Elizabeth Cooney, Cardiovascular Disease Reporter - Stat
Stephan:
Here is a good news, bad news, report from FDA Commissioner Robert Califf. What also caught my attention is that Commissioner Califf’s testimony also illustrates how wealth and education inequality in the illness profit system contributes to the Great Schism Trend that is making us two different nations.
FDA Commissioner Robert Califf. Credit:Anna Moneymaker /Getty
ORLANDO, FLORIDA — The United States is at a critical juncture in its efforts to treat chronic diseases, particularly type 2 diabetes, and now has a chance to change the dangerous trajectory it’s currently following, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said Friday.
“The U.S. is leading the world in technology development, innovation, new gadgets of all kinds, new drugs, you name it,” he said. “These advantages unfortunately are not resulting in superior health and outcomes for the U.S., population, or for most individuals in the U.S.”
Health outcomes as a whole are deteriorating in the U.S., Califf said in his remarks at the American Diabetes Association conference, but he sees one outlier.
“There’s an exception for type 1 diabetes, which I believe is on the verge of a major breakthrough in terms of the biology and biological therapies that can make an enormous difference for this special population of people with diabetes,” he said. “But on the other hand, for the larger epidemic of type 2 diabetes, we’re failing right now.”
This story, one of many similar reports, makes it clear there is a nationwide network of MAGAt christofascists who are organized and working together to end American democracy. I hope that all of you who read SR are clear about this. It is the reason that every voter should forget about partisanship and Biden’s age, and vote Democratic. This election is about one thing: democracy v authoritarianism.
A screen for a teleconference is shown in court in Las Vegas, on Monday, Dec. 18, 2023, where six Republicans pleaded not guilty to two felony charges each, stemming from their roles as fake electors in 2020 where they signed certificates falsely claiming former President Donald Trump won Nevada over Joe Biden. Credit: Ty O’Neil / AP
A nonprofit organization aligned with former President Trump paid $100,000 of legal fees for the six so-called “fake electors” in Nevada, according to people familiar with the payment.
Personnel Policy Operations, or PPO, shelled out the fees to assist the Trump-supporting electors who faced charges for falsely claiming the former president won the state in the 2020 presidential election. The case was dismissed Friday after a judge ruled the Nevada attorney general’s office chose the wrong venue in which to file it.
“There’s a strong and wide network of America First patriots doing our best to support each other and prevent the unjust weaponization of our legal system,” Joshua Whitehouse, director of strategy at the nonprofit, told The Hill. “PPO serves […]
Here is some semi-good news about Aquatic Farming. Good news because it has helped reduce overfishing which causes the breakdown the oceanic ecosystem. Bad news because how the system works has not been refined to a point where the waste does not cause damage. But, at least, it is moving in the right direction.
Colorful buoys float at an oyster farm in Shantou, Guangdong Province of China on April 22, 2024. Credit: Qiao Qiming / VCG / Getty
For the first time, the amount of aquatic life — such as fish, clams and shrimp — that was farmed outpaced wild-caught aquatic life in 2022, according to the United Nations’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
In the UN’s latest The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture report, it found that aquaculture, or farmed aquatic life, produced 130.9 million metric tons in 2022. By comparison, the same year saw 92.3 million metric tons of aquatic life products from global capture fisheries. Inland fisheries generated 11.3 million metric tons, while marine capture produced 81 million metric tons.
According to the UN, this is the first time that aquaculture production has outpaced capture fisheries, although it said that both are essential for feeding the global population.
In total, fisheries and aquaculture production produced 223.2 million metric tons of aquatic life, most of which (185.4 million metric […]
This is how bad the American illness profit system has become. If you live in a rural area, particularly in a state where voters have put Republicans in control, and you are a pregnant woman, even if you want desperately to have a child you may have nowhere close to you to go for OB/GYN care. Why? Because nearly 25 percent of rural hospitals stopped providing obstetric services between 2011 and 2021. Why this happen? Senate Finance Committee Chair, Democratic Senator from Oregon, Ron Wyden, gives us the explanation.
“Closures like these are driven by stark economic realities facing the hospitals and efforts by large hospital chains to streamline the business at the expense of young families.” Wyden has introduced a bill to improve this dreadful situation. We will see how the Republicans respond.
Empty infant beds sit gathered in a corner in a quiet maternity ward at rural Madera Community Hospital, which closed in January 2023, creating a lack of health care services for the blue-collar Central Valley agricultural community in Madera, Calif. Credit: Melina Mara / The Washington Post / Getty
The chair of the Senate Finance Committee on Monday released a bill that would increase federal financial support to hospitals in hopes of stemming the tide of labor and delivery unit closures in rural and underserved areas.
Nearly a quarter of rural hospitals stopped providing obstetric services between 2011 and 2021, according to Chartis, a health care consulting firm. Analysts blame the closures on low Medicaid reimbursement rates and declining birth rates in rural communities. The combination, they said, makes it financially challenging to keep labor and delivery units staffed.
In a call with reporters, Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said he was inspired to introduce the bill after hearing of the […]
Here is some good waste plastics news from Colorado. Now if all the states would adopt this approach we could achieve a serious improvement in our waste plastic problem.
Used plastic bags. Credit: velkr0
At the beginning of 2023, Colorado began enforcing a 10-penny charge on all single-use plastic and paper bags at major retailers in the hope it would encourage the use of reusable ones. This hope sprung into a massive success.
A report from 9News claims that Colorado used 1.5 billion fewer plastic or paper shopping bags since the implementation of the Plastic Pollution Reduction Act of 2021 that entered into force at the beginning of last year.
The 10-cent charge amounted to $5 million in revenue for the state, which was spent on a variety of programs including the free distribution of durable reusable shopping bags and educational resources for community groups.
Only stores with three or more locations were required to charge the bag fee.
“It took many years to get it passed, but we have become now a leader in the nation,” said Randy Moorman director of policy and community campaigns at Eco-Cycle, the non-profit advocacy group that […]
