In-Box Topics Which May Be of Interest

Topics pulled from my In-Box which I have no time to write about. Thinking, they still may be of interest to readers who visit Angry Bear. Please be topical.

Healthcare

Some Reasons to Get Off the Fence About COVID Booster, medscape.com, Debby Waldman. Researchers found that getting vaccinated led to a 69% reduction in long-COVID risk among adults who received three vaccines before being infected.

Doctor ‘Wage Theft’ Is Not Without Consequences | MedPage Today, N. Adam Brown. Uncompensated time harms healthcare professionals at the very least.

On Drug Prices, Biden Opts for Talk Over Action, The American Prospect, David Dayen. The situation involves a portion of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 that has never before been invoked. If a prescription drug was developed with public funding—which includes almost all of them­—and it isn’t being distributed on “reasonable terms,” the government has the authority to “march in” and give the patent they granted for the treatment to third parties.

White House Says It Can Seize Certain Drug Patents to Lower Prices, MedPage Today, Shannon Firth. Draft plan announced along with new efforts against anti-competitive healthcare mergers.

FL’s review of Medicaid eligibility could lead to more than 250,000 uninsured, experts say, Florida Phoenix, Uninsured because of the way state agencies are reevaluating eligibility for Medicaid, according to an analysis from public health policy experts at George Washington University.

FDA Inspections of Foreign Drug Manufacturers Haven’t Bounced Back After Pandemic, MedPage Today, Shannon Firth. The FDA hasn’t recovered from its pause in foreign drug manufacturer inspections during the COVID-19 pandemic, with inspections in 2022 remaining “well below” pre-pandemic surveillance levels, a study found.

Biden Wants States to Ensure Obamacare Plans Cover Enough Doctors and Hospitals, MedPage Today, Julie Appleby. Biden plans to push states to boost oversight of the number of doctors, hospitals, and other health providers insurers cover in Obamacare plans, under rules proposed in November.

Politics

Cartoon of the day; Altered image of Kyle Rittenhouse circulates, Fact check, msn.com. The first image shows Rittenhouse with a double chin and his stomach noticeably protruding while posing next to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. The second shows a slimmer Rittenhouse during his 2021 trial.

Biden forgives another $5 billion in student loans, axios.com, Sareen Habeshian. The White House on Wednesday announced $4.8 billion in student debt relief for some 80,300 people. State of play: That brings the total approved student debt cancellation by the Biden administration to $132 billion for more than 3.6 million Americans.

The Life-and-Death Cost of Conservative Power, The American Prospect, Paul Starr. Right-wing governance can have deadly consequences for the American people. Residents of red states, Paul Starr writes, can expect to lose several years of life compared with their fellow citizens in blue states.

Musk’s Latest Moral Meltdown & A Tale of Two GOP Election Frauds, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. SUMMARY: Republican Party activist Ken Carroll thought he was doing the right thing when he agreed to cast an electoral college vote for Donald Trump at the Georgia Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020.

Who’s really behind the drive to impeach Joe Biden? substack.com, Robert Reish. The same person who sought Zelensky’s help in digging up dirt on Hunter and Joe.

Economy

The Ball’s in Their Court, Roosevelt Institute. The president pushes to manage supply chain problems and rebalance the economy, the Supreme Court challenges the right of the public and our elected officials to limit corporate power.

Lots of Things Are Getting Cheaper, but You Probably Haven’t Noticed, businessinsider.com, Noah Sheidlower. Even though inflation is still higher than ideal, many things are actually getting cheaper. 

There’s only one way to make the circular economy work: use less stuff, Carbon Upfront!, Llyod Alter. By shifting our mindset, we can treat waste as a design flaw.

Imitation Banks: Abusing the Public’s Faith in Banks, Roosevelt Institute, Todd Phillips. The internet has led to great efficiencies in finance, but it has also created opportunities for exploitative finance through “imitation banks,” which pose serious risks to their depositors.

October Supply Chain Monitor, employamerica.org, Alex Williams. The pandemic showed clear deficiencies in capacity and capabilities across a range of sectors, most of which are taking steps to address those deficiencies now.

14th Amendment, Debt Ceiling & Perpetual Bonds: The Treasury Department is Hiding Political Failure In Technocratic Excuses, employamerica.org, In addition to the more well-known “platinum coin” solution, the Treasury retains the authority to issue callable perpetual bonds, that too in the statutory provision that directly succeeds the debt ceiling in the U.S. Code. 

Science

Movement on Agency Scientific Integrity Policies – Union of Concerned Scientists, Liz Borkowski. In the third quarter of 2023, Representative Paul Tonko reintroduced the Scientific Integrity Act.

The overlooked climate solution making headway at COP28: Energy efficiency, Grist, Akielly Hu. Doubling the annual pace of energy efficiency progress would achieve half of the emissions reductions needed by 2030.

The 12-year-old who halted COP28, Emily Atkin, HEATED. The United Arab Emirates severely restricted protest activity at this year’s U.N. climate summit. Harsh limits on what activists could say, as well as where and when demonstrations can occur. On Monday, one activist slipped past the COP28 host country’s gaze. She pulled off a truly unsanctioned and uncensored disruption. 12-year-old Licypriya Kangujam.

Legal

The landmark Genocide Convention has had mixed results since the UN approved it 75 years ago, the conversation, Alexander Hinton. Countries pledged to liberate humanity from the “odious scourge” of genocide when, at the United Nations, they established a new convention on preventing and punishing genocide on Dec. 9, 1948.

‘I Don’t Want to Be George Floyd,’ The American Prospect, Gabrielle Gurley. After exiting his car, Dallas replied that he had done nothing wrong and tried to run away. Police caught and wrestled with him, and then tased him. When Dallas arrived at the hospital, doctors pronounced him dead.

Actually, Opioid Victims Love the Sackler Immunity Shields, The American Prospect, Maureen Tkacik. And other fake news from the Supreme Court’s Purdue Pharma hearing.

Private Prison Firms Set To Cash In On Immigrant Surveillance Boom, levernews.com, Companies are salivating over a proposal to electronically track millions of people caught up in the U.S. immigration system.