health

SHOCK: Hateful MSNBC Floats Withholding Emergency Services to Texas

March 4, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: INVESTIGATIONS, Newsbusters

One of the most basic rules of health care is that it is immoral to discriminate against someone for their political beliefs, but that didn’t stop MSNBC Live host Stephanie Ruhle from entertaining the idea on her Thursday program that Texas and Mississippi could be punished for lifting their mask mandates.

Alluding to President Biden’s “Neanderthal thinking” comments, Ruhle welcomed Obama-era CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden, “someone who is definitely not a Neanderthal thinker.” She shockingly wondered aloud: “Should they get access to, let’s say, emergency federal help if they end up with a spike in cases or hospitalizations down the road?”

Ruhle raised the possibility that the feds punish Texas and Mississippi for their deviations from CDC guidelines. Here’s the quote in full:

Tom, you know I always ask about money. When states like Texas and Mississippi that are in the bottom ten as far as vaccinations go, when they go against CDC guidance and open up, should they face consequences? Should they — for example, should they get access to, let’s say, emergency federal help if they end up with a spike in cases or hospitalizations down the road?

Of course, Texas just experienced a record-breaking winter storm that limited their ability to administer vaccines, but omitting details in Texas-related stories is not new for Ruhle.

Frieden responded, “This is always a challenge, Stephanie because ultimately it’s not the government of Texas that’s going to suffer, it’s the people of Texas, and ultimately the federal government has responsibility to support everyone in the country.”

He then caused Ruhle to burst out laughing when he further added:

The challenge is, and frankly I think it’s an insult to Neanderthals, there is no defensible argument for stopping a mask mandate while we still have very high levels of spread. We know that masks work. We know that mask mandates work and we know that variants are a very real risk. We have explosive spread in Brazil, in a community that already had explosive spread once. So to suggest that it’s not like something that’s going to come through and be gone, it’s possible that it comes back.

Frieden then contradicted himself about still having “very high levels of spread” by claiming “On the other hand we do really have a lot of good news, and bottom line hang in there. Vaccines are becoming more available. Vaccines are working. And we’re seeing dramatic decreases in deaths, in nursing homes and elsewhere.”

Concluding his answer Frieden struggled with the concept of a mandate, “So exactly as Tony Fauci says over the summer and into the fall we’re going to get to a new normal but masks are going part of our lives for a while. It’s a small thing to do that could save someone’s life. Even with the vaccines this remains a potentially deadly disease.”

This segment was sponsored by Verizon.

Here is a transcript for the March 4 show:

MSNBC

MSNBC Live with Stephanie Ruhle

9:12 AM ET

STEPHANIE RUHLE: I want to dig deeper with someone who is definitely not a Neanderthal thinker, Dr. Tom Frieden, he served as director of the CDC, currently president and CEO of The Group Resolved to Save Lives. Tom, you know I always ask about money. When states like Texas and Mississippi that are in the bottom ten as far as vaccinations go, when they go against CDC guidance and open up, should they face consequences? Should they — for example, should they get access to, let’s say, emergency federal help if they end up with a spike in cases or hospitalizations down the road?

TOM FRIEDEN: This is always a challenge, Stephanie because ultimately it’s not the government of Texas that’s going to suffer, it’s the people of Texas, and ultimately the federal government has responsibility to support everyone in the country, the challenge is, and frankly I think it’s an insult to Neanderthals, there is no defensible argument for stopping a mask mandate while we still have very high levels of spread. We know that masks work. We know that mask mandates work and we know that variants are a very real risk. We have explosive spread in Brazil, in a community that already had explosive spread once. So to suggest that it’s not like something that’s going to come through and be gone, it’s possible that it comes back. On the other hand we do really have a lot of good news, and bottom line hang in there. Vaccines are becoming more available. Vaccines are working. And we’re seeing dramatic decreases in deaths, in nursing homes and elsewhere. So exactly as Tony Fauci says over the summer and into the fall we’re going to get to a new normal but masks are going part of our lives for a while. It’s a small thing to do that could save someone’s life. Even with the vaccines this remains a potentially deadly disease.

The Wall Street Journal: WHO investigators to scrap interim report on probe of COVID-19 origins, amid U.S.-China tensions

March 4, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: BUSINESS, MarketWatch

A World Health Organization team investigating the origins of Covid-19 is planning to scrap an interim report on its recent mission to China amid mounting tensions between Beijing and Washington over the investigation and an appeal from one international group of scientists for a new probe.

IPO Report: Oscar Health is going public: Five things to know about the digital insurer

February 27, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: BUSINESS, MarketWatch

Oscar Health Inc., the digital health insurance company well known to New Yorkers thanks to a subway advertising campaign, is going public in a deal that could value the company at up to $8 billion.

Wash Post Op-ed: Sen. Paul Is A ‘Monster’ For Questioning Trans Policies for Kids

February 26, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: INVESTIGATIONS, Newsbusters

The potential United States Assistant Secretary of Health can’t even get the record straight on her gender but Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) is the “monster” for expressing concerns about how someone like that might supervise America’s medical bureaucracy?

In an op-ed for The Washington Post, columnist and style reporter, Monica Hesse, went into attack dog mode against the Senator from Kentucky on February 26, after he refused to pull any punches while questioning of Biden’s potential Assistant Secretary of Health, Dr. Rachel Levine, during his Senate confirmation hearing. Hesse called Paul’s questioning of the appointee a “tirade” full of “ignorance” and “demeaning” questions.

Of course, let’s set the proper context here. Levine, a biological male who is now a “trans female” has endorsed controversial and dangerous transgender procedures being applied to children in the past. Though Hesse couldn’t be bothered to wonder if a Biden medical bureau helmed by a trans activist would have strange implications for the health of America’s children. Anyone who was skeptical, like Paul, drew her wrath.

The columnist took issue with this question from the Senator: “Dr. Levine, you have supported [minors] being given hormone blockers, and surgical reconstruction of a child’s genitalia.” Hesse characterized it as a “tirade” and bashed him for comparing it to genital mutilation of the variety found in countries prone to human rights violations.

The fact that Paul’s question about seriously consequential views regarding children’s safety and health was just glossed over and dismissed, is highly disturbing. Hesse ignored it, and on top of that, pivoted to what she saw as Paul conflating it with more serious issue of female genital mutilation (FGM), as if that should totally distract audiences from the horrors present in Levine’s views. Clever tactic. That’s like trying to get the jury to absolve the murderer because the prosecutor conflated the 2nd degree murder with 1st degree murder.

Though in all seriousness, is FGM, for example, any different than helping a child get his genitals surgically removed? Last time we checked, rape was the nature of sexual interaction with children under 18 in legal terms – even if they consented. The point is, they can’t consent. But now they can?

Again, these are serious questions, and despite the implications of such an appointment, our columnist’s rebuttal boiled down to, well, she’s the “first publicly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.” Heaven forbid we ruin the woke moment. The piece even let Dr. Levine’s laughable answer to Paul’s question slide: “She would have been within her rights to be enraged by Paul’s ignorance, but she responded on Thursday by repeating a steady message: ‘Transgender medicine is a complex and nuanced field.’”

Really? That’s it? There was nothing to her answer, but she was “steady” and yes, Mr. Paul was “demeaning.”

Ms. Hesse’s own justification for taking Levine’s side is the exact same as the trans doctor’s: “medical cases are complex, and there are fields of study and many experts who have dedicated their entire careers to thinking through ethical practices.” Mmhmm. So the argument is essentially, “it’s not what you think, bro.” Oh yeah, that’s convincing.

Again the other main thrust of her argument was that, compared to Paul, Levine was so nice. Hesse wrote, “Levine spent three hours sitting behind a table, wearing a patterned blazer, a string of pearls, eyeglasses and a graying haircut. She occasionally sounded nervous, but always remained calm.” Oh that’s good. Nice equals good. You can convince little Timmy he can get a sex change as long as everyone stays “calm.”

The piece added, “If you watched her exchange with Paul, you might have seen someone behaving monstrously. But it definitely wasn’t her.” And this is how they’ll justify future malpractice. They won’t answer our valid questions and they’ll just call us mean. What else is new?

Wash Post Op-ed: Sen. Paul Is A ‘Monster’ For Asking Health Sec Nom About Trans Kids

February 26, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: INVESTIGATIONS, Newsbusters

Really? That’s it? There was nothing to her answer, but she was “steady” and yes, Mr. Paul was “demeaning.”

: British Airways owner IAG suffers record €7.4 billion loss

February 26, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: BUSINESS, MarketWatch

IAG chief executive calls for passenger digital health passes to “reopen skies safely.”

Biden Health Nominee Mum On Taxpayer Funded Abortion

February 23, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: INVESTIGATIONS, Washington Free Beacon

President Joe Biden’s top health care nominee dodged questions about taxpayer funding for abortion during his Tuesday Senate confirmation hearing

Senate Republicans centered much of Department of Health and Human Services nominee Xavier Becerra’s hearing on his past support for abortion. The California attorney general declined to answer Sen. Mike Braun (R., Ind.) when he asked if HHS would commit to not using taxpayer money to fund abortion providers.

“While we probably will not agree on all the issues, I can say to you that we will definitely follow the law when it comes to the use of federal resources,” Becerra said. “There I can make that commitment, that we will follow the law.”

Taxpayer dollars were not the only cause for concern among GOP senators. Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah) followed up by pushing Becerra on his opposition to a ban on partial birth abortions.

“I understand that people have different deeply held beliefs on this issue, and I respect that,” Becerra responded. “I will tell you that when I come to these issues, I understand that we may not always agree on where to go, but I think we can find some common ground on these issues.”

Romney dismissed Becerra’s answer as an equivocation and pressed the Democrat further on abortion. The Utah senator criticized the California attorney general for failing to denounce partial birth abortions, although Romney did say he believed he could reach common ground with Becerra on other issues.

“I think we can reach common ground on many issues, but on partial birth abortion, it sounds like we’re not going to reach common ground there,” Romney said.

The confirmation hearing also saw Becerra questioned on how he would combat the COVID-19 pandemic if he is put in charge of the department primarily responsible for overseeing the federal response. Senate Democrats, led by committee chair Patty Murray (Wash.), called for Becerra’s immediate confirmation. Murray said there is “no time to waste” in confirming Becerra.

Senate Republicans pressed Becerra on his support for expanded abortion access and Medicare for All. Sen. Richard Burr (N.C.) said he was not sold on Becerra because of Becerra’s opposition to private insurance plans and criticized him for favoring government interference in health care. Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) asked questions about the HHS’s COVID-19 response but did not reveal which way they will vote on the nomination.

On Monday, Senate Republicans, none of whom were on the Senate panel, authored a letter to the Biden administration expressing concerns over Becerra’s experience, support for Medicare for All, and support for decriminalizing illegal border crossings. They requested that Biden withdraw the nomination.

Becerra’s nomination has been called into question as activist groups pressure Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) to vote against Becerra. Manchin said he is undecided on Becerra’s nomination after signaling his opposition to Neera Tanden, Biden’s pick to lead the budget office. If Manchin defects and Republicans vote unanimously against Becerra, his nomination will fail.

Becerra appeared in front of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Tuesday and will appear before the Senate Finance Committee Wednesday. He will likely face a floor vote in the Senate at the beginning of March.

The post Biden Health Nominee Mum On Taxpayer Funded Abortion appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The Ratings Game: CVS says it will engage with millions of new customers as it administers COVID vaccine

February 22, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: BUSINESS, MarketWatch

CVS Health Inc. is looking forward to the chance to meet tons of new shoppers in the coming months as it administers the COVID-19 vaccine, offering the pharmacy retailer a unique business opportunity.

The Power of Empathic Storytelling: How to Make Your Customer the Hero of Your Story

February 16, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: BUSINESS, Entrepreneur Magazine

Insights from leading health and wellness executives on how to elicit emotions and inspire your audience to take action.

Facing COVID-19 variants, vaccine makers are weighing how to tweak their designs

February 16, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: PopSci, SCITECH

Virologists and public health researchers are continuing to identify new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19. Vaccine makers need to keep a close watch on these variants to ensure their vaccines still work against the new variants.

Click here to see all of PopSci’s COVID-19 coverage.

Scientists began working on vaccines against COVID-19 just over a year ago. But in that short span of time (unprecedented for vaccine development), a handful of vaccines have been authorized for use around the world and more than 170 million shots have now been delivered across since December alone. That number has already eclipsed the total number of recorded COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic—and it is set only to grow.

Even so, the pandemic’s catastrophic effects continue to reverberate. Here’s some of the most important COVID-19 news from across the world over the past week.

Virus variants continue to multiply

US public health officials are closely watching the faster-spreading N.501.Y and B.1.1.7 strains of COVID-19 that likely originated in South Africa and the UK, respectively. But scientists have also identified no fewer than seven new American-made variants. All seven seem to have originated in the US and, just like the South African and UK variants, also seem to have mutated in ways that make them able to spread faster than other variants. Some public health researchers have noted that this is likely what’s known as convergent evolution, a phenomenon where organisms unrelated to each other evolve similar traits that help them survive.

In this case, the variants of the SARS-CoV-2 all seem to be evolving similar mutations that enable them to spread more quickly than older variants. While virologists aren’t surprised to see this happening, it does mean that the virus could pose a larger threat if these mutations continue. It’s hard for researchers to tell where specifically in the country the new variants might have originated. In the US, researchers get strain information on fewer than one in 100 COVID-19 test samples, leaving public health experts with an extremely murky picture.

Vaccine-makers are preparing their countermoves against viral variants

Despite concern over variant strains, vaccines are helping to plunge new case numbers, even in countries such as the UK where some of these variants cultivated their spread. And South Africa, stricken by the N.501.Y variant, has just embarked on its own vaccination campaign as the first country to start rolling out the Janssen/Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Earlier this month, South Africa abruptly stopped using the vaccine made by Oxford/Astra-Zeneca because of concerns that it doesn’t work well enough against N.501.Y.

All the time, vaccine-makers are tweaking their vaccines to shield against those faster-spreading strains. But policy- and vaccine-makers both face pressing questions: How and when do you deploy upgraded shots, potentially upending months of planning? The seasonal flu, which constantly changes across years and regions, may present an example. But that model relies on carefully tracking flu strains—and in many places, such as the US, that information for COVID-19 is quite thin indeed.

The CDC doubles down on masking up

The spread of those variants has also spurred agencies like the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to reinforce its advice: Wear a mask. But, as you might imagine, not all masks are equal. Specialized ones like N95 masks are designed to filter out 95 percent of infectious airborne particles, but those are still mostly reserved for healthcare workers. More popular masks worn by the public, such as cloth or surgical masks, are often less effective, especially if they’re loosely worn.

But CDC experiments have shown how those common masks can, relatively easily, be made more effective. Wearing a cloth mask over your surgical mask, for instance, can block about 95% of potentially virus-carrying aerosols (on par with an N95 mask). So can tightening your surgical mask by knotting the loops around the ear and tucking it in place against the face.

WHO investigators zoom in on COVID’s origin story

A World Health Organization (WHO) international team has spent the past weeks searching the city of Wuhan for the pandemic’s ground zero. The fact-finders released their findings, reaffirming prior reports that the virus originated in animals, likely bats, before being transmitted to humans through some yet-to-be-identified pathway. And it’s likely that the bats that transmitted the virus weren’t from Wuhan, but were brought there from somewhere closer to Southeast Asia.

But perhaps more importantly, their findings debunk the claim that’s been spread by nationalists the world over: that COVID was created by humans in a laboratory somewhere. Nonetheless, the whole pandemic has been fraught with geopolitics and international tensions, and this fact-finding expedition is no exception. One of the WHO investigators has accused Chinese authorities of being opaque and withholding information.

Researchers are dubious that common colds prevent COVID

It might be tempting to assume that, since other coronaviruses cause the common cold, the latter might give some people’s immune systems—especially children’s—a leg up when the time came to fight COVID-19. There’s some scientific meat to support that: A UK-based study published in Nature in December suggested that some people who had never been infected by COVID-19 possessed antibodies that could potentially protect against the disease.

But new US-based research casts doubt on that idea, finding that the antibodies in question couldn’t fight or mitigate COVID-19. It’s one study, so it’s far from conclusive; it’s possible that geographic differences may have played a role in the divergent results. But it does emphasize that the world can’t rely on pre-existing conditions over vaccines for immunity.

The future of COVID: not eradicated, but manageable?

What happens when the world goes back to something resembling a pre-pandemic normal? Will COVID-19 just fade away? Public health experts state that it’s highly unlikely. The only disease to have ever been fully eradicated, after all, is smallpox. We also don’t yet know if it’s possible that people could get re-infected with COVID-19 years in the future.

Instead, some public health experts speculate that the coronavirus may subside into something more mundane, like the flu. The virus behind the 1918 influenza pandemic, for instance, eventually mutated down into the common seasonal flu. And we in the 2020s have something that the world of a century ago didn’t: vaccines.

Even so, some public health experts strongly warn against treating COVID like the flu, saying that COVID is an entirely nastier type of disease.

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