Health Care

We Need A Permanent TRIPS Waiver Mechanism

March 22, 2022 Rosa Pavanelli, Public Services International. Educate! COVID-19, Health Care, Patent Law, Vaccines

Two years into the pandemic, the trade rules that pose barriers to scaling up production of the vaccines, medicines, tests and other health products we dearly need have not been addressed, highlighting the need for an automatic mechanism to suspend problematic rules when a pandemic, other public health emergencies of international concern, or other exceptional circumstances arise, rather than leaving it to the murky politics of the World Trade Organization. On 15 March, the European Commission (EC) finally admitted that intellectual property rules pose a threat to vaccine access globally. The counterproposal that was leaked to the press is attributed to the quad of USA, the EC, India and South Africa, but only reflects positions from USA and the EC.

New ‘Compromise’ On IP Waiver For Covid Vaccines Is Worse Than No Deal

March 18, 2022 Sarah Lazare, In These Times. Educate! COVID-19, European Union (EU), Health Care, India, South Africa, Vaccines

On Tuesday, after a year and a half of negotiations over an intellectual property waiver for Covid-related products, the United States, European Union, India and South Africa reportedly reached agreement on a temporary waiver of patent rules for Covid vaccines. “The difficult and protracted process has resulted in a compromise outcome that offers the most promising path toward achieving a concrete and meaningful outcome,” said U.S. Trade Representative spokesperson Adam Hodge in a statement. Global health activists, however, are slamming the tentative deal as not only insufficient, but a potential setback, because it excludes tests and treatments, includes a carveout for China, and introduces new barriers for the production of generic treatments that could have implications far beyond the Covid crisis.

Progressives Hand Biden List Of 55 Executive Actions

March 18, 2022 Jake Johnson, Common Dreams. Resist! Climate Change, Finance and the Economy, Health Care, Joe Biden, Student Loans

The CPC's new list of executive order recommendations is broad in scope, aiming to address a variety of pressing issues including sky-high drug prices, the worsening climate emergency, the coronavirus pandemic, mounting student loan debt, and a rigged tax system—priorities that Biden vowed to tackle on the campaign trail in 2020. While Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the CPC chair, has said she would prefer ambitious legislation such as the Build Back Better package to more limited executive orders, that bill is dead in the Senate due to opposition from Republicans and corporate-backed Democrats such as Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), leaving the president with few other options to advance his popular agenda.

America’s New Dystopian Normal

March 16, 2022 Donald Earl Collins, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Capitalism, COVID-19, Failed State, Health Care

The United States has all but declared the COVID-19 pandemic over and done with. The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) advised 230 million Americans, 70 percent of the population, to no longer wear masks in most cases, including indoors. Cities, counties, and states across the US have lifted their mask mandates. Restaurants, shopping malls, movie theatres, and grocery stores have dropped mask and physical distancing requirements. Even school districts have gone mask-optional since the end of February. This is despite more than 55,000 Americans contracting the disease and nearly 2,000 dying from it and the complications it causes every day through early March. As the US approaches one million dead from COVID and 80 million sickened from this pathogen and its variants, it is clear that whiteness, capitalism, and narcissism have prolonged the pandemic, and horribly so.

What The US Can Learn From Cuba’s Coronavirus Response

March 11, 2022 Natalia Burdynska-Schuurman, Alliance For Global Justice. Create! COVID-19, Cuba, Health Care, Public Health

International comparisons to U.S. health outcomes make clear that GDP (Gross Domestic Product) cannot reliably suggest a healthcare system’s quality. Defined by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as “a monetary measure of the value of final goods and services,” GDP tells us nothing about the efficiency of health services or the accessibility of critical medical care such as vaccination, hospitalization and basic health exams – all important determinants of a healthcare system’s adaptability when emergencies put pressure on our health infrastructure. This is particularly true in the case of Cuba.

National Single Payer Summit, Fri. March 11 – Sun. March 13

March 11, 2022 Kay Tillow, Popular Resistance. Educate! Capitalism, Health Care, Medicare for all

On Friday starting at 6pm EST, experts will be breaking down the overcomplicated system we have now. Saturday’s stream kicks off at 12pm EST by exploring the shortcomings of healthcare in America. Sunday’s inspiring finale at 12pm EST will cover the path to a national single-payer system. Peppered throughout the panel discussions will be calls to action, exciting announcements, cameos from well-known Medicare For All supporters and live music from some of our friends.

House Approves Package With $782 Billion For US Military, No Covid relief

March 11, 2022 Jake Johnson, Common Dreams. Educate! COVID-19, Health Care, military spending, Wars and Militarism

The House of Representatives late Wednesday approved a $1.5 trillion government spending package that includes $782 billion in U.S. military funding, the largest portion of the must-pass omnibus legislation. The votes came after a long day of jostling behind the scenes as rank-and-file Democrats expressed outrage over how $15 billion in coronavirus aid was funded in the bipartisan measure: Namely, by repurposing money set aside for states in an earlier relief package.

An Omicron ‘Subvariant’ Is Doubling In New York, Just As Mandates Lift

March 8, 2022 Nsikan Akpan, Gothamist. Educate! COVID-19, Health Care, New York (NY), Omicron

Just as New York case rates drop and officials roll back health requirements for schools and businesses, another coronavirus variant is showing signs of derailing the state’s recovery from the winter COVID surge. Known as BA.2, this virus is an offshoot, or sublineage, of the omicron variant that just swept through New York State. It’s like a kid sister, and some experts even call it “Omicron 2.” But it spreads about 30% faster than its sibling — BA.1 — and is just as severe, according to the World Health Organization. Data from the New York State health department shows that BA.2 is quickly moving to dominate its viral kin. BA.2 is doubling in proportion statewide every two weeks and represents about one in 10 sequenced cases.

Biden’s Silence Throws 30 Million Uninsured People Under The Bus

March 2, 2022 Ira Dember, Medium. Educate! Health Care, Human Rights, Joe Biden, Medicare for all

In his State of the Union address tonight, 1 Mar 2022, Joe Biden stayed consistent with his campaign pledge to bury universal healthcare, throwing 30 million uninsured Americans under the bus along with at least 40 million under-insured. In tonight’s speech Biden used the simplest of expedients: silence. Amid all the easy applause lines, the leader of the world’s wealthiest nation whispered not a word about healthcare as a human right… …Nor a word about addressing America’s shameful performance contrasted with peer nations, a gap that is growing. Average life expectancy in comparable nations has now risen to 82 years. Here in the US, you’ll die 5 years younger, on average, at 77. And if you’re Black? Knock off another 5 years of precious life.

How Community Care Can Address The South’s Maternal Mortality Crisis

March 1, 2022 Rebekah Barber, Facing South. Create! Health Care, Maternal Mortality, Systemic Racism, The South

The maternal mortality rate in the United States is 23.8 deaths per 100,000 births — the highest of any developed country. The U.S. is also the only developed country where maternal mortality rates are rising. The crisis is especially dire in the South. As of 2018, Louisiana had the highest maternal mortality rate of any state with 58.1 deaths per 100,000 births — over three times the national rate. It was followed by Georgia with 48.4 maternal deaths per 100,000 births. Of the 10 states with the highest maternal mortality rates, six were in the South. Besides Louisiana and Georgia, they are Arkansas (37.5), Alabama (36.4), Texas (34.5), and South Carolina (27.9). The rates are even higher for Black and indigenous women.

The Government Just Admitted An Inconvenient Truth

February 25, 2022 David Sirota And Aditi Ramaswami, The Daily Poster. Educate! CBO, Health Care, Medicare for all, Worker Rights and Jobs

Every now and then, federal officials admit some truths that are inconvenient to the corporations that own the government — and this latest admission is pretty explicit: Scrapping corporate health care and creating a government-sponsored medical system would boost the economy, help workers, and increase longevity. Those are just some of the findings from the Republican-led Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in a new report that implicitly tells lawmakers just how the existing corporate-run health care system is immiserating millions of Americans — and how a Medicare for All-style system could quickly fix the catastrophe. If that sounds like hyperbole, consider the analysis in its own words.

Physicians Slam Industry Push To ‘Fix’—Not End—Medicare Privatization

February 17, 2022 Jake Johnson, Common Dreams. Resist! Capitalism, Health Care, Medicare, Privatization

Physicians and progressive advocates on Tuesday urged the Department of Health and Human Services to reject an industry appeal to tweak and rebrand—not end altogether—a Medicare privatization scheme known as Direct Contracting, which the Trump administration launched in 2020. Members of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), which represents 24,000 doctors and other health professionals, has been working for months to bring lawmakers' attention to the DC program and pressure the Biden administration to terminate it while it's still in an experimental phase. As a result of PNHP's efforts, dozens of Democrats—including Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—have spoken out against the DC pilot, opposition that appears to have caught the notice of healthcare industry groups that stand to benefit from the program.

Africa Is Bringing Vaccine Manufacturing Home

February 12, 2022 Nature. Educate! Africa, COVID-19, Health Care, Vaccines

African countries continually find themselves at the back of the vaccine queue, but two developments could begin to change this narrative. Last week, researchers at a company in South Africa said that they have nearly completed the process of reproducing Moderna’s mRNA vaccine against COVID-19. Working with the WHO’s technology-transfer hub, the researchers at Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines in Cape Town made very small quantities of vaccine, based on Moderna’s data, but without the company’s involvement. The WHO advised them to copy Moderna’s vaccine in part because the company, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has said it will not enforce its COVID-19 patents during the pandemic.

Cash Assistance Boosted Infants’ Brain Development, Study Shows

January 29, 2022 Danilo Trisi, Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Educate! Child Wellbeing, Children, Health Care, Tax Credit

When mothers with low incomes received just over $300 in monthly cash assistance during the first year of their children’s lives, their infants’ brains displayed more high-frequency brain waves when they reached 12 months old, a major new study by a team of investigators from six U.S. universities and released this week by the National Academy of Sciences shows. These types of brain waves are associated with higher language and cognitive scores and better social and emotional skills in children as they grow older. The expanded Child Tax Credit, which Congress enacted in 2021 and which expired last month, provided support very much like the cash assistance described in the new paper. The paper is a pathbreaking combination of social science and neuroscience, is methodologically rigorous, and adds heft to the substantial evidence about the difference that extending the Child Tax Credit expansion would make in children’s lives.

Where Is The 100,000-Strong Public Health Corps Biden Promised Us?

January 26, 2022 Abdullah Shihipar, In These Times. Create! COVID-19, Health Care, Joe Biden, Public Health

A year after Joe Biden’s inauguration, things seem bleak. Despite the existence of life-saving vaccines, tests and masks, on January 21, more than 3,000 people were reported to have died of Covid-19, and the last time daily deaths were below 1,000 was in August. With the more transmissible Omicron variant spreading like wildfire, and only 63% of the country with two doses of the vaccine (only 43% of adults with their booster), things may continue to get worse before they get better. Hospitals are filled to the brim while schools and industries deal with absences. Clearly, we need a policy reset. We need to provide people with the resources and information they need to get through this surge and the rest of the pandemic.

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