Apparently doctors have left their jobs too

[LDAHL]

It basically comes down to risk assessment and who gets to do the assessing, doesn’t it? Medical risks, political risks and economic risks all in a giant global tangle. Had Operation Warp Speed proceeded more slowly for more thorough testing, would we have lost more people than we did? What will the ultimate cost be of closing schools for a year or more? To what degree should a public or private organization be able to impose it’s standards of risk on individuals working or doing business there? To what degree can an individual impose his standard of risk to the people around him?

Someone I know who works in Pharma claimed that mRNA technology can produce a vaccine within 2-3 weeks, and that the real time involved is testing for safety. Anything past that is at least partly a matter of judgment.

[JaneV2.0]

Other than rare disorders, I'm unaware of new side effects that are just emerging? At least on the order of peer reviewed. Am I missing something and should I be worried, as I'm now up to four mRNA shots?

Pericarditis and myocarditis, especially in young men: https://www.cdc.gov › coronavirus › ...ocarditis.html

"Myocarditis and pericarditis have rarely been reported. When reported, the cases have especially been in adolescents and young adult males within several days after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination (Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna).

More often after the second dose

Usually within a week of vaccination

Most patients with myocarditis or pericarditis who received care responded well to medicine and rest and felt better quickly.

Patients can usually return to their normal daily activities after their symptoms improve.

Those who have been diagnosed with myocarditis should consult with their cardiologist (heart doctor) about return to exercise or sports.

Seek medical care if you or your child have any of the specific or general symptoms of myocarditis or pericarditis especially if it’s within a week after COVID-19 vaccination."

[JaneV2.0]

I listened to an interview of Dr. Ginge Brien, an American geriatrician, in which he explains he quit traditional medicine due to extreme protocols and regulations that hamstrung his ability to practice as he wished. Now he has a private concierge service where he makes house calls and does consults.

"As a physician, I'd been a legal drug pusher, and now I'm trying to be a healer."--Dr.Brien

[catherine]

I listened to an interview of Dr. Ginge Brien, an American geriatrician, in which he explains he quit traditional medicine due to extreme protocols and regulations that hamstrung his ability to practice as he wished. Now he has a private concierge service where he makes house calls and does consults.

"As a physician, I'd been a legal drug pusher, and now I'm trying to be a healer."--Dr.Brien

As another legal drug dealer, I see both sides. Do for-profit pharmaceutical manufacturers do anything they can to make money, within the constraints of the law and an overriding mission to help people? Yes. But has their extensive R&D and development of therapies from the "bread and butter" to highly innovative helped many people? Yes.

I had an interview with a parent of a child with a rare disease yesterday. It has a genetic component, and babies are born with it, so lifestyle is not a factor. Her son lived for 12 years in pain. He couldn't even sit for more than 5 minutes at the dinner table. His pain was so bad he had to stand up after 5 minutes, and most of the time he wasn't at school, he was lying down on the couch with a blanket. When a novel therapy for this rare disease was approved, the doctor prescribed it for him last August.

I asked her, how did you know your child was improving on this drug? There was a long pause. I suspected she was crying, and she was. She apologized for being emotional, and she said, "I knew he was improving when he could sit at the dinner table with us for 30 minutes and tell us about his day at school."

Are there side effects with this drug? Absolutely, but nothing intolerable if you want to be relieved of debilitating pain and have the tumors on your spine shrink.

As for the vaccine issue, I believe the myocarditis and pericarditis are temporary, as your quote alludes to. Patients have the right to decide for themselves the benefit vs risk of any drug.

[JaneV2.0]

The unfortunate patients who suffer with these conditions would have little recourse if Congress hadn't passed the Orphan Drug Act in 1983, offering incentives (dare I say bribes?) to drug companies to do the right thing.

"That law, the Orphan Drug Act, provided financial incentives to attract industry’s interest through a seven-year period of market exclusivity for a drug approved to treat an orphan disease, even if it were not under patent, and tax credits of up to 50 percent for research and development expenses. In addition, FDA was authorized to designate drugs and biologics for orphan status (the first step to getting orphan development incentives) provide grants for clinical testing of orphan products, and offer assistance in how to frame protocols for investigations. A subsequent amendment defined a rare disease as one affecting under 200,000, though a disease with more patients could qualify if the firm could not recover the costs of developing the drug."

https://www.fda.gov/industry/fdas-ra...rphan-drug-act

[catherine]

I suppose that's why there is always tension between the public and the private sector. And frankly, since all the blockbuster bread-and-butter drugs are going off-patent, orphan drugs are now a viable market opportunity. I spoke with payers this month on that very topic and they admit that they are worried about the financial impact on their business of orphan drugs. I don't disagree there is pharmaceutical greed.

Here's another good quote I heard from a pharmacist whose professional associations are lobbying against a particular program that pharmacy benefit managers are taking advantage of because, well, they can. The pharmacist said, "[Our professional organization] convened and we decided that we'd have to try to get Congress involved. And you know how bad it is when you have to rely on Congress to make things happen."

[ApatheticNoMore]

I listened to an interview of Dr. Ginge Brien, an American geriatrician, in which he explains he quit traditional medicine due to extreme protocols and regulations that hamstrung his ability to practice as he wished. Now he has a private concierge service where he makes house calls and does consults.

"As a physician, I'd been a legal drug pusher, and now I'm trying to be a healer."--Dr.Brien

he can fancy himself that way if he wants. But a healer to who? Bet he doesn't take insurance or Medicaid/Medicare, bet his out of pocket cash rates are out of reach to even the middle class. So he could just say "I used to be a doctor to everyone, now I'm a doctor to the rich" and be as accurate about it.

[pinkytoe]

I was just reading an article about a radiology clinic back in Austin laying off long-time staff right now - this is a company that has been there for years. A year or so back, the bulk of the organization was acquired by private equity firms for whom only the bottom line matters. Little bits left were sold off to some of the doctors who practice there. Ditto with MIL's assisted living - it was also acquired recently by an equity firm and the service has become deplorable. So much of this going on in the health care world.

[ApatheticNoMore]

The myocarditis risk exists but is less than the risk of that from covid. I guess it gets complex if you had already had covid a few times before vaccines came out. But if you hadn't had covid getting the vaccine makes sense. How many young men have the ability to avoid all covid exposure? Good masks are very effective but not sure I'd want to rely on only that alone. We would all like to go back to the world of 2019 where we neither had to get vaccines to protect ourselves and/or covid, but that's not on offer.

[catherine]

he can fancy himself that way if he wants. But a healer to who? Bet he doesn't take insurance or Medicaid/Medicare, bet his out of pocket cash rates are out of reach to even the middle class. So he could just say "I used to be a doctor to everyone, now I'm a doctor to the rich" and be as accurate about it.

Good point.