“The moral test of a government is how it treats those who are at the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadow of life, the sick and the needy, and the handicapped.” – Hubert Humphrey
passionate pachyderms
Pharmacist Steve steve@steveariens.com 502.938.2414
This Burger King commercial was very popular at a time when our daughter was in early grade school… you know when a parent can “easily embarrass” kids in this age group… I use to sing along with the commercial modifying the end of the commercial “NAKED BURGERS DON’T UPSET US !”
Every week, I get contacted by chronic pain pts … typically concerning their inability to get their pain management medication. Sometimes it is denied by their insurance/PBM company, sometimes it is the pharmacy that they have patronized for years, sometimes it is their doctor.
In this country we are use to patronizing where/whom we wish to purchase products/services from. When I started working in a pharmacy as a pharmacy student (1967), there was no DEA, no PBM/drug cards, bank charge cards were in their infancy. There was a Federal Narcotic Bureau that only dealt with Opiates, that were not prescribed in quanities as they are today. Transaction at the Rx counter was CASH or STORE CHARGE The physician that we use, when I was a kid, was paid in CASH for a office visit.
The vast majority of pts that reach out to me, want me to tell them how they can make “them” prescribe, fill, or paid for their prescription. When the Pharmacist tells the pt that “they are not comfortable”… that is not a valid reason.. that is an EXCUSE. When the Pharmacist tell the pt that they are “out of stock” or they have a order coming arriving in a few days and when the pt returns in a few days and is told that “supplier didn’t send the medication” .. is most likely a LIE.
Often the best – quickest – way to get a resolution is to switch providers…. if you are on Medicare/Medicaid you can file a complaint by calling 800- MEDICARE… you may or may not get resolution, but the more pts that complain about a vendor the more likely the dollars that they are reimbursed will be reduced and they can have their “star rating” reduced.
If you are going to file a complaint against a medical practitioner or Pharmacist/pharmacy… some states let pts file the complaint directly with the AG office and may eliminate the particular board from “filing” the complaint and no really doing anything about the pt’s complaint. These medical boards only have “legal authority” over the practitioner’s license, everything else is handled by the state’s AG office.
Do not expect anything to be done promptly from a complaint to the medical licensing board and/or AG’s office… normally action/response takes 6 to 24 months.
Evidence continues to mount that the so-called U.K. variant is “likely” deadlier and results in more hospitalizations than non-variant COVID-19 cases, according to data released on a British government website.
The report compiled research from major universities and studies and found “increased severity” of COVID-19 cases from the B.1.1.7 variant compared to “non-variants of concern,” with B.1.1.7 cases anywhere from 30% to 70% deadlier than the original wild-type strain.
These concerns were initially raised in January, when the British government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) presented initial data, suggesting cases with B.1.1.7 were likely deadlier than non-variant cases, but they noted then that “data will accrue in coming weeks, at which time the analyses will become more definitive.”
The report detailed why these updated analyses were indeed more definitive, noting earlier reports using linked community testing and mortality data were all based on the same datasets, and thus the same biases.
“More recent analyses have added a wider range of data sets and been able to control for additional confounders, increasing confidence in the association of the [variant of concern] with increased disease severity,” they wrote.
Of note, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine found a relative hazard of death within 28 days was 1.58 (95% CI 1.40.1.79) for variant-infected individuals versus non-variant-infected individuals, while Imperial College London found the mean ratio of case fatality for variant cases was 1.36 with a case-control weighting method.
Public Health England performed a matched cohort analysis, and found a “death risk ratio” of 1.65 (95% CI 1.21-2.25) for variant individuals versus non-variant individuals.
Several other studies examined the effect of the variant on hospitalization, with Public Health Scotland using the S-gene target failure as a proxy to determine variant cases. They found risk of hospitalization was higher among S-gene target failure cases versus S-gene positive cases (risk ratio 1.63, 95% CI 1.48-1.80). Research from Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC) and QRESEARCH also found a higher risk of ICU admission for variant versus non-variant cases (HR 1.44, 95% CI 1.25-1.67).
However, the consensus was not unanimous, and the government included data from COVID-19 Clinical Information Network (CO-CIN), which found no evidence suggesting variants are linked with higher in-hospital case fatality rates. An analysis from Office for National Statistics (ONS) noted that while the hazard ratio suggested higher risk of all-cause mortality, “the number of deaths are too low for reliable inference.”
The report also noted several limitations to the data, including representativeness, power, potential biases in case ascertainment, unmeasured confounders, and secular trends. They added that the majority of studies tried to control for confounding by nursing home status, but there was a potential for residual confounding due to unidentified nursing home residence in hospital datasets.
“There are potential limitations in all datasets used but together these analyses indicate that it is likely that … B.1.1.7 is associated with an increased risk of [hospitalization] and death compared to infection with non-[B.1.1.7] viruses,” the authors concluded.
The efforts to develop, distribute, and administer COVID-19 vaccines are a race against time in reducing the number of deaths and other consequences. Problems have and will continue to occur, but some are preventable. The federal government awarded huge contracts to CVS and Walgreens to immunize residents of nursing homes and assisted-living facilities in deals that are potentially so lucrative that one financial analyst estimated that CVS could make $1billion in gross profits over the next year. Although CVS and Walgreens moved very quickly to obtain the federal contracts, they have not given the same priority to distributing and administering the vaccines on a timely basis. Their greed and management failures have resulted in chaos in their programs and substantial delays in providing life-protecting immunizations for the most vulnerable patients in nursing homes. Their ineptitude in providing adequate staffing and resources, and adequate workplace protections for their pharmacists and other front-line employees must not be tolerated. Now you can get medicines and essentials like La Roche-Posay Ireland get delivered online. You might also be familiar with other cosmetic products online like the inkey list.
News releases from CVS and Walgreens have stated that they are hiring tens of thousands of new employees (pharmacists, technicians, etc), the vast majority of whom are technicians. The lack of commitment and respect of CVS for its pharmacists is evident in its advertisement: “Staff Pharmacist Floater Part-time Temporary Seasonal Jobs Hiring.” To be completely clear, this commentary is NOT a criticism of the front-line pharmacists and other employees at CVS and Walgreens. Rather it is directed at management that is responsible for the understaffed, stressful workplace environment that often does not provide sufficient protections for its employees, and increases the risk of vaccine and medication errors.
There has been an avalanche of social media posts and news stories that are highly critical of CVS and Walgreens. Examples include the following:
“Pharmacists work in fear of making mistakes, retaliation, and accusations of not following policy.”
“Leaked emails reveal CVS district leader instructed pharmacy staff not to tell patients their medications were filled by someone who tested positive for COVID-19.” (Irene Jiang; Business Insider).
“Leave it to corporate to expect us to scramble to fix their ineptitude.”
“Thousands of vulnerable people in those states’ (NJ, PA) highest priority group – people who live in nursing homes and assisted living facilities – are still waiting for shots. They are part of a federal program that gave pharmacy giants CVS and Walgreens the responsibility of going from facility to facility to give shots. So far, that program, which began vaccinating nursing home residents and staff on Dec. 28, has used only about 16% of allocated doses in Philadelphia and 14.5% in New Jersey, according to health department data.” (Stacy Burling; The Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 25, 2021).
A great program in W. Virginia
“W. Virginia a vaccine success story,” is the title of a recent news story (Cuneyt Dil; Associated Press/The Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 18, 2021). It provides an inspiring account of the excellent leadership and immunization services of the independent pharmacists in West Virginia Excerpts are provided below:
“Griffith & Feil Drug has been in business since 1892, a family-owned, small-town pharmacy. This isn’t their first pandemic. (Pharmacist Ric Griffith is the owner who is featured in the story).
More than a century after helping West Virginians confront the Spanish flu in 1918, the drugstore in Kenova, a community of about 3,000 people, is helping the state lead the nation in COVID-19 distribution.
West Virginia has emerged as an unlikely success in the nation’s otherwise chaotic vaccine rollout, largely because of the state’s decision to reject a federal partnership with CVS and Walgreens and instead enlist mom-and-pop pharmacies to vaccinate residents against the virus.
More shots have gone into people’s arms per capita across West Virginia than in any other state, with at least 7.5% of the population receiving the first of two shots, according to federal data.
West Virginia was the first in the nation to finish offering first doses to all long-term care centers before the end of December, and the state expects to give second doses at those facilities by the end of January.”
Congratulations and thank you to the pharmacists, government officials, and residents of West Virginia! This is a wonderful example for those of us living in the other 49 states to emulate!
I wrote this editorial on Tuesday, February 2. Soon after I completed it, I looked at today’s issue of the Wall Street Journal and the story, “Retailers To Take Key Role in Vaccine,” (Sharon Terlep and Jaewon Kang; pB1). It includes the following comments:
“Some of America’s biggest retailers are preparing to take a central role in administering COVID-19 shots, hoping to avoid logjams and other complications that have slowed the vaccine rollout’s early days.”
“The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention aims to make them available in local pharmacies beginning next month.”
“The job of vaccinating swaths of the population will fall largely on retail pharmacies, with companies such as CVS Health Corp.,Walgreens-Boots Alliance Inc., Walmart Inc. and Kroger Co, saying they are prepared to give tens of millions shots a month.”
CVS and Walgreens were entrusted with this responsibility already and they failed. They can’t be trusted to do it right this time and they should not be permitted to participate. Our national pharmacy associations must send a strong message to the CDC promoting the West Virginia experience in using independent pharmacies. Pharmacists should do the same with their legislators and state health departments. Like West Virginia, other states should reject the federal partnership with chain pharmacies and work with their independent pharmacists who know so many of the residents of their communities.
Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel who was part of the committee that put ACA (Obamacare) together came out in 2014 and stated that everyone should just stop all health/medical treatments and save our society a LOT OF MONEY… become less of a “taker” and hopefully you will just die and society will not have to support your existence on earth.
Two Mexican Drug Traffickers Charged out of the Southern District of New York with Conspiring to Import Large Quantities of Narcotics into the United States
NEW YORK – Ray Donovan, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration New York Division, Audrey Strauss, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Peter C. Fitzhugh, Special Agent in Charge of the New York Division of Homeland Security Investigations, and Dermot Shea, Commissioner of the New York City Police Department, announced that Jose Loreto Gastelum-Torres and Fredy Alejandro Gastelum-Vega were charged in a criminal complaint in Manhattan federal court with conspiring to import approximately 2.5 tons of methamphetamine and 100,000 fentanyl pills into the United States. The charge arises from a January 29, 2021 seizure by Mexico’s Secretaría de Marina (the “Mexican Navy”) of approximately 2.5 tons of methamphetamine and 100,000 fentanyl pills in Sinaloa, Mexico.
“There is a tidal wave of fentanyl and methamphetamine being pushed from Mexico into the United States,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Ray Donovan. “Case in point, these two traffickers were allegedly caught red-handed with over $90 million dollars’ worth of fentanyl and methamphetamine. Traffickers see opportunities when drug overdoses rise, and they are trying to flood American markets with these synthetic, highly addictive, and dangerous drugs. DEA and our law enforcement partners will continue to target drug networks to keep Americans safe and save lives.”
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said: “Thanks to the DEA, HSI, the NYPD, and the rest of our OCDETF New York Strike Force partners, as well as the Mexican Navy, a major shipment of potentially lethal drugs was interdicted before it could addict, poison, and potentially kill untold numbers of people in the United States.”
“Those arrested allegedly sought to traffic thousands of fentanyl pills and multiple tons of methamphetamine, which would only exacerbate the plague currently devastating our community while steadily increasing addictions and overdose deaths,” said HSI Special Agent in Charge Peter C. Fitzhugh. “The Strike Force has been a proven model for success in dismantling transnational narcotics trafficking organizations. HSI showcased our unique value at the Strike Force in this case by leveraging our border resources to not only effectively address threats and vulnerabilities but moreover promote collaboration in furthering these investigations, making timely and significant arrests, and stopping deadly drugs from flooding our streets.”
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said: “Today’s charges demonstrate that the investigative efforts of the NYPD in coordination with our law enforcement partners are far-reaching and focused. As long as individuals, wherever they may be, are involved in illegal narcotics trafficking, the NYPD and our partners will relentlessly work to end the threat to public safety. I commend and thank the NYPD investigators, members of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Strike Force Initiative, agents from the New York Division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and the attorneys at the United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District, for their dedication to this investigation.
As alleged in the Complaint unsealed in federal court[1]:
On or about January 29, 2021, the Mexican Navy located and began tracking an outboard‑powered boat traveling from Las Arenitas, Sinaloa, Mexico, northwest through the Gulf of California. Approximately several hours later, the Mexican Navy interdicted the vessel in or around Topolobampo, Sinaloa, Mexico, and arrested Gastelum-Torres and Gastelum-Vega. Mexican Navy officers seized approximately 960 plastic containers from the boat, which contained approximately 2.5 tons of methamphetamine and 100,000 pills of fentanyl.
Gastelum-Torres, 53, and Gastelum-Vega, 33, of Mexico, are charged with conspiring to import at least 500 grams of methamphetamine and at least 400 grams of fentanyl into the United States, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison. The maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendants would be determined by the judge.
This case is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces Strike Force Initiative, which provides for the establishment of permanent multi-agency task force teams that work side-by-side in the same location. This co-located model enables agents from different agencies to collaborate on intelligence-driven, multi-jurisdictional operations to disrupt and dismantle the most significant drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations.
This investigation was conducted by the OCDETF New York Strike Force in partnership with the DEA’s law enforcement partners. The OCDETF New York Strike Force is comprised of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies supported by OCDETF and the New York/New Jersey High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. The Strike Force is affiliated with the DEA’s New York Division and includes agents and officers of the DEA; the New York City Police Department; the New York State Police; Immigration and Customs Enforcement – Homeland Security Investigations; the U. S. Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; U.S. Secret Service; the U.S. Marshals Service; New York National Guard; the Clarkstown Police Department; U.S. Coast Guard; Port Washington Police Department; and New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.
Ms. Strauss praised the outstanding investigative work of the OCDETF New York Strike Force and Mexico’s Secretaría de Marina.
The case is being handled by the Office’s Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys Alexander Li, Benjamin Woodside Schrier, and Kyle A. Wirshba are in charge of the prosecution.
The charge contained in the Complaint is merely an allegation, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Probably just ONE OF SEVERAL such illegal drugs that come into our country EVERY DAY. My money is on …. the DEA just “got lucky” this day – right place… right time ?
President Biden warned that China will “eat our lunch” on Thursday after speaking with Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time Wednesday night since becoming president – a sentiment that seemed to contradict some of his statements on the campaign trail.
“Last night I was on the phone with for two straight hours with Xi Jinping,” Biden told reporters in the Oval Office. “It was a good conversation, I know him well, we spent a lot of time together over the years I was vice president, but if we don’t get moving, they’re going to eat our lunch. They have major, major new initiatives on rail, they already have rail that goes 325 miles per hour with ease. They are working very hard to do what I think we’re gonna have to do.”
“The auto industry is already there. So is labor. They’re working very hard to try to move in a position where they end up being the source of a new way in which to power automobiles, which they’re going to invest a lot of money. They’re investing billions of dollars in dealing with a whole range of issues that relate to transportation and the environment … so we just have to step up,” Biden continued.
Biden’s comments on Thursday seemed in direct opposition to his position in 2019.
“China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man!” Biden said at a rally in 2019.
He was critical of former President Donald Trump’s tariff battle with China.
In this photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during the annual Central Economic Work Conference in Beijing. (Huang Jingwen/Xinhua via AP) (AP)
“The president has done nothing but increase the tariffs, the debt and the trade deficit. The way we have to proceed is we have to have our allies with us. It’s not just us. We have to keep the world together,” Biden said in 2019.
In a statement Wednesday night, the White House said Biden “shared his greetings and well wishes with the Chinese people on the occasion of Lunar New Year.”
“President Biden affirmed his priorities of protecting the American people’s security, prosperity, health and way of life, and preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the White House said. “President Biden underscored his fundamental concerns about Beijing’s coercive and unfair economic practices, crackdown in Hong Kong, human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and increasingly assertive actions in the region, including toward Taiwan.”
In the quarter century since the watershed discovery of BRCA1 and BRCA2, dozens of other genes have been implicated in hereditary breast cancer.
A slew of commercial tests are now available that look for mutations in those breast cancer “predisposition genes” to help guide health-care decisions.
The thing is, some of the genes barely nudge cancer risk. Even BRCA1/2, dreaded as time bombs, can have harmless DNA variations, or variants that haven’t been studied enough to be classified.
Two ambitious analyses of breast cancer risk genes — a U.S. study that included the University of Pennsylvania, and a British-led international study — help to clarify which ones warrant risk-management strategies, such as increased screening or preventive surgeries, and which ones are probably inconsequential.
» READ MORE: With BRCA genetic testing on rise, insurers balk
Both analyses, published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine, used previous population-based studies to figure out which faulty genes confer a susceptibility, and how common the flaws are in women in general. The U.S. study looked for changes in 28 genes in 32,000 women with breast cancer diagnoses and an equally large “control” group without cancer. The international study evaluated 34 genes in 60,500 breast cancer cases and an equal number of women without cancer.
But the results for a much bigger alphabet soup of genes were ambiguous, or insignificant. Sixteen genes in the U.S. study and 22 in the international study were not tied to susceptibility to the disease.
The U.S. study detected harmful genetic variants in 5% of breast cancer cases and 1.6% of women in the control group. Studies of high-risk women have estimated that 7% to 10% of all breast cancers are due to inherited mutations.
The work “shows us a clearer picture of risk and genetic drivers for women in the general population who don’t fall under the high-risk category,” said Susan M. Domchek, executive director of Penn’s Basser Center for BRCA and an author of the U.S. study, led by the Mayo Clinic.
Ellen Matloff, a certified genetic counselor and founder of My Gene Counsel, which provides programs to increase access to counseling, said the new research illustrates the complexity of interpreting genetic test results, especially as test panels add genes for which evidence is scant.
“A lot of practitioners think ‘the more genes in the panel, the better,’ ” Matloff said. “This paper shows more genes can add to confusion. People can be advised to have unnecessary surgeries and screening. We’ve had patients with late diagnoses because they were told they were not at risk when they were.”
Indeed, in a recent case study published by Precision Oncology News in collaboration with My Gene Counsel, a 42-year-old woman received incorrect advice about two breast cancer risk genes both of them part of the new population-based studies.
The woman’s case began with a suspicious mammogram, followed by a breast biopsy that found no sign of cancer. Despite the good news, her breast surgeon ordered genetic testing because three members of her extended family died of pancreatic cancer.
Her PALB2 gene had a “variant of unknown significance” — meaning more study is needed to classify it as harmless or disease-related. Her surgeon told her not to worry about it.
PALB2 mutations were linked to a moderately increased risk of breast cancer in the new studies.
She also had an alteration in RAD50, a gene with such a limited breast cancer link that expert guidelines do not recommend considering extra screening or preventive surgeries.
The new population-based studies found RAD50 was not linked at all to increased breast cancer risk.
The surgeon, however, advised his patient to remove both healthy breasts because of the RAD50 variant.
That drastic elective surgery was scuttled because of the pandemic, giving her time to consult a genetic counselor. The patient ultimately opted for increased screening — because of the PALB2 variant her surgeon had brushed aside.
Matloff acknowledges her bias, but having written journal articles compiling such cases, she believes patients must have access, at least by phone or video, to professionals who can advise them and their families.
“There are calls by some prominent scientists that we should be testing all women for breast cancer genes. But data shows breast surgeons and others really struggle to interpret very straightforward results. Now, there are test results that are very nuanced.
“Doctors are very busy and the field is changing rapidly,” she continued. “Insurance companies should and must cover genetic counseling.”
The trial, which is being collectively run by Ziv and Rambam medical centers with researchers from Bar-Ilan University and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, is examining the use of a drug based on a naturally occurring peptide called angiotensin 1-7 to help counter the impact of COVID-19 on the lungs.
A peptide is a set of amino acids.
Coronavirus enters a person’s cells through angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors. These same receptors produce angiotensin 1-7, explained Dr. Karl Skorecki, dean of the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine of Bar-Ilan University in the Galilee. Angiotensin 1-7 is a protein that is naturally produced in the body and is responsible for preventing cell proliferation and inflammation.
“When the enzyme is busy acting as a receptor, it can no longer do what it is supposed to do, which is make angiotensin 1-7,” Skorecki said. “The hope is that by replenishing this peptide, their lungs will get back what the virus nefariously took away from them.”
Around 3% of all people who contract coronavirus in Israel are hospitalized, and many do not respond to what have become traditional steroid or antiviral drug treatments.
The trial is using TXA127, a pharmaceutical formulation of angiotensin 1-7 developed by the US company Constant Therapeutics LLC.
The CEO of the company, Rick Franklin, said that “I am proud of my Jewish roots and of partnering with Rambam, Ziv, Bar-Ilan and the Technion, which are world-renowned institutions.”
Because the protein is a biological substance, the likelihood of it causing side effects is low, according to Skorecki.
The Phase II trial was approved by the Health Ministry and will involve 120 hospitalized COVID-19 patients whose condition is defined as moderate. Sixty patients will receive the treatment and 60 a placebo.
So far, more than a dozen patients have enrolled in the trial.
The idea to test angiotensin 1-7 was generated by the Technion’s Prof. Zaid Abassi.
“I thought if there was a decrease in this enzyme in the body, maybe external administration of the protein would prevent the complications caused by coronavirus, with an emphasis on improving lung damage,” Abassi explained. “Once the idea came up, a race against the clock began.”
Skorecki said the hope is that the trial will be completed in the next two to four months.
Coronavirus mutations would not affect the effectiveness of treatment, according to Rambam’s Dr. Etty Kruzel.
“We are so confident in the results that [Constant Therapeutics] is already recruiting partners to prepare for global manufacturing and distribution.”
I tried to verify this media source but this is all I could findhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Post_Millennial and they are based in Canada. One of the links in this article is to a EO issued by Biden about reversing the easing the ability of prescribers to prescribe/treat substance abuser/addicts with Suboxone type product, but does not mention anything about cutting Rx opiates to pts that have a valid medical necessity.
I have often stated that the worse thing for the community is a “person of power” that has a friend/relative that has OD’d or has a substance abuse issue and President’s Biden son Hunter Biden just release a bookBeautiful Things: A Memoir
“These hardships were compounded by the collapse of his marriage and a years-long battle with drug and alcohol addiction.”
So now we have someone in the White House – the most powerful person on the planet – that sort of matches that description of someone who would/could do something … so that “.. no one should ever have to deal with what they had to deal with.
Joe Biden’s new EO denies patients in pain the medication they need
While campaigning, then-candidate Joe Biden proposed to make life much harder for pain patients, the disabled, and addicts. As President, he has lived up to his word.
While campaigning, then-candidate Joe Biden proposed to make life much harder for pain patients, the disabled, and addicts. As President, he has lived up to his word.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration, led by Democrats, is enacting a plan to expand patient surveillance massively, circumventing HIPPA protections and codifying the unofficial regulations that make up the prescription opioid prohibition. In the face
of a worsening opioid crisis, regulators and federal and state governments hope to make getting pain treatment more impossible.
Even as millions of patients cry out for help and scientific institutions put out studies advocating sheer barbarism, the age of Biden will mean not only a weakened economy, a government-run amuck but a medical surveillance state.
If true, this requires an immediate explanation from the Biden administration. Medication-assisted treatment can save lives, and the
buprenorphine waiver requirement should be eliminated so that physicians can more easily prescribe it to those who need it. https://t.co/IGVz26rfqO
Shortly after the 2020 Presidential election, Filter Magazine discovered that the DEA had put out an official notice requesting proposals for programmers to help them create a surveillance system to monitor at least 85 percent of all prescriptions nationwide. The program would also monitor patient behaviors as well as prescribers and pharmacists.
To quote the DEA: what they hope to build is a way for their agents to get “unlimited access to patient de-identified data” on virtually everyone. It would be like Google, but for the DEA to monitor
every patient and medical professional.
Previously, the DEA and the federal government led a campaign—aided by new state laws mandating Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) and Narxscores—to force pharmacies and doctors to give-up prescription information. Followed often by an informal call or letter meant to intimidate them into abandoning patients.
As Walmart pointed out when they sued the Department of Justice and the DEA, “We are bringing this lawsuit because there is no federal law requiring pharmacists to interfere in the doctor-patient relationship to the degree DOJ is demanding, and in fact expert federal and state health agencies routinely say it is not allowed and potentially harmful to patients with legitimate medical needs.”
Does President Biden or his administration even care?
In his first week of office, Biden rescinded a regulation-making the addiction drug buprenorphine easier to prescribe. And he also killed pharmaceutical protections, ensuring the cost of insulin to skyrocket.
His new czars and cabinet members lead the scientific institutions and regulators like the FDA, the CDC, and the NIH, coming out with decidedly strict and morally outrageous positions on ethics.
The prominent and influential peer-reviewed journal, The Annals of Family Medicine, published a study determining it ethical to deny pain treatment on the singular basis if they live alone. The World Health Organization put out official guidelines suggesting that only when a child is dying should they be allowed opioid pain medication. You are right to think this extreme, but their position is backed by a similar sentiment from the American Pediatric Surgical Association.
You may be surprised to find out that this expansion of government regulation has little to do with opioid prescriptions. Which, as of right now, are at a 20-year low while our overdose deaths are at an all-time high.
The opioid crisis is fake news. By a large margin, the vast majority of opioid overdose deaths—while tragedies—are polysubstance abusers killed by illegal Chinese fentanyl. Studies show a range of pain medicine deaths attributed to be 2 percent or less. It is the illegal, and not legal distribution, of pain pills that needs to be dealth with.
It is a fact. Every autopsy analysis, yearly drug review, and substance abuse study confirms it. Drug use in the US did not significantly increase in the last decade, as much as the substances they were taking got more lethal. A massive change caused unintentionally by the geniuses at the FDA.
At heart the opioid crisis is a black swan of interconnecting unholy incentives to screw American patients over. The crisis was born from the multi-billion-dollar effort by “big litigation” and its allies; to find a new milk cow after the easy cash in big tobacco went dry. In turn, “big lawyer” pays the media for coverage, who are all too happy to gorge themselves on the drama. For law enforcement: the crisis represents a chance to fill their coffers (the DEA is dependent on asset forfeiture), hoping to prove to the politicians and the public their usefulness in a world that is more accommodating to drug use and much harder to catch drug dealers.
Opioids have become, for our elite members, a way to prove their righteousness and make a name for themselves. And the system is willing to oblige, regardless of whatever the law says.
But opioids are not tobacco. There is a genuine cost in tolls of human lives when you prohibit the essential component that makes the miracle of modern medicine possible. For 80 percent of the world’s population, there is a desperate need for more opioids, not less. Unfortunately, for American hospitals, the DEA, and politicians like Senator Elizabeth Warren, have idiotically encouraged an artificial shortage even while fighting a pandemic.
I pray, dear readers, that when you hear that cancer kids are denied pain medication, that it makes you want to throw up. I can strongly remember watching my sister when she was only 3-years-old and fighting ovarian cancer. I cannot imagine the horrors inflicted by denying a child pain relief. Even for adults, being denied effective pain treatment can lead to significant health problems, including heart attacks and strokes.
Yet, I have talked to hundreds of patients and families over the last four years, who have significant diseases such as cancer, and are still denied pain medication. It sounds insane, but every day, across the US, there is a scared medical professional who tells a patient in confidence: “sorry, I know you need this, but it isn’t worth losing my license.” Or “sorry, I know your Dad is dying from pancreatic cancer, but I don’t want him to become an addict.”
Consider that in 2016, at least 18 million relied on opioid prescriptions; five years later, perhaps millions of patients abandoned, putting US opioid prescribing at a 20-year low. Yet, our overdose crisis is worse than ever.
In the Trump era, things got bad enough. Recent studies examining Medicare found many patients had been abruptly discontinued. Another study found that nearly half of general practices now outright refuse to take on the care of a pain patient. The power of decision-making regarding prescribing got removed from your doctor and given to the state.
But under the leadership of the Biden administration, what was unofficial playing at the margins, is becoming law. The DEA is planning to create a program that entirely ignores everyone’s HIPPA privacy protections. In the face of evidence that proves prohibition doesn’t work (shocker), politicians like Sen. Elizabeth Warren are demanding even more regulation, and President Joe Biden, the genie for the far left, is likely to obey.
The last time I checked, we all supported HIPPA. We know that if people knew cancer patients and dying children get denied treatment, there would be hell to pay in Washington, DC. But as you see with the lockdown, the pain is hidden behind quiet walls; and America has become deaf to those cries that somehow breakthrough.
The DEA is acting in a way that will harm the vulnerable and the healthy as well. It is an open question as to how far Biden will let them push him. Americans should say something before we are left in a fatal, painful position and find out for ourselves.
A new day and another video of pain to bring you. This video is important. It was after this pain episode that this doctor tried to stop us recording these episodes. Even Social Services tried to stop us recording at the Doctors request. The Doctor even went to the carers agency to stop the carers recording too. But the carers were employed by me. If that’s not a guilty conscience then what is??
But we carried on recording as much as we could. We just got clever about it, hiding our phones so the nurses couldn’t see. This pain episode was also the episode that prompted the nurses to start pulling the curtains around melody so other parents couldn’t witness her pleas for help, her desperation, her begging eyes. And no one coming to help. This episode went on for a couple of hours, until a doctor that was covering the ward that didn’t know melody witnessed it and gave her morphine. It took two doses of Morphine to get it under control due to how severe it was and how long it was left. This episode is important. This episode was the start of the hospital cover up. Parents were crying witnessing it. My carers were crying. The day after, I tried to show Melody’s liver consultant. He REFUSED to watch it!!!!!!!!!! He has twin girls the same age as Melody and he refused to acknowledge it. He just simply carried on the other doctors request of weaning down and taking away Melody’s medications
Melody needs Justice. She should never of been put through this!
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Every week, I get contacted by chronic pain pts … typically concerning their inability to get their pain management medication. Sometimes it is denied by their insurance/PBM company, sometimes it is the pharmacy that they have patronized for years, sometimes it is their doctor.
2.5 Tons of Methamphetamine and 100,000 Fentanyl Pills Interdicted/seized by DEA
