Public Health

Blood & Fog: The Military’s Germ Warfare Tests In SF

July 13, 2015 Rebecca Kreston, www.blogs.discovermagazine.com Educate! Criminal Justice, History, Medicine, Public Health

By Rebecca Kreston in Discover Magazine - Over a period of six days in September 1950, members of the US Navy sprayed clouds of Serratia from giant hoses aboard a Navy minesweeper drifting two miles along the San Francisco coastline, a bacterial fog quickly enveloped and disguised by the region’s own mist. By monitoring the air at 43 scattered sites throughout the region, the Navy found Serratia bacteria blown throughout San Francisco and extending to the adjacent communities of Albany, Berkeley, Daly City, Colma, Oakland, San Leandro, and Sausalito (3). In this regard, the experiment was a success: the San Francisco Bay was identified as a highly susceptible site for a germ warfare attack and a quantifiable range for the airborne dispersal of microbes was established.

Justice Dep’t Must Investigate APA’s Role in U.S. Torture Program

July 13, 2015 Physicians for Human Rights, www.physiciansforhumanrights.org Resist! Criminal Justice, Human Rights, Psychology, Public Health, Torture

By Physicians for Human Rights - Physicians for Human Rights today called for a federal criminal probe into the American Psychological Association's (APA) role in the U.S. torture program following the release of a damning new report that confirms the APA colluded with the Bush administration to enable psychologists to design, implement, and defend a program of torture. In light of the 542-page independent report first reported by The New York Times, PHR again called for a full investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. “The corruption of a health professional organization at this level is an extraordinary betrayal of both ethics and the law, and demands an investigation and appropriate prosecutions,” said Donna McKay, PHR’s executive director. “Rather than uphold the principle of ‘do no harm,’ APA leadership subverted its own ethics policies and sabotaged all efforts at enforcement.”

Ten One Medicare For All National Day Of Action

July 11, 2015 Vanessa Doren, www.student.pnhp.org Organize! Medicine, Public Health, Student Activism

By Vanessa Doren in Student PNHP - For most of us in medicine, helping people live healthy, happy lives is at the heart of why we chose this career. We expound upon this in application essays, talk about it during interviews, and start medical school with this “calling” fresh in our minds. Very early in our medical careers – on the wards and in the classroom – we learn that inequality, preventable illness, and death are an inherent part of our current private, for-profit-oriented health insurance system. We see patients receive preventable amputations due to untreated diabetes. We see people permanently disabled by stroke because they were unable to afford their medications. College funds emptied out to pay for $100,000-a-year cancer treatments. Families bankrupted and lives destroyed.

History’s Teachable Moments On Pipelines

July 6, 2015 H. Patricia Hynes, www.recorder.com Educate! Oil & Gas, Oil Pipelines, Public Health

By H. Patricia Hynes in The Recorder - The dominant industry argument for the Tennessee Gas Co.’s proposed pipeline through western Massachusetts is that it will provide gas for Boston on peak demand winter days and smaller-scale gas needs in western Massachusetts. If we assume, for the sake of argument, that this is its true intent, then past history offers some lessons for the contested pipeline proposal. In the mid 1960s, Massachusetts set out to solve metropolitan Boston’s projected drinking water shortage with a plan to divert water from the Connecticut River, channeling it through an aqueduct to Quabbin Reservoir (site of an earlier water diversion project for Boston that sacrificed the life of four towns). The Massachusetts Legislature approved the diversion plan in the late ’60s, with little focused opposition.

Leaked: What’s In Obama’s TPP Trade Deal

July 2, 2015 Michael Grunwald, www.politico.com Educate! Big Pharma, Capitalism, Public Health, TPP

By Michael Grunwald in Politico - A recent draft of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade deal would give U.S. pharmaceutical firms unprecedented protections against competition from cheaper generic drugs, possibly transcending the patent protections in U.S. law. The draft text includes provisions that could make it extremely tough for generics to challenge brand-name pharmaceuticals abroad. Those provisions could also help block copycats from selling cheaper versions of the expensive cutting-edge drugs known as “biologics” inside the U.S., restricting treatment for American patients while jacking up Medicare and Medicaid costs for American taxpayers. “There’s very little distance between what Pharma wants and what the U.S. is demanding,” said Rohit Malpini, director of policy for Doctors Without Borders.

Supreme Court Mercury Decision Threatens Public Health

July 1, 2015 Mary Anne Hitt, www.sierraclub.org Educate! Coal, Environment, Law, Public Health, SCOTUS

By Mary Anne Hitt in Sierra Club - Today's ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court to send the Mercury and Air Toxics Standard (MATS) back to the EPA for further proceedings is a decision that endangers public health, but it won't revive the fortunes of Big Coal. These standards were designed to safeguard local communities against dangerous pollution from power plants. Unfortunately, today millions of Americans won't yet be able to breathe more easily. Practically speaking, today's decision won't revive the fortunes of Big Coal or slow down our nation's transition to clean energy. Most utilities have long since made decisions about how to meet the standard, since the compliance deadline was April 2015. Only a few dozen coal plants are still operating today with no pollution controls for mercury and air toxics and no clear plans to install them.

TTIP Will Destroy Public Health Care In The UK

June 24, 2015 BMA, www.bma.org.uk Educate! Health Care, Public Health

By BMA - Doctors have warned that public health medicine is under threat, to the detriment of the NHS and patients. They have criticised ‘wholesale’ reductions in medically qualified jobs in local authorities in England and cuts to public health funding. The BMA annual representative meeting also called for recognition of the importance of public health medical executives. Cornwall consultant radiologist John Hyslop said the professional voice of public health medicine was needed by commissioners and managers, but England was seeing the ‘unravelling’ of public health since it became the responsibility of local authorities as a result of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. He also expressed concern about what would happen in the future as more areas sought to emulate Manchester, which has embarked on a programme to devolve health and social care.

French Minister Seeks To Restrict Weed Killers

June 16, 2015 Sarah Caspari, www.csmonitor.com Educate! Food and Agriculture, France, Public Health

By Sarah Caspari in Christian Science Monitor - If Ecology Minister Ségolène Royal has her way, amateur gardeners in France will no longer be able to purchase weed-killers containing glyphosate, citing health concerns. "France must be offensive on stopping pesticides," Royal said of the herbicides on French television, according to Reuters. In a March report, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer concluded that glyphosate was “probably carcinogenic to humans.” Originally developed in the 1970s by Monsanto under the name Roundup, glyphosate has been available in generic forms after the company's last commercial patent expired in 2000. Roundup remains the world's most widely used weed-killer, according to the IARC.

Abortion: A Right In Name Only?

June 13, 2015 Nan Little Kirkpatrick, www.truth-out.org Educate! Abortion, Public Health, War on women, Women’s health

A desperate pregnant woman emailed my office recently. She was in a tough spot: She had enough money to buy diapers for her baby, or food for herself, but not both. She wanted help to pay for an abortion. She faced a pregnancy she could neither afford to continue nor afford to terminate. This is typical of the stories I hear in my job as executive director of the Texas Equal Access Fund, which serves the northern half of Texas. Even sadder than her predicament was the fact that our organization only has enough money to support fewer than half of the thousands of people who call us asking for help. An abortion typically costs anywhere from $450 to $3,000, depending on factors including number of gestational weeks. The per capita household income for Texas is $26,327.

Leaked Text Shows Big Pharma Using TPP Against Global Health

June 11, 2015 Deirdre Fulton, www.commondreams.org Educate! Big Pharma, Finance and the Economy, Free Trade, Public Health, TPP

By Deirdre Fulton in Common Dreams - Bolstering long-held criticisms from public interest groups, newly leaked sections of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) show how Big Pharma is employing "an aggressive new form of transnational corporatism" to increase profits at the expense of global health. The TPP's "Healthcare Annex"—which seeks to regulate government policies around medicines and medical devices—would give big pharmaceutical companies more power over public access to medicine while crippling public healthcare programs around the world and "tying the hands" of the U.S. Congress in its ability to pursue Medicare reform and lower drug costs. President Barack Obama is trying to gain Fast Track approval from the U.S. House of Representatives as early as tomorrow, having already obtained it from the Senate, which would grant him increased power to push the TPP and other mammoth trade pacts through Congress.

Oil Trains Don’t Have To Derail To Be Hazardous, Doctors Warn

June 11, 2015 Dahr Jamail, www.truth-out.org Educate! Oil & Gas, Oil Trains, Public Health, Transportation

By Dahr Jamail in Truthout - In May, hundreds of doctors, nurses and health-care professionals from Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) called on Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown to take a stronger position against proposed oil-by-rail shipping terminals in their respective states, in order to insure the health and physical security of families and communities there. Washington PSR describes itself as a group that promotes "peace and health for the human community and the global ecosystem by empowering members, citizens and policy makers to develop and model for the rest of the nation socially just and life-enhancing policies regarding nuclear issues, climate change, environmental toxins, vulnerable populations and other risks to human health." The group has sounded the alarm over what it sees as a direct health threat to the country stemming from the oil-by-rail system.

Green Economies Need Alliances B/W Labour & Indigenous People

June 5, 2015 Harsha Walia, www.ricochet.media Strategize! Capitalism, Environment, Imperialism, Indigenous People, Labor Unions, Land Rights, Public Health

By Harsha Walia in Ricochet.Media - The bold leadership of unions that revive principles of social unionism ensures that unions are not simply advocating mobility within capitalism and state structures, but are primary allies in the struggle against capitalism and imperialism. As Herman Rosenfeld, a former GM worker, writes, “Job security is key, but what kind of jobs? Is the job security strategy one that works against the interests of the rest of the working-class and First Nations peoples, or in partnership with them? Moving away from the narrow focus on the short-term sectoral interests of a relatively small group of workers, whose jobs are currently defined by their employers, is a critical way of building unions as fighters for the class as a whole, and for a different, sustainable, and hopefully anti-capitalist future.” Simply put, workers shouldn’t have to extract toxic sludge. Workers want and need clean air, clean water, and a more equitable future.

These Guys Want To Help Pay Your Medical Bills

June 3, 2015 Wendy Joan Biddlecombe, www.metro.us Create! Capitalism, Debt, Health Care, Public Health

By Wendy Joan Biddlecombe in Metro - Last year 64 million Americans had difficulty paying their medical debt, according to a report by the Commonwealth Fund, down from 75 million in 2012 and 73 million in 2010. Jerry Ashton and Craig Antico think they can put a dent in America’s medical debt crisis, and want to help those who really need to pay their bills, no strings attached. At face value, Ashton and Antico are perhaps unlikely advocates for those who owe medical bills. They have decades of experience as medical debt collectors. They recently launched RIP Medical Debt, a nonprofit, and accompanying initial crowdfunding campaign to raise $74,500 to purchase and absolve strangers’ medical debt. The goal for the first year is to raise $14 million, purchase $1 billion of medical debt and abolish it.

Is Blue Cross Blue Shield An Illegal Cartel?

May 30, 2015 Anna Wilde Mathews, www.pnhp.org Educate! Capitalism, Cartel, Corporatism, Health Care, Public Health

Blue Cross and Blue Shield health insurers cover about a third of Americans, through a national network that dates back decades. Now, antitrust lawsuits advancing in a federal court in Alabama allege that the 37 independently owned companies are functioning as an illegal cartel. A federal judicial panel has consolidated the claims against the insurers into two lawsuits that represent plaintiffs from around the country. One is on behalf of health-care providers and the other is for individual and small-employer customers. The antitrust suits allege that the insurers are conspiring to divvy up markets and avoid competing against one another, driving up customers’ prices and pushing down the amounts paid to doctors and other health-care providers.

Health Insurance Getting More Expensive With Less Coverage

May 25, 2015 Sarah Kliff, www.vox.com Educate! Economic Justice, Health Care, Public Health

If you ask any economist the main purpose of health insurance, the answer you'll probably get back is this: to protect against financial catastrophe. Yes, the free annual check-ups or discounted gym memberships that health plans sometimes offer are nice. But the real thing you're purchasing with your monthly premium is protection against financial ruin. You're paying for someone else to be on the hook for the big medical bills that can and will pile up in the case of serious illness or accident. Except, increasingly, insurance does not provide that type of protection. That's the main takeaway from a new Commonwealth Fund report on the "underinsured," or people who have health insurance that leaves them exposed to really big costs — and who appear to skip care due to the price.

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