While critics keep throwing up a false narrative about “ambulance chasing,” self-enriching lawyers, their labors and the civil legal system have proven yet again their effectiveness in wringing financial justice for those harmed by health care giants. The nation’s largest pharmacy chains have tentatively agreed to pay $10 billion in settlements for dispensing an avalanche of….
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U.S. research offers sobering look at lethal damage caused by alcohol
The liquor cabinets, beer coolers and wine cellars in our homes harbor one of the most pernicious substances in U.S. households, a leading (but often overlooked) cause of preventable death and debilitation: Yes, alcohol itself. Federal officials estimate that 1 in 8 deaths of Americans ages 20 to 64 results from injuries or illnesses tied to excessive….
Continue ReadingNBA star has low-key, savvy, and compassionate way to help sick kids
College and pro athletes create feel-good moments in almost rote fashion these days with well-intentioned sojourns to local hospitals to see sick kids. These brief visits are an image-enhancing dream for publicists, teams, and the folks who drop big money on sports in hopes that fans’ adoration of jocks translates into major profits. For at….
Continue ReadingFungi posing bigger health risks, as drugs’ potency wanes, experts warn
People around the planet must be more wary of the fungus among us, because the too often overlooked pathogens are becoming “increasingly widespread, resistant to treatment, and deadly.” That’s the view of the World Health Organization, as reported by the New York Times and other media organizations. WHO has sought to heighten awareness about an….
Continue ReadingBuckling up and buckling down: D.C. is failing on 2024 road safety goal
Officials in the District of Columbia must match commitment to candor if they hope to achieve a long-promised goal of reducing the terrible toll on area roads. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser pledged in 2015 to reduce traffic fatalities in the district to zero by 2024 — a goal she has conceded her administration has “fallen….
Continue ReadingSeasonal flu hitting early and hard, increasing fears of ‘tripledemic’
The damage that seasonal flu causes can be difficult to forecast. But doctors, hospitals, and public health experts already are seeing the illness hit “hard and early,” especially in the Washington, D.C., area. The indicators are shaping up that this will be the most severe flu year in the last 13. This is exponentially concerning,….
Continue ReadingCheaper hearing aids finally go on sale, without prescriptions
Well, hear, hear! A much delayed, but important health care reform has gotten off to a rocking start. Consumers with moderate hearing loss now can buy hearing aids with greater convenience and less cost — over the counter and without prescriptions. New devices, new makers, and new retailers have raced in to tap a big….
Continue ReadingU.S. Surgeon General’s novel prescription? Healthier jobs and workplaces
Although the still-chugging U.S. economy is providing workers with more employment opportunities than many economists expected, it is always tough to leave a job, even with the highly publicized trend of “quiet quitting” supposedly in full force. Still, no less an authority than Dr. Vivek Murthy, the U.S. Surgeon General, has warned Americans that too….
Continue ReadingA reckoning for FDA fast drug approvals and moms’ mistreatment
Federal regulators have hit a highly public reckoning for their policies to provide speedy approvals for prescription drugs, benefiting Big Pharma’s profits but not necessarily patients — notably women in serious need of help with a shame of the U.S. health care system: the nation’s dismal state with injuries and deaths to expectant moms and….
Continue ReadingWith pandemic persisting, pediatric respiratory cases filling hospitals
Lest anyone think the coronavirus pandemic is not taking a significant toll on this country still, just look at the worrisome conditions prevailing in overflowing pediatric hospitals and the bracing data on how whites gradually have become more likely to die from the infectious disease than blacks. Doctors and hospitals say they are struggling with….
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