Yup, we made (consecutive) appointments for each of us. A 2-day wait. My wife and I drove to town arriving 15 minutes early…as suggested when we made the appointments. And guess what?
“Oh, we just ran out of vaccine for RSV.”
No, we didn’t reschedule at Walgreens. We’ll look up another pharmacy…at a location along our usual route into town; but, actually, is ready for a scheduled visit.
I hope.
Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg
For a nation that seeks to claim the mantle of “pharmacy to the world,” India is scandalously short on regulatory oversight. In the last six months alone, its generic cough syrups have killed dozens of children, its eye drops have caused blindness and its chemotherapy drugs have been contaminated.
The children who died — mostly under the age of five years — were given Indian-made over-the-counter products contaminated with industrial solvents and antifreeze agents that are fatal in even small amounts. The eye drops that contained extensively drug-resistant bacteria? So far 68 patients across 16 US states have been affected. Three people died, several had to have their eyeballs removed, some went blind, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on March 21. The Indian company, Global Pharma Healthcare, issued a voluntary nationwide recall for the drops.
India is the largest provider of generic medicines, producing 20% of the world’s supply, according to the government’s Economic Survey. Its $50 billion drug-manufacturing industry exports medicines to over 200 nations and makes 60% of all vaccines. It boasts “the highest number” of US Food and Drug Administration compliant plants outside America, and indeed, some of its generic pharmaceutical companies produce high-quality medicines.
That may well provide consumers with a level of comfort, but history suggests it is unwise to trust that feeling.
Getty
After international scientists discovered a potential link between the origin of the covid-19 virus and raccoon dogs, medical experts in Western Pennsylvania said the animal could be where the virus began.
Samples collected from the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, China — where the first human cases of covid-19 were found in late 2019 — contained genetic material from raccoon dogs, indicating the fox-like animals may have been infected with the virus.
Raccoon dogs were linked to the first SARS outbreak in 2003, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a Pittsburgh-based infectious disease expert and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
“That put it on a list of animals that were susceptible to covid-related viruses,” he said, adding that they were known to have been sold at the Huanan seafood market, which is linked to the start of the pandemic…
Vaughn Cooper, a professor of microbiology and molecular genetics and director for the Center for Evolutionary Biology and Medicine at the UPMC School of Medicine, said he’s fairly convinced of the theory that the virus originated in an animal like the raccoon dog and spread to people.
The new evidence that shows the DNA of the raccoon dogs mixed with the RNA of the covid-19 virus is “quite strong,” he said.
Science marches on alongside intellectual honesty. Facts certainly appear to match opinions based on recent science. No doubt leading to confirmation of something like that propounded in this article.
No worry, though. The penny-ante pundits in the Republican Party will soon enough find some new thread to convince the dull-witted and bigoted that ignorance must rule.
These findings – based on a model developed by a team of researchers at institutions including the University of Washington – show that, across the contiguous US, the neighborhoods burdened by the worst pollution are overwhelmingly the same places where Black and Hispanic populations live. Race is more of a predictor of air pollution exposure than income level, researchers have found.
“What we’re seeing here is segregation,” said Julian Marshall, professor of environmental engineering at the University of Washington, co-director of the Center for Air, Climate and Energy Solutions and one of the team of researchers that created the computer model. “You have segregation of people and segregation of pollution.”
Different approach. Results not so surprising if you reflect upon the article’s contents.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday said the state will not renew its multi-million dollar contract with Walgreens over the pharmacy chain’s recent decision not to distribute abortion medication by mail in 21 U.S. states…
The state had paid Walgreens roughly $54 million throughout the entirety of the contract.
A quick online search this morning found sources for mail order mifepristone in Canada. No doubt there are more.
Click anywhere in post for link
“Humans suffer from the exact same type of lymphedema horses do, but the difference is that human medicine has a very effective treatment option—pneumatic compression devices,” Lauren Schnabel says. “So we wanted to create a horse-specific version of those devices and see if it would be similarly effective.”…
Lymphedema is the accumulation of excess lymph fluid which causes swollen limbs. In a pilot study the device, called the EQ Press, successfully moved fluid up the horses’ limbs and into the lymph nodes. This could lead to relief for horses with chronic conditions, as well as with temporary swelling due to injury or inactivity…
The full EQ Press system comprises custom garments designed to accommodate the front and rear limbs of horses. Powered by pumps that tuck into a saddle pad, the device creates cycles of dynamic pressure waves that start at the bottom of the limb and move up, forcing fluid up the limb and eliminating backflow.
I must admit, though…it’s a pretty stylish look, as well.
Yuichiro Miura, 80, before ascending Mt. Everest for the third time
..It is actually common to feel younger than we are. A 2018 study with 33,751 respondents showed that once people pass the pivotal age of 25, they typically rate their subjective age as younger than their chronological age. And this discrepancy grows as we get older – for every decade that passes, people tend to feel that have only gained five or six years. This is the equivalent to living Martian years as opposed to Earth years.
It turns out that this phenomenon may have rather important implications. A recent surge in research in this area has revealed that the extent to which people feel younger than they are is strongly associated with a whole range of health outcomes. People with a younger subjective age are less likely to suffer from diabetes, hypertension, depression, cognitive impairment and dementia. These people also tend to report better sleep, better memory function and more fulfilling sex lives.
People with a younger subjective age also view their future selves in a more positive light and are more likely to walk faster. One group of researchers even found that people with a lower subjective age have a younger looking brain. Brain scans showed that they had more grey matter overall, with particular resilience in areas called the prefrontal cortex (involved in planning and complex cognitive behaviour) and superior temporal gyrus (responsible for processing sounds and emotions).
Something I’ve experienced, recognized for most of my adult life. Turns out this doesn’t surprise scientists studying folks’ aging…after all.
A judge in Peru opened proceedings on Monday against disgraced former president Alberto Fujimori and other officials accused of the “forced sterilizations” of thousands of poor, mostly indigenous, women.
An estimated 270,000 Peruvians were subjected to surgery to have their fallopian tubes tied as part of a family planning program instigated during Fujimori’s final four years in power.
Fujimori and his fellow defendants, including three ex-health ministers, “did a lot of harm with their policies,” said public prosecutor Pablo Espinoza as he read out the charges against the 82-year-old former president…
Fujimori, who is currently serving a 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity during his 1990-2000 presidency, did not take part in the virtual hearing.
He and his five fellow defendants are accused of being “indirect perpetrators of damage to life and health, serious injuries and serious human rights abuses” against women who were surgically sterilized between 1996 and 2000.
Most of the victims were indigenous people including a woman who was 19 when in 1997 she took her baby to a clinic to be vaccinated, only to be tied up by soldiers.
Fujimori and his henchmen should be executed – slowly and publicly – for their crimes against humanity. Yeah, I know. That wouldn’t be humane. Tell that to the women and men who were forcibly sterilized.
Eideard 