#us public health news

[reasonsforhope]

Sorry I'm kind of dissociated and my vocab crashes during that can you explain the Biden drug thing in just. Shorter simple sentences.

Sure! You're not the only one who's mentioned being unclear on what it means either, and I'm happy to help

(Context for anyone else: US Sets Policy to Seize Patents of Government-Funded Drugs if Price Deemed Too High, via Good News Network, December 11, 2023)

From the very basics:

When drug companies create new drugs, they get a legal protection called a "patent." The patent means no one else can make or sell the same drug for whatever number of years.

Usually, this is about 10 years after the drug starts being sold to the public.

So, for those years, that one drug company is the only source of whatever medication. And since people need their medication, drug companies can charge however much money they want.

Meaning a lot of drugs that people need to live cost way too much money to buy.

So, with this, Biden told drug companies "Fuck you, if you keep making medicine too $$$ for people to afford, I'm giving your competition the right to make and sell those drugs too."

The US has never done anything like this before.

This is a huge threat to the whole (awful) drug industry in the US. It will save people thousands of dollars. If he does this, it will save lives.

--

Edit 12/17/23: Quick note, as people have said in the notes, this only applies to drugs made in part using taxpayer money. Which is! Literally all of them!

[politijohn]

Source

Good

[covid-safer-hotties]

Second gentleman Emhoff tests positive for COVID - Published July 7, 2024

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/4758716-doug-emhoff-covid-positive/mlite/

I hate covering celebrity news, but this seems a bit important given that Biden just reiterated his claim that he "beat the pandemic."

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff tested positive for COVD-19, the vice president’s office announced Sunday.

His office said Emhoff had experienced mild symptoms before being tested Saturday, and is now asymptomatic. He is fully vaccinated, the office said.

Vice President Harris was also tested for COVD-19 and tested negative, her office said.

Emhoff will continue to work from home, isolated from others.

Emhoff previously tested positive for COVID in March of 2022, and Harris tested positive for the virus a month later.

Harris is scheduled to campaign for President Biden in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

Find more news, science, and resources on our covid archive:

[dilf-phoenix-rights]

I think more people should be aware of, and talking about, the uptick in anti-mask policies being proposed/passed (or that already existed but rarely enforced until more recently) that have been popping up lately in several states.

Both because of the public health risks it sets us up for and because it’s being used as a way to further punish protesters. Not to mention the encroachment on our right to privacy in the ever increasing surveillance state we live in.

[azul-nova-24]

To all Public Health professionals on tumblr. How did y'all land on an local public health Internship that pays well?

Askin' as a Senior Undergraduate Public health major. And please lemme know in the comments.

[rebelwheelssoapbox]

There's been an increase in COVID cases, and yet New York (editedGovernor Kathy Hochul wants to ban masks? #NoNYMaskBan TAKE ACTION: https://covidadvocacyny.org/stopmaskbanny @covidadvocacyny [IMAGE DESCRIPTION: (edited to fit twitter image description character limit) horizontal rectangle artsy protest graphic. Background. blues whites reds & a light pink. Floral illustration. white petals blue stems & blue and red center. There's a light pink & white horizontal zigzag pattern in the white petals. On top left to center, a photo of a man with medium brown skin who is contemplating. wearing a colorful shirt. Pinks, white, orange, yellows, rainbows, blues & a light purple. he's wearing a covid mask that matches shirt. short black hair. there's a golden yellow thick outline around him. 3 diagonal light green stripes go from his head & upward. There's text. thin modern white font. each word/phrase has a black rectangle behind it. Text arranged in artsy fashion. Some words are semi-diagonal & as if each rectangle was cut out and placed individually. text reads “protecting myself and my community against COVID shouldn't be illegal.” The words COVID and illegal and protecting are larger than the other text.]

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[w98pops]

no big updates because i finally got a full-time job, and i have a lot of commissions and trades to draw. BEAR with me here guys 🥱

[reasonsforhope]

"The Biden Administration last week [early December, 2023] announced it would be seizing patents for drugs and drug manufacturing procedures developed using government money.

A draft of the new law, seen by Reuters, said that the government will consider various factors including whether a medical situation is leading to increased prices of the drug at any given time, or whether only a small section of Americans can afford it.

The new executive order is the first exercise in what is called “march-in-rights” which allows relevant government agencies to redistribute patents if they were generated under government funding. The NIH has long maintained march-in-rights, but previous directors have been unwilling to use them, fearing consequences.

“We’ll make it clear that when drug companies won’t sell taxpayer funded drugs at reasonable prices, we will be prepared to allow other companies to provide those drugs for less,” White House adviser Lael Brainard said on a press call.

But just how much taxpayer money is going toward funding drugs? A research paper from the Insitute for New Economic Thought showed that “NIH funding contributed to research associated with every new drug approved from 2010-2019, totaling $230 billion.”

The authors of the paper continue, writing “NIH funding also produced 22 thousand patents, which provided marketing exclusivity for 27 (8.6%) of the drugs approved [between] 2010-2019.”

How we do drug discovery and production in America has a number of fundamental flaws that have created problems in the health service industry.

It costs billions of dollars and sometimes as many as 5 to 10 years to bring a drug to market in the US, which means that only companies with massive financial muscle can do so with any regularity, and that smaller, more innovative companies can’t compete with these pharma giants.

This also means that if a company can’t recoup that loss, a single failed drug can result in massive disruptions to business. To protect themselves, pharmaceutical companies establish piles of patents on drugs and drug manufacturing procedures. Especially if the drug in question treats a rare or obscure disease, these patents essentially ensure the company has monoselective pricing regimes.

However, if a company can convince the NIH that a particular drug should be considered a public health priority, they can be almost entirely funded by the government, as the research paper showed.

Some market participants, in this case the famous billionaire investor Mark Cuban, have attempted to remedy the issue of drug costs in America by manufacturing generic versions of patented drugs sold for common diseases."

-via Good News Network, December 11, 2023

[politijohn]

Source

Source

[wat3rm370n]

I am appalled at the news of mask bans.

Rejected Letter to the Editor, October 2024.

I submitted this to the Scranton Times-Tribune on October 5, 2024, and never heard back, so I’m posting it here.

I am appalled at the news of mask bans popping up in various places. I ought to have a right to protect myself from the elements: viruses, pollen, pollution, wildfire smoke, or cold, by wearing a mask. Health exceptions are not sufficient because having to carry papers or explain medical status is Un-American. Anonymity should not be forbidden and we should be allowed liberty of movement, a right described in our Constitution. There are already reports of disabled and elderly being targeted with harassment. It was in the news that a cancer patient in North Carolina, at a time a mask ban was merely proposed, was “confronted by a man who shouted expletives and called her a liberal for wearing the mask”, he feigned coughing and said he hopes the cancer kills her. It was also in the news that a mayor in Kentucky, a state with the highest rates of cancer, suggested mask bans would “curb gun violence” - instead of doing something about the guns, which seems entirely misguided. Mask bans are likely to lead to more violence. There have been letters to the editor in a New York newspaper suggesting vigilantism - one suggesting that others should harass people wearing masks by rudely taking photos, and fear mongering with the suggestion that masked elderly community members might actually be dangerous criminals “in costume”, which is ridiculous. Mask bans put targets on vulnerable innocent citizens who already have been marginalized by a society that’s politicized personal safety and is failing in the prevention of various disease spread. It’s a grotesque irony for people with cancer to get difficult and expensive treatments, only to be recklessly infected with a virus because masks are criminalized in some places. I hope nobody suggests such a nonsense law in northeastern Pennsylvania.

References:

https://www.nyclu.org/press-release/nyclu-condemns-nassau-county-mask-ban

https://www.wral.com/story/scared-to-put-on-my-mask-cancer-patient-says-she-was-intentionally-coughed-on-in-spat-over-mask/21478890/

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2024/10/01/louisville-mask-ordinance-what-is-it-who-is-exempt-upcoming-changes/75468091007/

https://statecancerprofiles.cancer.gov/map/map.withimage.php

https://www.asbestos.com/cancer/state-cancer-rates/

https://www.newsday.com/opinion/letters/lithium-ion-battery-storage-state-abortion-laws-nassau-mask-ban-ji10m9i5

https://www.axios.com/2023/08/31/omicron-covid-cancer-deadly

(crossposted)

[sparksinthenight]

Vote Blue 2024 to have a global impact and to save and improve hundreds of millions of lives around the world!

[rebelwheelssoapbox]

DID YOU KNOW: The proposed NY mask ban would make it illegal to wear even a COVID mask at a protest #NoNYMaskBan TAKE ACTION: https://covidadvocacyny.org/stopmaskbanny and check out: @covidadvocacyny [IMAGE DESCRIPTION: (EDITED TO FIT ON TWITTER) Protest collage. Background. Various vintage floral illustrations. Warm colors. Yellow orange greens yellow green pink & red. On top left is an image of a beautiful woman. light medium brown skin. Purple with red flowers top matches her covid mask which also has yellow orange flowers. braids that are semi tied back. her head (turned) & is looking at you. From top of head, various vertical diagonal rectangles, displayed like a fan. Each one represents a cause. a globe, new pride flag, black lives matter symbol, mask symbol, a fist with text my body my choice, anti-fascist symbol. Main text to right of her reads: the NY mask band is like telling marginalized people choose one: protect yourself from covid or protest your oppression but you can't do both at the same time. Each of nine lines of text, black horizontal rectangle behind. Font white bold modern. Outlining right side of her, slightly faded sunflower petals.]

[britneyshakespeare]

the middle school principal wants to hire me in a full-time position so bad.

and who can blame him? i'm that substitute 💅