Tens of millions of seniors, hit by one of the largest increases in recent memory of their monthly Medicare charges due to a prescription drug regulatory debacle, will not see a penny refunded this year on what amounts to a federal overcharge. This will occur, even though it was floated as a possibility and the….
Continue ReadingProduct Safety
Baby formula mess shows big profits, a filthy plant, and bungled oversight
The giant drug maker Abbott and the federal Food and Drug Administration both should hang their heads in shame as more information becomes public as to how they left millions of vulnerable infants hungry and put kids’ health at risk by wrongs involving the manufacture and distribution of a vital foodstuff — baby formula. Millions….
Continue ReadingAn advanced democracy can’t shrug at mass deaths, especially kid killings
Experts fear the country is veering dangerously into a widespread acceptance of mass death as just a regular part of life — not only by moving on with little more than faint acknowledgement of more than 1 million coronavirus pandemic fatalities but also with a tragic resignation about fatal shootings at schools, groceries, movie theaters, and….
Continue ReadingRoad deaths shatter records, as pedestrian fatalities skyrocket, too
Even with budget-busting gas prices, Americans are driving with abandon, especially as the nation heads into the summer vacation season. But what will get motorists to slow down, buckle up, and heed vital road safety steps — especially as the latest new numbers underscore the lethal toll if they don’t? Traffic fatalities climbed by 10%….
Continue ReadingSocial media blamed for fueling opioid crisis for the young
The social media sites that young folks so adore also have turned into virtual illicit drug bazaars, helping to explain the exploding problems with the powerful synthetic painkiller fentanyl and why opioids and overdoses of them have become a leading killer of Americans ages 18 to 45. During the coronavirus pandemic, especially, and continuing onward,….
Continue ReadingHospitals must boost safety efforts and cut low-value (but high-profit) care, experts say
Doctors and hospitals must redouble their efforts to protect patients in their care, as the coronavirus pandemic reversed years of safety advances, and these must be restored top to bottom — and more. This powerful, timely argument has been made in a top medical journal by leading federal regulators at the Centers for Medicare and….
Continue ReadingWho trusts profit-grabbing companies to prevent perilous supply snafus?
Americans keep suffering the dire consequences of corporations’ relentless pursuit of profits, their stifling of beneficial competition, and their failure to secure the production of their products. These now include desperately needed, specialized baby formula and contrast dyes used in diagnostic imaging studies for seriously ill and injured patients. A special place in perdition needs….
Continue ReadingOpioid death toll shatters records as judge weighs pharmacy chain penalties
Even as the opioid abuse and drug overdose crisis worsens and breaks annual records for its resulting death toll, the reckoning for parties blamed for fostering the national nightmare is grinding forward. A federal judge in Cleveland has begun hearing arguments whether three giant pharmacy chains should be fined billions of dollars after a jury….
Continue ReadingU.S. mourns 1 million coronavirus deaths. Nearly one in three may have been preventable.
President Biden has ordered flags in public buildings across the country to be flown at half staff as the nation officially mourns 1 million American deaths due to the coronavirus pandemic. As he noted in a statement: “One million empty chairs around the dinner table. Each an irreplaceable loss. Each leaving behind a family, a community,….
Continue ReadingThis could ‘tick off’ red meat lovers: Pest’s bite leads to lasting food allergy
To those who don’t consider the summer complete without devouring racks of sizzling barbecued pork ribs or slabs of charred beef steaks, experts have an odd but true warning: Watch out for the so-called lone star tick. Amblyomma Americanum, a parasitic species distinguished by a prominent light or white dot on the females’ abdomen, has….
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