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Today鈥檚 public service announcements on gun safety feel somewhat sanitized. It鈥檚 time to act with the same kind of visceral public campaign that helped de-glorify smoking. Would filmmakers commit to making action movies without guns, just as filmmakers stopped making smoking glamorous in films?
With fears of a winter surge looming, government agencies have authorized and encouraged vaccination with a newly formulated booster. But the science to support that decision remains inconclusive.
The federal government is stepping in to assist student loan borrowers. But little public attention has been focused on what is 鈥 statistically, at least 鈥 a bigger, broader debt crisis in our country: An estimated 100 million people in the U.S., or 41% of all adults, are saddled with pernicious health care debt.
One million Americans have died from covid-19 鈥 far more per capita than in any other developed country. A new variant is doubling case rates in some states, and more than 300 people are dying a day. But our nation鈥檚 pandemic response has become mild-mannered and performative, backed by neither money, urgency, nor enforcement.
Drug copayment assistance is a form of profitable charity 鈥 and, yes, that鈥檚 an oxymoron. Amid skyrocketing drug prices, it's understandable that patients desperately need help affording medicine, especially when their health is on the line. But these programs create a mirage that perpetuates our health care system鈥檚 reckless spending.
It is a perilous time to throw low- and middle-income Americans off the insurance cliff: A new omicron subvariant is spreading, and a program that provided coronavirus testing and covid-19 treatment at no cost to the uninsured has expired.
As some states adopt covid vaccine requirements, not everyone agrees mandates for children are the way forward. Taking a page from history: We have two paths to putting the pandemic behind us: a quicker, more certain one of mandatory vaccination or a stuttering, drawn-out, likely more deadly affair.
Politicians and many health experts have done their best to see the glass half-full in the plan put forward by congressional Democrats and the president. But it鈥檚 鈥渁 far cry鈥 from what other nations do to rein in drug prices, and polls show most voters demand more protection.
The state鈥檚 unique health system controls what hospitals can charge for services.
Here鈥檚 an out-of-the-box idea: Have letter carriers spend less time delivering mail and take time to perform home visits and basic health checks on the growing population of frail and elderly.
Health insurers could do more to encourage vaccination, including letting the unvaccinated foot their bills.
In today鈥檚 pharmaceutical universe, a simple 鈥渟afe and effective鈥 determination by the Food and Drug Administration to approve a drug can be manipulated to sell products of questionable value. And drugmakers can profit handsomely.
It could take years for follow-up studies to prove Aduhelm slows the disease 鈥 or doesn鈥檛. Meanwhile, its maker will profit.
If international scientific sleuths are hoping to see a lab log or find a whistleblower, that sort of information won鈥檛 be revealed. In China today, it is dangerous to say what you know if it challenges the official government narrative.
The pandemic has demonstrated that virtual medicine is great for simple visits. But many new types of telemedicine promoted by start-ups more clearly benefit providers鈥 and investors鈥 pockets, rather than yielding more convenient, high-quality and cost-effective medicine for patients.
The United States has undergone a cultural, definitional, practical shift on guns and what they are for.
After 9/11, as our defenses against international and bioterrorism hardened, our defenses against infectious diseases shrank. By the time a deadly virus arrived on our shores last year, nearly two-thirds of Americans were living in counties that spend more than twice as much on policing as they spend on public health.
President Joe Biden may want to continue the previous administration鈥檚 efforts to lower drug prices and make medical costs transparent.
Living through SARS taught my children important lessons, and not just about hygiene. It taught them how to make sacrifices for the sake of friends, family and community.
When hospital administrators and politicians鈥 spouses get immunized before people more at risk, it undermines confidence in the system.
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