US Drug Manufacturing Is a Mess

• Farah Stockman, writing in her NYT opinion piece “How Much Can You Trust That Generic Drug You’re Taking?” takes a hard look at how our national drug manufacturing capability has dramatically eroded, and how dependent we now are on offshore manufacturers with sometimes dubious quality controls.  This is an important topic, and definitely worth a read.  An excerpt that should concern you:

“A recent study based on data from Clarivate, an analytics firm cited in the White House report, was even more alarming. It found that, of the top 100 generic medicines that Americans consume, 83 had no U.S. source of active pharmaceutical ingredients. No American source existed for 97 percent of the most commonly prescribed antivirals and 92 percent of the most commonly prescribed antibiotics.”

2021-09-19T08:57:14-05:00September 19th, 2021|HomeRecommended|

COVID Vaccination Reduces Transmission to Family Members

Research correspondence e-published on September 8 in the New England Journal of Medicine, looking at rates of COVID infections in 194,362 household members of 144,525 health care workers, pre and post vaccination of the workers:

“We provide empirical evidence suggesting that vaccination may reduce transmission by showing that vaccination of health care workers is associated with a decrease in documented cases of Covid-19 among members of their households”

“Relative to the period before each health care worker was vaccinated, the hazard ratio for a household member to become infected was 0.70 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.63 to 0.78) for the period beginning 14 days after the first dose and 0.46 (95% CI, 0.30 to 0.70) for the period beginning 14 days after the second dose”

Shah A, Gribben, C, Bishop J et al. Effect of Vaccination on Transmission of SARS-CoV-2.

Vaccination – it’s NOT just to protect you, but to protect others – including your family.

2021-09-18T16:17:55-05:00September 18th, 2021|Home, Musings|

How many lives could have been saved…

An epidemiologist and data computer scientist model how many lives might have been saved in the US since July if all states vaccinated their populations as well as our best state (Vermont). Emma Pierson, Jaline Gerardin and The Lives Lost to Undervaccination, in Charts.”  They estimate that number is at least 16,000. 

Someone needs to let Republican governors know that stemming the Delta spike would be a lot better for the economy than their specious railing against vaccine and mask mandates.

2021-09-14T08:43:01-05:00September 14th, 2021|Home, Musings|

Linda Greenhouse expounds on the incursion of religion into Supreme Court opinions

• I always find anything done by Linda Greenhouse, who writes in the NYT on the Supreme Court and the law, worthwhile reading.  Her latest opinion piece, “God Has No Place in Supreme Court Opinions“, is especially worth reading (unsurprisingly, it reflects my own sentiments on the matter). An excerpt:

“Religion is American society’s last taboo. We can talk about sexual identity, gender nonconformity, all manner of topics once considered too intimate for open discussion. But we have yet to find deft and effective ways to question the role of religion in a public official’s political or judicial agenda without opening ourselves to accusations of being anti-religious.”

2021-09-14T08:31:19-05:00September 11th, 2021|HomeRecommended|
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