dressing, smoothies, oatmeal w/ flaxseed, quinoa & mixed nuts & 64+ oz of water a day + herbal tea), moving my body more, being outside in nature for at least 60 minutes a day every day and utilizing a stool to squat to eliminate versus calling my GP for a prescription or "referral to a gastroenterologist".

The severe sinus congestion that Ive had all this week where I refused to take Mucinex or Sudafed and, similar to the above issues, when I woke up today in the middle of the night because I literally was having difficulty breathing laying down, very similarly to the migraines and digestive issues, the sinus congestion issue is due to environment (24/7 indoor heat during the winter + extreme humidity of 75% to 90% despite it being winter with freezing temperatures below 32 degrees + dry air) and excessive stress (mind body imbalance) and, once again, the solution isnt OTC medication, antibiotics, nasal irrigation, OTC nasal spray or ENT surgery, the solution, as is the case 90%+ of the time, is natural remedies (vitamin C - fresh lemons + oranges; ginger + turmeric + honey + peppermint tea; apple cider vinegar + water + lemon; essential oils in diffuser; grapefuit seed extract; herbal tea facial steams).

Since physical and mental maladies and diseases are almost always rooted in a mind body imbalance, along with the natural herbal/plant/essential oil remedies, inner self healing is also key (self reiki, sound bath healing, breathwork, regulating nervous system & parasympthetic nervous system - PSNS, yoga, mhz audio, shadow work, somatic work, journaling, meditation, self reflection, introspection, movement, creative expression, stretching), healing in nature (being outside in natural sunlight, fresh air, trees, grass, streams every day) and healing with food (eating fresh fruit & vegetables 80%+ of the time, 64+ oz of water a day, eliminate processed and prepackaged snacks, minimize meat/dairy/alcohol/juice/soda/coffee/sugar/sodium/fat/caffeine/additives/preservatives/artifical flavors/toxins/synthetic chemicals/GMOs/pesticides).

Its also about doing inner work, addressing the mind body imbalances and aligning your mind, body, soul, heart and spirit.

Exactly what the Western medicine industrial complex, capitalism and corporate America never want you to do because once you do, you will self-actualize, and youll see all of the Wests bullshit for exactly what it is.

[kummatty]

sometimes im talking to my mom and im like 👁👄👁 she's gone full blown conspiracy . it's kinda like how you don't notice small changes in yourself bc you see yourself daily, but someone will notice if they haven't seen u in a while, I have to step back to realize

[homehealthcareinc]

Medical-industrial Complex

     Medical – Industrial Complex; What is it you ask? The medical-industrial complex refers to the interconnected network of private and public entities that dominate and influence healthcare systems. This includes pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, hospitals, insurance companies, healthcare providers, and research institutions, all of which operate within a framework driven…

[bonnieb23-blog]

As Things Stand, Look Up!

So much has happened in the last few days…Why do “they” want to push us toward war? Our government is shoving us all into the jaws of war. Is it so they can keep their power? Now that we have started making political arrests, “the powers that be” need to stay in power forever. They know that if they are unseated, they themselves may be indicted. The rules of the game are changing. It is…

[chase-prairie]

As I sit here at my two hour Spravato treatment, I’m thinking about how we talk about depression and whose job it is to do scicomm and health comm about depression.

I’ve had clinical suicidal depression for 24 years, I’ve been in therapy, done inpatient, taken meds, done treatments. I know a lot about it and can help people with the process. I love being a resource for friends new to navigating the options.

But I don’t want to be The Depression Person. Depression is just some background noise that gets in the way of who I actually am. I wanna talk prairie and plants and history!

I hate talking about my depression and suicidiality. I don’t care about receptors and inhibitors and brain chemistry. I don’t want to make work about it. I get rip-roaring furious talking about anti-medication activism, discourse and stigmas around getting help. I have zero interest in getting into it about The Psychiatry Industry, pharmaceuticals, or insurance.

So what action should I take? As a beneficiary of this complex and nuanced field of depression treatment, as a person who uses images to communicate, what am I morally obliged to do? Should I use my experience to educate people? Wouldn’t that make me a corpo shill? A pharma shill? A psychiatry apologist?

I hate that objective, concrete quality of life improvements I have had will be met with hostility and bad faith responses. I’m afraid of the inevitable backlash any depression treatment educational material I make will have. This seems especially pertinent as we in the US are going to have RFK, a man who has explicitly targeted antidepressants, as part of our government. What is my obligation here? What is the right thing to do?

Idk man. I just want to draw and talk about plants. But it sure would have been nice if I had known any of this depression stuff like, a decade earlier.

[reality-detective]

Brigham Buhler on the Dark History of the Medical Industrial Complex

"There was a small little company that reached out to the Third Reich and said, 'Hey, we need 150 participants for our clinical trial.' The nazi regime shipped 150 healthy jewish women to this pharmaceutical company to test its products. Literally, within six months, there's letters back to the Third Reich from this pharmaceutical company saying, 'Thank you so much for your cooperation. The women arrived in great health and working order. Unfortunately, none of them made it through the initial phases of our trial.' They killed 150 women. 'We kindly request that you send us another 150 women.' That little company became Bayer which is now a mega pharmaceutical company." 🤔

[lonestatus]

the bedtime industrial complex and its sectors: the warm milk industry, the mattress industy, the blanket industy, the melatonin/pharmaceutical industry, the stuffed animal/pillow industry, and the white-noise indusrty. end privatization

[darkmaga-returns]

Vaccine makers have seen their stock prices take a significant plunge after President Donald Trump named Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his nominee to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Trump announced that Kennedy would be his incoming HHS secretary on Thursday.

“I am thrilled to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as The United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS),” Trump said in his announcement.

“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health.

“The Safety and Health of all Americans is the most important role of any Administration, and HHS will play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming Health Crisis in this Country.”

Trump’s choice for Kennedy to lead HHS is part of the “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.

Echoing Trump’s signature “Make America Great Again” slogan, Kennedy had vowed to transform federal health agencies after partnering with the incoming POTUS.

RFK Jr. has been an outspoken critic of vaccines and pharmaceutical companies.

While the news will be good for public health, it has sent shockwaves through the pharmaceutical industry.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved in our archive

by Hannah Buttle

Editor’s note: This article contains a brief mention of suicidal ideation.

Key points you should know:

There are currently no approved treatments for Long COVID and progress on clinical trials has been slow. Some medications can improve people’s quality of life, but they may not work for everyone.

With few choices, rejected disability claims, financial instability, and little support, some people with the disease have turned to online pharmacies, often based in India, to source potential medications.

Popular choices include medications used to treat conditions like HIV, hepatitis C, and acute COVID-19. Some of these drugs are being tested in upcoming clinical trials for Long COVID.

Buying medications online from unknown sellers can be risky; buyers might not receive the correct medication or even receive something harmful.

However, many people with Long COVID feel their quality of life has declined so severely that these risks are worth taking. With no approved treatments, lack of support, and stigma against the disease, many people with Long COVID are using overseas pharmacies to source medications. Some of these treatments are widely used for other conditions, such as HIV and hepatitis C, but are not approved for use in Long COVID.

“I was in such a desperate situation,” said Rafael, who lives in the U.K. and developed Long COVID in 2021. “I was bedbound, and I was within months of losing my job, which would then mean losing my home. So I didn’t have much to lose.”

Rafael bought several months’ worth of Maraviroc, an HIV drug, from a seller in India via WhatsApp. Soon after taking the Maraviroc, Rafael had a significant improvement in symptoms, although he was taking other medications at the same time.

“If I wasn’t so debilitated by Long COVID, I probably wouldn’t have taken the risk,” Rafael said.

The Sick Times spoke to several people with Long COVID who had used online pharmacies to import medications from abroad. Because importing medication can be illegal in certain circumstances, many sources interviewed for this article asked to be identified by their first name only or by a pseudonym.

Popular choices for people with Long COVID included the acute COVID-19 antiviral Paxlovid, the HIV drugs Maraviroc and Truvada, and the hepatitis C drug Sofosbuvir. Maraviroc and Truvada are currently being evaluated in an upcoming clinical trial at the Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illness, but results are not expected until at least early 2026.

Some people with Long COVID find some relief with off-label medications like low-dose naltrexone, but many told The Sick Times their doctors won’t prescribe these treatments. Even when doctors are willing to consider off-label treatments, health insurance often will not cover them.

Few treatments in sight The slow progress on clinical trials for Long COVID has been a source of frustration for both researchers and patients. The pharmaceutical industry has expressed little interest in finding treatments for the disease. Studies through the RECOVER initiative, launched by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), have primarily focused on observational approaches, such as asking people with Long COVID to track their symptoms, though the initiative is now planning new trials.

An analysis by The Sick Times found that fewer than a quarter of clinical trials for Long COVID are drug interventions, as of November 2024.

(interactive graph here)

Even when clinical trials take place, there is no guarantee of a “one-size-fits-all” treatment for Long COVID, said Ondine Sherwood, CEO of Long COVID SOS, a charity in the U.K. representing people with the disease. Currently, the available drugs may help only with specific symptoms or may work only for certain subsets of people with Long COVID.

Given the severity of symptoms and widespread government abandonment, it is unsurprising that some people with Long COVID have taken risks to seek relief from their symptoms since the beginning of the pandemic. Past unapproved treatments have included HELP apheresis, an expensive procedure that removes blood from a vein, filters the blood, and returns the filtered blood to the body. Many have also tried triple anticoagulant therapy, in which patients take aspirin, clopidogrel, and a blood thinner like Apixaban to break down small blood clots, called microclots. There is a high bleeding risk associated with triple anticoagulant therapy.

For many people with Long COVID, however, anything that offers a chance of improvement may seem worthwhile. Survey data suggest that the quality of life of someone with Long COVID can be worse than that of someone with stage four cancer. People with Long COVID may also be at a higher risk for suicidal ideation.

Financial insecurity can also drive people with Long COVID to consider experimental treatments, as many are out of work, behind on housing payments, and facing other financial challenges.

Some doctors may be willing to prescribe medications off-label for Long COVID and related conditions, like dysautonomia and mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS). Commonly prescribed drugs include beta-blockers, which lower heart rate, for dysautonomia, or H1 and H2 antihistamines for MCAS.

Dysautonomia drugs can lead to “massive improvement” for some, said Dr. Asad Khan, who worked as a respiratory doctor in the U.K. before developing Long COVID. For example, a beta blocker could bring down a patient’s heart rate while posing a limited risk, he said.

But some off-label treatments could carry higher risks, especially without a doctor’s oversight, said Khan: “You've got people taking anticoagulants and various other drugs that can affect the kidney, and the liver, and can have effects on the nervous system, and nobody's monitoring. The problems could be quite serious, and it could even be fatal.”

However, doing nothing for a patient can also put them in danger, said Khan. For instance, some research indicates that COVID-19 can lead to a higher risk of heart attacks and strokes for years after the infection.

People with Long COVID echoed these concerns. “I worry that, the longer we wait, the higher the destruction in our bodies,” said Lena, from Germany, who has had the disease since 2021.

After a difficult few months of symptoms, Lena decided to buy a generic form of Truvada, an HIV medication, through an online pharmacy. While she was scared, “pure despair” led her to try the medication, she said.

“I was having suicidal ideation,” she said. “If you have to weigh up how I was feeling versus taking an unknown pill, there’s no contest.” Many people with Long COVID who spoke to The Sick Times felt that buying medication online was their only choice.

How online pharmacies work Without a doctor to recommend the correct drug and dosage, many people with Long COVID receive advice from online social media groups. Users share tips on which drugs had worked for them, how to slowly increase the dosage of medications, and which side effects to expect.

Most of those interviewed by The Sick Times reported purchasing drugs without a prescription, either from national online pharmacies or from India via services like IndiaMart, an online marketplace. India is the world's largest exporter of generic pharmaceuticals.

“For me, what helped was a combination of ten days of Paxlovid and Sofosbuvir,” an antiviral drug for hepatitis C, said Tiff, from the U.S., who developed Long COVID in 2020. Tiff had read online about other people finding relief from the disease with these medications. She asked a friend to bring them back from India and had a significant decline in symptoms.

“I felt like I did pre-2020,” she said. “I had energy. I felt wonderful. No [Post-exertional malaise (PEM)] crash, no brain fog, no symptoms, nothing.” Tiff was later reinfected with SARS-C0V-2, and her Long COVID symptoms returned. She once again bought Sofosbuvir and Paxlovid from a seller in India and saw an improvement.

Lower prices offer another incentive to buy medications from abroad. Take Paxlovid, which can cost as much as $1,400 for a five-day course in the U.S., while a generic version from India costs just $103.

Sofia lives in Austria and has Long COVID. “In Austria, it would cost €40,000 for four months of Sofosbuvir,” she said, which “would be unaffordable.”

An anonymous Twitter/X user offered to help Sofia. She sent him €200, and he bought the medication in India and took it back to Europe. Since taking the Sofosbuvir, Sofia said she went from 40% to 60% of her previous level of functioning.

Risks and regulations Generic medications in the U.S., U.K., and Europe are commonly exported from India. But those exported through official channels are often subject to stricter regulatory standards than the medications available to locals. For those who have bought medications online from abroad, confirming the medications are safe can be difficult.

“We don’t have a functional regulatory system in India,” said Dinesh Thakur, a drug-safety advocate and former pharmaceutical executive. Online markets like IndiaMart have no safety guarantee.

“In the best-case scenario, the product may not contain enough of the active ingredient,” he said. “In the worst-case scenario, an injectable may contain endotoxins [harmful substances released by bacteria].”

If buyers from outside India have a bad experience, it would be difficult to hold a foreign company to account, Thakur added.

Nonetheless, many who spoke to The Sick Times felt that, despite the risks involved, they had to try something to relieve their symptoms.

“The symptoms grind you down so much, the risk calculus changes,” said Chris, from the UK, who has had Long COVID since 2020. “There is no help coming, nothing on the horizon.”

The World Health Organization has a checklist for gauging the safety of medicines purchased online. Tips include looking out for unusual activity on your credit card, checking security seals, and ensuring the batch number and expiry date on the package match throughout.

People with Long COVID may also be able to access off-label medications from more reliable sources. For instance, some online clinics may prescribe medications after a consultation. RTHM, a U.S.-based online clinic, offers a prescribing service for certain off-label medications for Long COVID, including low-dose naltrexone, beta-blockers for dysautonomia, and ketotifen for MCAS. In the U.K., those with a confirmed diagnosis of Long COVID or ME can buy low-dose naltrexone through Dicksons Chemist.

Another option for a small number of those with Long COVID is to join a clinical trial — though depending on the trial’s setup, some participants may receive a placebo instead of a drug.

Without the oversight of a pharmacist, taking a DIY approach to medications could also lead to dangerous medication interactions, even when the drugs are high quality. Paxlovid, for example, interacts with many drugs people take for Long COVID. These include ivabradine, some statins, and HIV medications. The University of Liverpool offers a COVID-19 drug interactions checker, which could help those using drugs like Paxlovid.

Regular blood tests could also help monitor for side effects. Truvada and Maraviroc can increase liver enzymes, and patients who take these medications for HIV prevention and HIV are advised to monitor liver enzymes regularly. Rafael, who bought Maraviroc, said he received monthly liver checks while taking the drug. These tests, which individuals can do privately without a GP referral, cost around £50 ($60) in the U.K.

Even if medications are safe, they are not guaranteed to work. People with Long COVID risk spending hundreds to thousands of dollars without success. New drugs could also lead to worse symptoms and significantly worsen a person’s health baseline.

Chris tried several medications, including Maraviroc and blood thinners, but has seen few improvements in symptoms. “You end up becoming your own guinea pig because nothing else is happening,” he said.

“It’s easy to depict people as reckless and not understanding the risks. But that’s not the case at all. Everyone understands the risks —they’re doing it because they’ve got no choice.”

[librarycards]

Is there a word for like, the phenomena of many people in academia positions calling themselves "anti psychiatry" but having a really shallow take on it that is openly reactionary and hostile to disabled people. Like they'll say "adhd isn't real" not in a "the way mad people critique and reformulate concepts of adhd takes precedence over the way the medical establishment does" way but in a "stop whining addict you are not medically corrupt but morally corrupt" way that is really obviously hostile to the self-actualization of the disabled. Or they have tunnel vision on deligitimizing all pharmaceuticals. Which seems like a very unthorough and flawed way to critique the medical industrial complex. Companies are lying about drugs, mis-prescribing them, AND with-holding them. You can't just ignore the last one. Entire countries are held hostage by threat of pharmaceutical copyright embargo, and these types could care less. Anyway what's their deal. They seem like fash wellness types in "anti psychiatry" clothing.

this is a dangerous pov that has been embedded in the antipsych movement for a very long time, and continues to be perpetuated by people whose antipsych scholarship doesn't have a strong disability studies conceptual framework. the most (in)famous figure representative of these views is Thomas Szasz, who believed, in short, that "mental illness" was an abdication of patient "personal responsibility" and an excuse for "malingering." He correctly identified mental illness as a sociocultural + medico-legal construct, but chose to blame persons experiencing psychosocial distress/difference for the insufficiency and danger of pathologizing labels, rather than the structural violence that undergirds both discourses and material realities of what is understood as "mental illness."

Personally, I think that this genealogy of antipsychiatry is libertarian in origin, distinct, though not disconnected, to bodymind fascism / wellness-reductionism. Szasz and his ilk are notable in that they believe/d in absolute bodily autonomy and self-determination, with the caveat that such autonomy is predicated upon the absence of social supports for people experiencing distress, and on the absence of compassion for those using violent language in an attempt to make sense of their lived experiences. The reason that I make this distinction is that Szasz is Jewish, and fled Hungary for the US in the 30s. He made the (correct) connection between the Nazi genocide of "undesirables" (including psychiatric patients) and state classification, incarceration, and "slow" genocide of Madppl globally and transtemporally.

But to return to your question: with this, as with pharmaceuticals, there is a fundamental discomfort at all levels of scholarship and discourse with identifying neoliberal capitalism as the enemy of self-determination, joy, community, and, like, an actual future for all life on this planet and beyond. The claim that pharmaceuticals are uniformly evil is a hackneyed way of attacking capitalism for those not yet ready or willing to acknowledge that, even absent a given pill or brand name, the structural violence that we associate with them would remain and simply morph. The fundamental danger of any and all medical "treatment," particularly that which involves significant alteration to an individual's bodymind and/or potential incapacitation, is that medico-psychiatric institutions function as zones of exception for many of the "rights" we are taught that we enjoy. Under the sign of patient, typical assumptions around autonomy, dignity, and equality –– while never fully existent in the first place –– completely vanish. Of course, it is far easier to blame individual people, companies, etc. than understand that disabled/Mad liberation will never exist without total abolition.

Equally, however, it's important to understand that "academics" discussing the abuses of big pharma or questioning the ontology of mental illness, as it were, are not somehow magically separated from psychiatric survivors. The academics dismissed as being unaware of the "real" struggles of psychiatrized people are oftentimes psychiatrized themselves, and their perspectives, writings, and movements are grounded in lived experience. People with academic degrees are not immune from emotional reactions rooted in trauma and anxiety, and in fact, to try to separate "emotion" from academic "reason" is a dangerous eurocolonial practice. In short: many who write, correctly, of the dangers of pharmaceutical companies and practitioner pocket-lining are and have been subjected to these abuses firsthand. This doesn't mean that a wholesale rejection of all medication is, like, "good." But it means that scholars are people –– people with more specialized knowledge in a given area than your average random person, but people nonetheless.

So, to conclude: there are a bunch of things going on that lead to the pervasiveness of reactionary antipsych perspectives. Sometimes, in the case of libertarian or fash (to say nothing of religiously-specific fascism) approaches, there is a willful refusal to distinguish pathologization from material need/suffering, and the assumption that eliminating diagnostic markers will simply neutralize the problem of mental illness-qua-human vulnerability. Other times, conscious objection to myriad genres of oppression under the (neoliberal capitalist) Med/Psy industrial complexes are shoehorned in with these reactionary approaches.

Overall, there are longstanding movements designed to oppress/abandon/eliminate disabled / Madppl in which scholars, wittingly and unwittingly, participate, and given the average joe's utter ignorance of any kind of antipsych thought, it is very difficult to address these issues with rigor and honesty.

Lastly –– I highly recommend doing more reading in critical Mad studies if you're interested in well-thought-out perspectives on Madness, antipsychiatry, and disability justice! Scholars like Liat Ben-Moshe, Jijian Voronka, Margaret Price, La Mar Jurelle Bruce, J. Logan Smilges, sarah madoka currie, Bren LeFrançois, Alexandre Baril, Cameron Awkward-Rich, Eric Stanley, Therí Alyce Pickens, Erica Hua Fletcher, and many others do incredible Mad work explicitly informed by disability and abolitionst frameworks! (and so do I –– at least, I'm trying!)

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

Morally & Professionally unqualified for HHS Secretary

"You knew what I was when you took me in" 🐍

"I am thrilled to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as The United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health. The Safety and Health of all Americans is the most important role of any Administration, and HHS will play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming Health Crisis in this Country. Mr. Kennedy will restore these Agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again!"

[xbuster]

This is so true. As cringe as his jokes can be, more leftists need to understand how a pipeline works because John Oliver has consistently been a useful asset in moving moderate liberals further left.

John Oliver is no revolutionary, sure, but he’s considerably more left than any late night talk show host around and especially more so than the mainstream media, but he has curated an audience of moderate liberals that believe he’s right about everything, making them susceptible to the more leftist ideas he proposes (like free health care, breaking up pharmaceutical monopolies, the institution of slavery that is the American prison system, the evils of the military industrial complex, a major condemnation of the state of Israel). He IS the start of that pipeline. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s even more leftist than he lets on because you can only go so far left before your show is cancelled.

This is huge for getting people on the side of the Palestinians.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

New method for altering vinyl systems has applications in drug and materials science

Constructing complex molecules from simpler ones is pivotal for the development of pharmaceuticals, materials science, and various scientific domains. But one reaction, known as the nucleophilic vinylic substitution or SNV reaction, which could allow chemists to build even more complex structures, has been less studied because it's notoriously difficult to control. In a study published in Nature, researchers from the University of Chicago and the University of Pittsburgh have introduced a new method for creating connections between carbon atoms using the SNV reaction. Led by graduate student Miao Chen, in the laboratory of Prof. Guangbin Dong, their research offers a novel approach to creating bonds essential for crafting intricate molecules with exact structures. The scientists hope it propels the development of advanced materials and bioactive compounds, creating profound impacts across academic and industrial landscapes.

Read more.

[female-malice]

"HUMANS CAN ONLY THRIVE THROUGH MUTUAL CARE!" is such a fucking ironic take coming from somebody who's anti-trans.

I'm anti elective medicine, anti cosmetic surgery, and anti mind-body dualism.

The trans movement promotes the medicalization of gender nonconformity. Rather than breaking the oppressive social institution of gender, it enshrines gender as a medical institution.

So that's more and more lifelong medical patients. More and more work for endocrinologists, surgeons, and eventually oncologists. Mutual care means degrowth and an end to capitalism. Mutual care means no one should have to work more than 30 hours a week, including doctors.

Right now, most doctors work 50 hours a week to meet the medical needs of the population. But many doctors are working 80 hours a week. This overwork is required because capitalism creates a ton of medical patients. Capitalism creates unhealthy people while also medicalizing healthy people through the trans and cosmetic surgery movements. And overworking doctors leads to medical malpractice which leads to more patients to overwork doctors with.

More patients leads to more consumption of medical and pharmaceutical products. So medical manufacturing and big pharma can then produce and sell more products and grow their industries. And in the US, there's the medical insurance industry, too. They've created another lucrative way to turn medical patients into economic growth.

We need a more just medical system that is compatible with degrowth. And in order to achieve that, we need a society with less medical patients. We need a society that produces healthier people and we need to end capitalist elective medicine movements.

In addition to medical capitalism, the trans movement promotes mind-body dualism. That's a harmful philosophy to spread during an ecological crisis. We don't need people spending all their time every day analyzing their internal essences, genders, and souls. We need people to spend that time looking outward and analyzing the complex Earth system that we all share. Mind-body unity simplifies our understanding of our internal selves which leads to greater cooperation between people.

Real mutual care for gender nonconforming people would promote mind-body unity, not lifelong medicalization.