- Some hospitals, sick of high drug prices, are forming their own non-profit drug manufacturer.
- Michael Wolff’s riotously controversial book about the Trump administration has already been signed for a TV series. A sit-com, I assume. (H/T MRJ)
- In Mexico, cities are dealing with corruption and violence by effectively seceding and shutting themselves off.
- Oh yeah, just what every “smart” home needs: a spycam and microphone right next to your bed, reporting your activities to Amazon and any hacker or member of the uber-government who cares to observe. (Tip o’ hat to fred)
- Meanwhile, in India, people are reportedly dying thanks to the world’s largest biometric ID system. The answer? Make it bigger and create more dependency on it, of course.
- If you thought “just-in-time” inventory management was a disaster waiting to happen, apparently Whole Foods’ “order-to-shelf” system is a disaster that’s already happened. Do your friends and neighbors still imagine they’ll be able to hit the local grocery store after the next storm or earthquake?
- Jon Rappoport on hoaxes, scandals, and lies behind the annual flu vaccine hype. (H/T fred)
- The story of how “these united States” became “the United States,” is slightly more complicated than you might have heard. So says Eugene Volokh. (The tipping point still seems to have been the War Between the States, though.)
- The importance of putting first things first.
The flu shot….when its actually almost always pneumonia thats killing people.If we had an honest system we would be pushing the 2 pneumonia vaccines that only need one shot each and maybe a booster for livelong protection.But where is the money in that???
Claire noted she had got the tetanus shot and the 2 pneumonia shots and it was exactly what I’ve done,only to add I want the shingles shot too as wife got that a few years back and lets make clear it is something you definitely dont want.Dr didnt want to give second pneumonia shot at same time as shingles,will get next visit.
As a retired RN it took a couple decades before I figured out I was frequently lied to about medicine either deliberately thru overt lies like the flu business,or lied to thru propagandised or bought off science.
Like the horrible food pyramid or the cholesterol myth that says chole causes heart/arterial disease when real studies show cholesterol in arteries appears to be a response to arterial damage.The cholesterol myth became ‘fact’ without studies,just that chole in arteries must be caused from chole in blood,an ASSUMPTION.
More on cholesterol…insurance actuarial tables show the ideal cholesterol level is 180-220.Go off in either direction and lifespans decrease.The statin promoters dont tell you that now do they.Just that you might have a slight less chance, at best, of not dying from heart disease,are you happy to have a greater chance of dying from something else????
Now SUGAR,there is something to fear.May as well drink battery acid IMO and the opinion of many researchers,its a killer.
As in everything FOLLOW THE MONEY.Medicine is no different,its one of the biggest money
plays there is.
If I were to make a guess I would say 50% of what passes as medicine is pure hogwash IMO.
Rant off 🙂
A quick internet search has shingles vaccine at 233.54 at Walmart,and 249.99 at CVS,Target and Walgreens for folks without insurance.
The thing on the Untied States,made my head spin,Im too brain dead to understand the legalese.
Hospitals manufacturing their own drugs? Uh – Uh.
They’re going to be looking for the money (as if they aren’t already).
Teamed up with the VA or any government department makes them even more vulnerable to gov regulation. And limited to ONLY those drugs.
And may lead to a (hospital management) department of its own.
Will they attempt to manufacture drugs for illness (which requires a large commitment to Research & Development, and to time), or continue to produce drugs only for symptoms? How long before they start soliciting for R & D?
Will they (or some part of their cartel) next branch out into medical supplies? Hospitals are not making money and there is talk that many hospitals may not be needed in the future (due to more outpatient service and less inpatient time, clinics on every corner, mobile health units, direct pay and home visits by doctors, etc.). Do they anticipate eventually getting out of the hospital business entirely in order to make big bucks off of drugs or peripheral medicine?
I suspect these hospitals are getting themselves into position for a new direction to keep themselves economically alive. There is a conglomerate feel about this – this idea is attracting *large hospital systems,* not the average-size hospital or smaller ones that can’t afford to be a part of it.
The answers to these questions will have a big impact on patient care – and patient care is far down on their list of priorities. The reason for getting into the drug business is due to the PRICE of drugs, not to manufacture a better drug or improve the health of the patient.
There’s a lot more to this decision than the stated reason, I think.
I have to agree with both of the above. “Follow the money” hasn’t become a standard cliche without a reason.
Some docs aren’t doing all that well either, apparently, especially male anesthesiologists. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/what-ive-learned-from-my-tally-of-757-doctor-suicides/2018/01/12/b0ea9126-eb50-11e7-9f92-10a2203f6c8d_story.html?utm_term=.bf0c89096c7c
Good link Shel.The hours Dr’s are expected to work is criminal.
Hospital’s keeping the drug companies honest? Aren’t some hospitals charging $200 for an aspirin?
https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=126046573&pagenumber=1
I encountered just-in-time inventory control a couple of times in my career and both times predicted disaster, only to watch in shock as it worked perfectly well and indeed was a big improvement over the way we’d been doing things. So it certainly can work.
I suspect in this case somebody in Whole Foods’ “global headquarters” is more interested in control than in inventory.
America became “these united States” which then became “The United States”. A HUGE mistake that seems to only get worse with time.
Last night I read Volokh’s essay about when “United States” changed from a plural noun to a singular one (“the Unites States are” became “the United States is“), and much as I generally agree with him I don’t think he’s particularly accurate this time. He thinks it happened around 1900. I disagree. The turning point certainly was the Civil War, which (for good or ill) changed the nation from a loose confederation of semi-sovereign states into a unitary nation. But no one ever said that the change was immediate, like flipping a switch. It takes time to change an entire society’s speech patterns. And looking at judicial decisions (which was the focus of Volokh’s analysis) is precisely the last place I would look for evidence of societal change. Judges are almost invariably older and conservative (stylistically, if in no other sense); you’d have to wait for a new generation to ascend to the bench for such a change to be noticed. So if, as he claims, it really began to be seen in judicial opinions around 1900 that comports almost exactly with a change beginning to take hold around 1965.
Been heavy on the sugar in my coffee since I was sixteen.
I turned sixteen in 1951.
Still here.
Had an electrocardiogram when I was forty. The nurse looked at the tape and asked, ”What are you trying to do? Live forever?”
Still tickin’.
More on Whole Foods’ strange “order-to-shelf” system. Apparently leaving shelves empty is part of the plan. (What? They don’t have computerized inventory systems to tell them what they need to replace? They can only go by visuals?)
http://www.businessinsider.com/whole-foods-internal-documents-on-empty-shelves-2018-1