Happy Friday! Do you ever surprise what our modern-day model of bloodletting is? You know, that follow that might horrify whoever is writing the Breeze 200 years from now? You’d assume protections could be in place to maintain wacky theories from gaining traction nowadays, however they appear to persist even centuries after that bloodletting craze (in all probability) hastened George Washington’s demise.
Anyway, as these of us in D.C. bid adieu to the times of barely much less visitors, right here’s a have a look at what you could have missed this week.
There are stories that Purdue Pharma goes to pony up between $10 billion and $12 billion to settle the consolidated opioid case scheduled to go to trial in October. That deal would come with the Sackler household paying $three billion from its personal coffers (who knows how deep those are …) and ceding management of the corporate. Purdue would additionally give its habit remedy medicine to the general public with out value. Already there are rumblings that some state attorneys basic are lower than happy with the small print of the settlement, although, so don’t rely this as the ultimate deal but.
NBC News: Purdue Pharma Offers $10-12 Billion to Settle Opioid Claims
That huge Purdue information got here on the heels of an Oklahoma choose’s ruling that Johnson & Johnson has to pay the state $572 million for its position within the opioid disaster. The quantity might sound huge at first look, however J&J’s shares really rallied after the information as a result of it was far under what the corporate was braced to pay. The choice had been carefully watched as the primary of its sort, however ultimately, the messages it despatched have been combined. Which means everybody’s collective gaze snapped to that looming Ohio case (see above).
Meanwhile, how did an organization recognized for Band-Aids and child powder get so caught up on this? The New York Times takes a have a look at J&J’s faltering repute.
The New York Times: Johnson & Johnson’s Brand Falters Over Its Role in the Opioid Crisis
And in case you’re within the authorized facets, this was a reasonably cool learn in regards to the little-known doctrine making all this court docket motion possible.
Politico: The Little Known Legal Doctrine Making Big Pharma Pay for the Opioid Crisis
Outrage has been rising over a brand new Trump administration coverage that permits sick immigrant youngsters receiving look after life-threatening circumstances to be deported to their dwelling international locations, the place the identical therapies may not exist. Democrats blasted the change as “absolutely immoral,” calling it a demise sentence for youngsters with most cancers and different illnesses. “There is no national security justification for further traumatizing sick kids at their most vulnerable,” mentioned 2020 hopeful former Vice President Joe Biden.
“I tell people, I feel like I’m signing my son’s death warrant,” mentioned Shonell Norville, a 37-year-old from Guyana, whose son receives common medical care to deal with his seizures. In The Boston Globe’s protection of the story, she says she fought to remain in Boston “to save him — now, just to be pushed out. How do you comprehend that?”
Cases of the mysterious vaping-related lung sickness proceed to climb throughout the nation, however largely crickets have been heard from federal public well being officers. But state and native officers are stepping in. The metropolis of Milwaukee, for one, has advised all its residents to cease vaping ASAP.
Politico: Mystery Youth Vaping Disease Reveals Gaping Holes in Regulation
CNN: City of Milwaukee Urges Everyone Who Lives There to Stop Vaping Immediately
The authorities did difficulty a public advisory this week about not smoking marijuana. And the CDC got here out with a warning Friday advising youth, pregnant girls and individuals who don’t at present use nicotine merchandise to not begin vaping, and to be careful for counterfeit merchandise. Surgeon General Jerome Adams and HHS Secretary Alex Azar additionally aimed their warnings at youngsters and pregnant folks specifically, citing the efficiency of modern-day merchandise which are out there as a motive to remain away. Or, as Adams mentioned: “This ain’t your mother’s marijuana.”
The New York Times: Don’t Use Bootleg or Street Vaping Products, C.D.C. Warns
Meanwhile, over within the Big Tobacco world, a reunion may very well be within the works between Philip Morris and Altria greater than a decade after the 2 turned separate firms. The talks have anti-smoking advocates cringing. They say a merger like that — which might carry Marlboro, IQOS and Juul beneath one firm — could be a public well being nightmare.
The New York Times: Philip Morris and Altria Are in Talks to Merge
The Office for Civil Rights filed a discover of violation towards the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington over allegations that the hospital compelled a nurse to take part in an abortion. The hospital, in the meantime, mentioned it had investigated the incident and that the discover was “not supported by the facts” of the case. At stake right here? Millions of in federal funding for the power. The variety of complaints into the Office for Civil Rights has skyrocketed beneath the Trump administration, which has been vocal about making morality protections a precedence.
The Associated Press: US Agency: Hospital Forced Nurse to Participate in Abortion
When it involves million-dollar therapies, even uncommon illnesses don’t appear all that uncommon when the payments begin including up. In the previous, employers and unions may simply shrug off the “bad luck” of getting to cowl an employer with such a situation, however as extra miracle medicine emerge increasingly more unions discover themselves footing prices they have been by no means ready to pay. In a startling instance: At one level in 2018, for each hour that considered one of a union’s 16,000 members labored, 35 cents of his or her pay went to cowl one household’s drug remedy.
The New York Times: The $6 Million Drug Claim
For households with youngsters who had Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the announcement that Sarepta was engaged on a remedy for the situation introduced infinite hope. That is, it did for households with boys. The ladies have been omitted within the chilly.
Stat: They Rallied Around ‘Our Boys’ With Duchenne. Where Did That Leave Girls?
In the miscellaneous file for the week:
• The outcomes are in: No single gene dictates same-sex habits. And I’d say from studying by means of the handfuls of articles on this story, the complexity of human sexuality might be summed up by the big selection of headlines. That is to say, it’s difficult, y’all.
The New York Times: Many Genes Influence Same-Sex Sexuality, Not a Single ‘Gay Gene’
• If overdoing antibiotics may cause resistant micro organism to thrive … may the identical concept apply to chemotherapy and malignant most cancers cells? One oncologist needed to check out a brand new method to remedy relatively than simply flooding the physique with as a lot chemotherapy because it may deal with. (Though he sweated bullets on the thought it may not work.)
Stat: A Heretical Approach to Chemotherapy Is Extending Patients’ Lives
• The headlines in current weeks have been flooded with the promise of “red flag” gun management legal guidelines as each a bipartisan purpose that may really get by means of Congress and one thing that has real-world advantages. But advocates warn that whereas, sure, the legal guidelines do work, they work provided that supported with sources. And that always is just not the case.
Stateline: Success of Red Flag Laws Might Depend on Mental Health Teams
That’s it from me! Have a terrific weekend!