Most Liked Health Blogs (955)

Tag. ) ..whats up, Doc ? - b.bunny

Doctor, my eYes / browne
...Best of / Dr. Hook & medicine show
.....M *A*S*H....) season 3
Dr. Strangelove.../ Kubrick
...It's my Life / Dr. Alban
Medicine / bring the Horizon
... infectious hospital waste / demolition hammer
......$ynthesis.} post Op / 4 out of 5 doctors
A R ] ..mental Funeral / autopsy

...ask your Dr. if blk Covfefe* is write 4 U.
* Covert fema. FEMA.....side effects incl.
Headaches, blackouts, Headstones..

Seeking to secure the nation's supply of critical medications, the Trump administration has signed a $354 million contract that would create the nation's first strategic stockpile of key ingredients needed to make medicines.

The agreement was signed Monday with Phlow Corp., a generic drug maker based in Virginia. According to a news release to be made public Tuesday, the project will use federal funds from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority under the Department of Health and Human Services.

The goal is twofold: to enable the U.S. to manufacture essential drugs at risk of shortage and to create a reserve of active pharmaceutical ingredients to reduce the dependence on foreign suppliers.

Phlow's CEO, Dr. Eric Edwards, told NBC News that the company had been in discussions with the administration back in November but that the project was fast-tracked once COVID-19 hit.

"We said: 'We have a short-term and long-term solution. We know that there are certain key essential generic medicines that are going to go into shortage if this thing starts spreading,'" Edwards said. "There were drugs that were already on the FDA drug shortage list long before COVID-19 and we already saw what was happening with PPE, and we knew this was going to be as bad or even worse."

"PPE" is short for personal protective equipment used by medical personnel.

Edwards said the company is set to provide more than a dozen medications and ingredients used for sedation, pain management, blood pressure control and antibiotics. It has already produced over 1.6 million doses of five essential generic drugs used to treat COVID-19 that were added to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile in March.

Phlow will be manufacturing the drugs in partnership with the nonprofit pharmaceutical company Civica Rx, Virginia Commonwealth University and AMPAC Fine Chemicals, a manufacturer of active pharmaceutical ingredients. The total value of the Phlow contract is up to $812 million, which includes the possibility of an additional $458 million to keep the project going long term. It was first reported by The New York Times.

"This is an historic turning point in the battle of President Trump to bring our pharmaceutical manufacturing and supply chain home to American soil," White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told NBC News.

The move would help address a longstanding concern in the health care sector, experts said, as the vast majority of raw drug ingredients are produced overseas, mainly in India and China because of cheap manufacturing costs and less stringent regulations. Experts have long feared a significant supply disruption caused by the country's dependence on foreign manufacturing.

The coronavirus pandemic has forced hospitals to scramble to source critical medications for COVID-19 patients. In some cases, fear of shortages has created a competitive landscape among health care providers seeking the same medications.

Arash Dabestani, senior director of pharmacy at NYU Langone Health in New York, said getting the necessary drugs often involves a team of six people making calls to wholesalers, distributors and direct manufacturers as early as 9 a.m. And even then, they may get only half the supply they really need.

"It's like an auction," Dabestani said. "Whoever screams the loudest gets it."

Read more:

Sure, the wonders of spring cheer many of us up. I have been experiencing my first real serious (not yet delirious) existential variety of clinical depression. No Azores this year, so far. Lock down and the excuse of sloth, put on a few Kg's. Too much choice in life. The vagaries of my kids' lives. And so on. Then C-19, to really put a little frosting on it all.
I used to wonder what such blues really were, and even doubted the validity of such, as I sent my charges on to electro convulsive treatments, after many things were tried, and failed. Including when, even drug combinations, weren't nearly enough. The sort of folks who can't be left out of sight for even a day or two, noose and pistols ever at the ready. This is the land of the free and brave, after all.
But it's a gift to really know in the flesh, that treetop depression exists, and more importantly, how it suits one. And my hottie doctor psychologist, of nearly two decades, now wants to use Zoom. I hate Zoom. So it's of to the apothecary. When things work, they usually continue to do so.
But my ex next door called excitedly to say she saw the first pair of these incredible penny weight critters. Off to the store to buy a colorful feeder, self mixing of "nectar", cheap gnome that I am, and it's now up among the other feeders, visible through the bay window, fascinating both Bravo and meself.
Instant lifting of mood. Even the fruit and berry blossoms, planting the garden, watching Bravo fearlessly chase the chimp monks, and fast paced walking weren't enough. But those little birds, arriving on the wing from some 7,000 KM away, to the same spot, easily fending of birds many times their size, in full helo form---now THAT is the rub.

Trump announces he's taking hydroxychloroquine and days later people are trying to home brew their anti-covid-19 remedies.
Here we go again with folks. News yesterday said Schweppes tonic water with quinine has disappeared off the grocers shelves and they are predicting a rise in poisonings with 'monkey see monkey do' folks trying any similar defense to the COVID-19 pandemic.

...and you though no one would be so gullible to try bleach injections, this one could be exponential!

The agonal mantra during the terminal stages of Trump Derangement-Hilary Deficit Syndromes. Little hope for a cure. Nuff said.

Trials involving 500 people in the UK given a vaccine developed by Oxford University produced BOTH
antibodies and T-cell reactions. Antibodies help in the shorter term, but a T cell reaction may give protection for over a year. Phase 3 trials will be undertaken soon depending upon the results to that, the vaccine may be ready to distribute to the public as early as September or October.
This is the first vaccine for protection against Covid-19 that has shown both antibody & T cell responses.

The full details of the study should be available later today.

Today from The New York Times;

...not always easy to define, and often quite different for different folks. Most have a few, and seem to learn the addictions in younger years. But a few foods seem to be near universal favorites.
High contents of fats, and spices, including salt, ---in many. And carbs with simple sugars, of course. Also, there are cultural differences. But more apparent similarities.
There's science, even possibly evolutionary forces, behind some cravings. Simple sugars are the main currency of the brain, and fats have the highest calorie content per unit mass, twice that of carbs or other simple sugar based larger molecules. Many ingredients in these foods were rare in the distant past, among many populations. The first addictive treats? And the brain regions, pancreas and even fat cells elaborate hormones of desire and comfort, when blasted with these delights, so there.
Yet not so fast. There are also links with inflammatory processes and these treats. And inflammation is rapidly replacing the old monoamine hypotheses in causing depression, and anxiety. Then there is the world wide curse of obesity, even among youth, which often is regulated, in part, by similar hormones. Worse, the type of fat tissues involved can preferentially be laid down in younger years. And are harder to get rid of, without surgery, at least for now. Double and triple whammies for those of "just a few extra pounds", as in so many CS profiles, sadly. Familiar and cultural influences as well. Malk on the streets of this little town, and observe families walking together. Obesity.
The good news is that these are active areas of research. In particular, on the links between all the above mentioned factors, and mood, emotions, behaviors and being overweight. Even psychiatrists, the nail and tattoo artists of real medicine, are involved.
And there's lots more. We can train ourselves to find more healthful foods of some comfort. I've done so, and the fat little illiterate Vierk Gnome is now close to boyish HS/college wrestling weight. But truth be said, the bad stuff still hasn't fully lost its allure, in spite of the uses of fiber, dried fruits, and such.
Recall, demon alcohol and other substances, notably nicotine and the opiates, hold many with strong arms, but many also quit addictions every day. Often for life. Some former alcoholic drinkers can even practice more controlled, non-alcoholic drinking, and their newer programs are now challenge those older ones based on the powerful sponsorship, spirituality and 12 steps.
We are more complicated than we are simple. Both good, and not so good, news.

The New York Times reports today;



Trump's response ? "Well, it will probably get worse before it gets better."

Yeah, thanks for your help, oh non-empathetic one. It sure didn't go away in May, as you stated it would.

I warned c_r on here TWICE, that deaths is the trailing trend. Fist come infections, then come hospitalizations and finally the deaths increase.

If you stop the infections, you stop the hospitalizations and the deaths.

Stop killing people ! Wear the masks when you can't socially distance at least 6 feet from people and wash your hands with soap and water before touching your face. .And quit urging businesses that can't do this, to open up.

...big government compared with the dreaded private sector.
Syndromic alt lefties actually refuse to see the huge differences here. Examples are many. I'll merely mention a few for starters.
In health care, principally from the ethically stipulated subfields of geriatric and transplant medicine, there is a money saving movement, principally among supporters of the unafordable health noncare act, to deny treatments to certain groups of individuals. Overweight and in terminal heart failure? Like your beer and are in terminal stages of liver failure? Much easier to prevail for life saving transplants over private insurance than the biiiig baaaad government. Many more clinical examples, but at least under private systems, the appeal process is much more accessible and extensive.The courts and marketing forces can make companies take notice. Big government could care less. "Too old" for many other interventions?Conscription of your daughters and sons anyone? Pols decide.
Government insinuating it's power between clinicians and their charges. Nuff said.
And the whole concept of eminent domain is a cautionary tale. Your municipality wants your home destroyed for a new park or highway? Or a residential development funded by connected (lobbyists) pols. By fiat, and a quick vote, your home/farm/business are toast, unless the expropriators are private.
Of course, the worst examples come from governments of the one party, fascist dictator States, as with Commie China, Cuba, and the lot. Bridges to nowhere, unoccupied enormous apartment blocks,--- all by dispossessing the land of rural multigenerational farmers. But don't just take my words for it.
Just another of many valid arguments to limit big government to having power over the smallest reasonable tiny list of activities. The potentials for corruption and abuses of power are legion.
I really think those suffering from TD-HD Syndromes get it, but the levels of denial and other obsessive pathologies keep the awareness under tight wraps. VERY tight.
Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.