Podcasts about united states centers

To age well, doctors say we should remember the importance of good balance. It matters when you wash yourself, put clothing on and, generally, move around in your home and elsewhere. As we age, good balance permits us to live more independently. 医生说，要健康地老去，我们应该记住良好平衡的重要性。您何时洗澡、穿衣服以及在家中和其他地方四处走动都很重要。随着年龄的增长，良好的平衡使我们能够更独立地生活。 Difficulties with balance can be dangerous. The United States Centers for Disease Control reports that three million older people in America seek medical care for fall-related injuries each year. But we can prevent some falls, said Roopa Anmolsingh. She is a geriatrician, a doctor who specializes in treating old people. She is also the creator of the balance class program at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. She said that "Some people have a misconception that part of getting old is, you're going to fall. That's not true. You can control how you fall, or if you fall." 平衡困难可能很危险。美国疾病控制中心报告称，美国每年有 300 万老年人因跌倒受伤而寻求医疗护理。但我们可以防止一些跌倒，鲁帕·安莫辛格说。她是一名老年科医生，专门治疗老年人的医生。她也是俄亥俄州克利夫兰诊所平衡课程项目的创始人。她说：“有些人有一种误解，认为变老的一部分就是你会跌倒。但事实并非如此。你可以控制自己如何跌倒，或者是否跌倒。” To prevent falls, geriatricians say people should start asking themselves questions about their balance as early as 50 years old. Here are the questions: 老年病学家表示，为了防止跌倒，人们早在 50 岁时就应该开始问自己有关平衡能力的问题。以下是问题：If you feel unsteady, or lose balance, from time to time, ask your doctor to check all your body systems that can affect balance. Along with muscle and bone problems, unsteadiness can also result from poor blood pressure, inner-ear problems, nervous system issues and more. 如果您时不时感到不稳定或失去平衡，请要求医生检查所有可能影响平衡的身体系统。除了肌肉和骨骼问题之外，血压不佳、内耳问题、神经系统问题等也可能导致不稳定。 Maybe you do not have unsteadiness but wonder about your skill at balancing. You can test yourself easily and at home to find out if you need any medical intervention. 也许您并没有不稳定，但想知道自己的平衡能力。您可以在家轻松地进行自我测试，以确定是否需要任何医疗干预。 Stand next to a wall or something that can provide support if needed. Raise one leg. Can you hold that position for 10 seconds? Now try the other leg. If you can stand on each leg alone for 10 seconds, you should be fine, said Greg W. Hartley, a professor of physical therapy specializing in geriatrics at the University of Miami in Florida. 如果需要，请站在墙边或可以提供支撑的物体旁边。抬起一条腿。你能保持这个姿势10秒钟吗？现在尝试另一条腿。佛罗里达州迈阿密大学老年医学专业物理治疗教授格雷格·W·哈特利 (Greg W. Hartley) 表示，如果你能单条腿站立 10 秒钟，那就没什么问题了。

The American Kennel Club Government Relations (AKC GR) staff have met with staff of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as well as key members of Congress to discuss the CDC's recently finalized rule on the importation of dogs.  AKC continues to be concerned with the disproportionate impact the new rule will have on low-risk importations, and shares in the concerns of fanciers and breeders who regularly cross the U.S.-Canadian border for canine event participation, veterinary care, and breeder collaboration.  Connect 7 Essential Things Every Dog Owner Should Know: Http://ak.dog/7tips 100 Dog Training Tips: Http://ak.dog/100tips Connect Podcast: https://dogworksradio.com Work with us: Https://firstpaw.media  Support the podcast: https://patreon.com/firstpawmedia Dog Training: https://ak.dog/offer  Become a Member of our Pack! Podcaster? Consider Riverside.FM

Good Morning and Happy Tuesday, #LALiens. If you ask Mike, Ye is getting back on the throttle. Will there be an awakening of the American spirit? . Today, Norm and Mike discuss: . › The United States Centers for Disease Control is reporting that data emerging from 2021 shows that life expectancy for men is nearly six (6) years less than for women. Meanwhile, Michigan's legislature has introduced a bill dubbed the "Death with Dignity Act," to legalize medically assisted suicide and joining a growing coalition of American states creating legal pathways for individuals to kill themselves under the supervision and assistance of the medical system. . › Tucker Carlson is in Spain. Something about separatists. Something about taxpayer money being funneled to appease discordant groups. Something about pardoning separatists. But Tucker Carlson is in Spain and is marching with tens of thousands of Spanish citizens in opposition to what is crystallizing as top-down subversion of the country's laws and justice system. . › Video footage of Jenna Ellis' cooperative testimony in the Georgia case against President Donald J. Trump made its debut yesterday and has gone viral. What is the role of a cooperating witness—or, "snitch"—in criminal prosecutions and how is one's credibility and motive effectively cross-examined by defense counsel? . Join us. . Daily livestreams beginning at 8:00 am EST on: › Rumble: https://rumble.com/user/LawandLegitimacy › Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@lawandlegitimacy › X: https://twitter.com/LawPodDaily . Subscribe and turn on notifications! . Support Law and Legitimacy: . - Locals: https://lawandlegitimacy.locals.com/ - X: @LawPodDaily, @PattisNorm, and @MichaelBoyer_ - Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Audible, Spotify, or wherever you receive podcasts and rate LAL 5 stars. - Subscribe here on our Rumble and Youtube channels, give us a Rumble, and join our active community of free-thinkers, contrarians, and the unafraid on Locals!

Good Morning and Happy Tuesday, #LALiens. If you ask Mike, Ye is getting back on the throttle. Will there be an awakening of the American spirit? . Today, Norm and Mike discuss: . › The United States Centers for Disease Control is reporting that data emerging from 2021 shows that life expectancy for men is nearly six (6) years less than for women. Meanwhile, Michigan's legislature has introduced a bill dubbed the "Death with Dignity Act," to legalize medically assisted suicide and joining a growing coalition of American states creating legal pathways for individuals to kill themselves under the supervision and assistance of the medical system. . › Tucker Carlson is in Spain. Something about separatists. Something about taxpayer money being funneled to appease discordant groups. Something about pardoning separatists. But Tucker Carlson is in Spain and is marching with tens of thousands of Spanish citizens in opposition to what is crystallizing as top-down subversion of the country's laws and justice system. . › Video footage of Jenna Ellis' cooperative testimony in the Georgia case against President Donald J. Trump made its debut yesterday and has gone viral. What is the role of a cooperating witness—or, "snitch"—in criminal prosecutions and how is one's credibility and motive effectively cross-examined by defense counsel? . Join us. . Daily livestreams beginning at 8:00 am EST on: › Rumble: https://rumble.com/user/LawandLegitimacy › Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@lawandlegitimacy › X: https://twitter.com/LawPodDaily . Subscribe and turn on notifications! . Support Law and Legitimacy: . - Locals: https://lawandlegitimacy.locals.com/ - X: @LawPodDaily, @PattisNorm, and @MichaelBoyer_ - Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Audible, Spotify, or wherever you receive podcasts and rate LAL 5 stars. - Subscribe here on our Rumble and Youtube channels, give us a Rumble, and join our active community of free-thinkers, contrarians, and the unafraid on Locals!

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Biosafety in BSL-3, BSL-3+ and BSL-4 Laboratories: Mapping and Recommendations for Latin America, published by JorgeTorresC on August 23, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum. Executive summary This article addresses biosafety and biosecurity in high-containment level laboratories (BSL-3 and BSL-4) in Latin America, with a focus on classification, current status, and regulatory frameworks. In the region, the lack of uniformity in data collection makes it difficult to accurately understand the infrastructure of high-containment laboratories. Regulatory frameworks vary across the region and present challenges in terms of standardization. Although countries like Colombia have made progress in this area, there is a need to establish updated and centralized regulatory frameworks in each country. To improve biosafety and biosecurity, we make a series of recommendations such as the implementation of biological risk management systems in laboratories, the promotion of non-punitive incident reports, the standardization of supervision processes, collaboration between institutions, and the exchange of best practices. Introduction Biosafety and biosecurity in high-containment level laboratories (BSL-3 and BSL-4) are of vital importance for the protection of public health. These laboratories work with dangerous biological agents, so it is essential to ensure that practices, equipment, and security measures are adequate and rigorous. In this context, this article focuses on analyzing the current situation of BSL-3, BSL-3+, and BSL-4 laboratories in Latin America. We explore the increase in the construction of these laboratories at a global level, the regulatory frameworks by which they are governed, and the challenges that some Latin American countries face in their implementation. In addition, we propose several recommendations to improve biosafety and biosecurity in these laboratories. To consult the complete map follow the link: Classification of laboratories by biosafety levels In 1974, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a document titled "Classification of etiologic agents on the basis of hazard", proposing the classification of pathogens into four risk groups. Subsequently, both the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the United States and the World Health Organization (WHO) updated this system, thus establishing the bases for the classification of laboratories according to the risk group of the pathogens they handle (Villegas et al. al., 2007). Out of the classification of risk groups, four levels of biosafety in laboratories have been established. These levels are determined taking into account several factors, such as the infectious capacity of the pathogen, the existence of treatments or vaccines for it, the severity of the disease it causes, its transmissibility, whether it is of exotic origin or not, and the nature of the work carried out in the laboratory (Lara-Villegas et al., 2008). Level 1 (BSL-1) laboratories use elemental equipment and practices for teaching purposes. They work with well-defined and characterized strains of microorganisms that do not cause disease in healthy people. The use of special protective equipment is not required. Level 2 (BSL-2) laboratories adopt appropriate practices, equipment, and measures to realize clinical analysis, diagnoses, and pathology. These laboratories handle microorganisms of moderate risk that are present in the community and are associated with human diseases of variable severity. Level 3 (BSL-3) laboratories implement appropriate practices, equipment, and measures to realize clinical analysis, diagnoses, and research. These laboratories handle known or unknown agents that have the potential to be transmitted by aerosol or splash and that can cause life-threatening infections...

The World Health Organization have existed for 9 decades since the first World Health Assembly meeting in 1948. For much of this time they have been viewed as an organisation that focused on health and working with national governments for you and your families best interest. Michele Bachmann returns to Hearts of Oak to look at a very different side to the WHO, the one that was exposed to the public over the last 3 years. At the upcoming assembly in Geneva we will witness the biggest WHO power grab ever attempted where national governments and the interests of countries will be urged to submit their sovereignty to the WHO. But have they overplayed their hand? With the Gates Foundation and the CCP being exposed as the 2nd and 3rd biggest funders, will the public see through this power grab. Join us this episode for Michele's expert analysis. Michele Bachmann is the dean of the Robertson School of Government at Regent University and was born in Waterloo, Iowa. She received a B.A. in Political Science and English from Winona State University in 1978. She married Marcus Bachmann, a clinical therapist who holds a master's degree from Regent University. In 1986, she received a Juris Doctor degree from Oral Roberts University. She was a member of the ORU law school's final graduating class, and was part of a group of faculty, staff, and students who moved the ORU law school library to Regent University. Two years later, she completed a Master of Law in taxation at the College of William & Mary. She worked for four years as a lawyer for the Internal Revenue Service's Office of Chief Counsel in St. Paul, Minnesota. Michele and her husband have five children. They also worked with a private foster care agency to house 23 children in their home during the 1990s. Their children were home schooled and also attended private Christian schools, and her political career stemmed from her interest in education reform. In 2000, Michele defeated a long-time moderate incumbent for a state senate seat in Minnesota. In 2006, she entered the race to represent her suburban Minneapolis congressional district, winning 52 percent of the vote, becoming the first Republican woman from Minnesota elected to the House of Representatives. She easily won re-election in 2008 and 2010. Michele's extensive career highlights include: She was the first Republican woman from Minnesota elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Michele served as a United States Congresswoman representing Minnesota's 6th District from 2007 to 2015. She quickly became a national figure in the Republican Party and a founding member of the congressional Tea Party Caucus. In 2011, Michele announced her bid for the Republican presidential nomination and ran for president in 2012 and is a highly respected leader who is deeply committed to conservative values in government. Regent University https://www.regent.edu/ Interview recorded 24.4.23 *Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast. Check out his art https://theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com/ and follow him on GETTR https://gettr.com/user/BoschFawstin and Twitter https://twitter.com/TheBoschFawstin?s=20  To sign up for our weekly email, find our social media, podcasts, video, livestreaming platforms and more... https://heartsofoak.org/connect/ Please like, subscribe and share! Transcript (Hearts of Oak) Hello, Hearts of Oak, and welcome to another interview, coming up with Michele Bachmann, who was with us a couple of weeks ago, and she joins us this time to talk about the WHO, the World Health Organization. It's an organization which she has been concerned about and following for quite a while. Obviously, we have seen it come to prominence during the last three years, but Michelle joins us to look into the workings of it. We look at the finance, Bill and Melinda Gates Organization Foundation are I think the second highest funders of it, the Chinese Communist Party are the third highest. Make of that what you will. So we discussed that and the control and power play behind that and then the clash between national governments and the WHO. The WHO seems to be a massive power play on control of the health services and sector and drugs within all countries and coming up next month in Geneva is the 76th World Health Assembly meeting in Geneva and this happened since 1948. It's the governing group body in effect of the WHO and they'll be meeting to propose a number of issues. One which is for the WHO to take full control of health in any pandemic. We discuss what that means, is this control, and then also we touch on the digital IDs of the WHO, who are very fond off on how that will affect us all. So Michele brings experience from her political background, her educational background, and I know you will be inspired as you listen to her opening the door on this issue and inspiring us to actually respond in an effective away so this does not happen.   Michele Bachmann, thank you so much for joining us once again. (Michele Bachmann) Peter, it's always great to be with you. I enjoy being on Hearts of Oak. Thank you so much. And last time we obviously discussed education and if the viewers don't know, Michele is a former member of Congress and current Dean of the Robertson School of Government at Regent University down there in Virginia. And the last time we had a conversation was all to do with the education and pushing back that woke wave. But I know that there is an issue that you also feel passionate about, as well as education, and that is a concern on the WHO, on the World Health Organization. And we've heard a lot about that, I think, over the last three years, I guess people maybe before may have been unfamiliar with the WHO. So maybe ask you personally, why is this an area of interest? Was there a particular, time or point or bill or something that happened that made you aware the WHO were maybe not what what they seem to be. Well, just so people know what the WHO is, it's the World Health Organization. It is the health care arm of the United Nations. And so for many people, the United Nations really is not a, big figure in their lives. They hope that they're doing good things to keep peaceful relations between countries. But other than that, people don't think too much about the United Nations. And the World Health Organization, we've always seen them as an organization that can maybe try and do good, especially in poor countries where they don't have money for healthcare so that they could help, for instance, with maternal, positive maternal outcomes for pregnancies, for young babies that are just born, dealing with diseases where the nation doesn't have enough money. Everyone is on board with that. Nations are happy to give money toward that so that other nations have positive outcomes for their people. So when we think of the World Health Organization, those are the kind of hopes you might say that we infuse into the organization, that we hope they are doing. But we saw something very different, Peter, about three years ago or so with the outbreak of the COVID pandemic. And with that, then we saw the World Health Organization in a completely different light. Well, tell us, it is that three years that probably weren't on people's radar. The UN people are aware of, but there are many other organisations that happen really behind the scenes and people are unaware of the effect they have on their everyday life. And I'm looking over the last three years, I'm wondering whether the WHO have overplayed their hand, because I guess they're an organisation that have thrived in the shadows and now they're front and centre and people are aware of them. And I kind of wonder whether they've overplayed their hand. Well, quite honestly, it's bewildering to me how much power they were infused with. And this wasn't actual power. This was imputed power. What do I mean by that? Here in the United States, I can give you our example here. Our government, led by President Joe Biden, looked to the WHO, and whatever recommendation the WHO, the World Health Organization gave regarding COVID, our United States Centers for Disease Control, the director was a woman named Rachel Walensky, the World Health Organization is run by a man, his first name is Tedros, his last name is something like Galbraithius, he's from Ethiopia. He has a very controversial checkered history, he was involved in a lot of collusion cover up, allegedly, in Ethiopia. And so, of course, the way these things work, these people often are plucked out of that position and they fail up, so to speak. So they're put in a position with even more responsibility. That's what happened to Tedros. He was made the director general of the World Health Organization. So, you know, no cry, no foul. Nobody really cared about it until along came COVID. And the United States of America is the number one funder of the World Health Organization. The number two funder of the World Health Organization, interestingly, is a man named Bill Gates. Many people may know the name of the billionaire Bill Gates, one of the richest men in the world. He was the founder of Microsoft. The third funder of World Health Organization is the Communist Party of China. So the interesting thing is that Tedros, who himself is a communist, seems to be controlled by the number three funder at the World Health Organization, not the number one funder, but by the number three, and arguably also by the number two funder, Bill Gates. And so the World Health Organization then, unbelievably, was lifted up to a point where whatever their pronouncements were for the last three years. Here in the United States, our President Joe Biden took the World Health Organization pronouncements, and those recommendations went to our Centers for Disease Control, which is not a regulatory body, which has no power of enforcement, but they took the recommendations of the WHO, and then the CDC made those same recommendations. But weirdly, somewhere in the ether, those recommendations were treated as though they were law, as though our Congress had passed them, and the president had signed them into law. None of that happened. Congress never passed a law regarding COVID. They never passed a law regarding the recommendations of the WHO. And yet, here in the United States, people were forced to stay home for 15 days. They weren't allowed out of their houses. I can't even believe I'm saying that, thinking back three years ago, what we all willingly did, how naive were we? And after that, then businesses were told they were not allowed to open. So what did that mean? That meant for two weeks, people didn't have a pay check. For two weeks, employers didn't have employees. For two weeks, there was no incoming monies for the GDP. That's millions and millions of dollars, billions of dollars that never got made. Well, what was going to happen? Well, in that extraordinary circumstance that had never happened before in the United States saw extraordinary actions. These actions were led by whatever it was that the World Health Organization said. Here we are, arguably the greatest military and economic superpower nation on earth, and we're bowing down and kowtowing to whatever this Tedros, who heads up the World Health Organization is saying, it's kind of an interesting phenomenon that the United States would do something like that. It's almost like you could imagine a scenario where communist China, who seeks domination all across the world, who has their infamous Silk and Road Initiative, where they are trying to dominate the ancient Silk Road pattern, the trade routes that went across. India and the Stans and making their way into Europe. Also it has a Silk and Road initiative trying to go through the Latin American countries and South America but also now through the United States. And it seems that they wanted to do the actions that were being pronounced for ones that would bring about economic ruination to the West, to the United States to the European nations, to Australia, to New Zealand. It was very odd. The COVID, the spread of COVID seemed to hit the West extremely hard. So it was after a while, it seemed inescapable to reach the conclusion that communist China seemed to be benefiting from COVID, while the rest of the world seemed to be hurt by COVID. But the WHO, the World Health Organization, seemed to be the vehicle that was being used to make pronouncements as phony and as detrimental as they were, and then countries in the West magically bowed down and did whatever the World Health Organization said. At least that's what happened here in the United States, including, Peter, social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google. We saw that here in America, people were thrown off of their social media accounts. They were cancelled if they disagreed with what the World Health Organization said. As a matter of fact, these social media companies, including Google, would put up a notification that their standard for knowledge and information was the World Health Organization. And if anyone disagreed with them, they would be thrown off. And the same was true of the United States government. Their standard was the World Health Organization. There was no legal requirement for this. They didn't have to do this, but they chose, they imputed power to the World Health Organization, even though over and over again, the World Health Organization contradicted the recommendations. The recommendations were found to be faulty afterwards. They were, they pretended. The people who cried the loudest pretended to always say, the science, the science, we're following the science. When as a matter of fact, they chose to silence free inquiry and scientists who were not finding the same results as the World Health Organization. Any opinion that deviated in any way from the World Health Organization was not only silenced, they were also accused of being misinformation and they were blackmailed. They were censored. Here in America, doctors were thrown out of positions in medical schools if they disagreed with the World Health Organization's opinion. I think if you could step back about 50 steps and take a look objectively at what's happened the last three years, people would be aghast. But unfortunately, the media hasn't done that. There hasn't really been allowed, at least in America, an overview of all of the mistakes that have happened in the last three years. I'll give you one example. I just read an article this morning about the incredible damage that mask wearing did to people, whether they were old or whether they were young. And what they found is that within five minutes of wearing a mask, damage already began to individuals. Up to and including the stillborn birth of unborn babies to pregnant women. Little children had cognitive damage from the build-up of CO2 hurting their brain functioning. There are all sorts of issues that have come out and that's just mask wearing, let alone the vaccines, let alone other things like lockdowns that were encouraged by the WHO and were implemented by the WHO. Probably in America, nothing was more damaging than the shutdown of economic activity in our nation. We saw literally trillions of dollars take wings and fly away because they were unearned. And we also printed money that we didn't have. We spent money that we didn't have. We're continuing to do that. And here in the United States, we have a contagion of inflation. That is very difficult. It's a tiger by the tail. It's hurting the poorest in the United States and the middle class, and it's inhibiting the creation of new start-ups and new businesses. So the WHO, an innocuous healthcare arm of the United Nations has a lot to answer for. But unfortunately, in the structure of the United Nations, there doesn't appear to be an accountability structure. And it appears that just like the fellow who's heading the WHO, Tedros, failed up. He was rewarded with failure from Ethiopia. It appears now that the World Health Organization also will be granted benefits and even more empowered after their failures. And so they may also soon fail up as well with even more power, more control over more people across the earth. Oh, well, Tedros has been rewarded with another five years in charge, so things are not going to get any better. There are a whole lot of those things you come to like pick you up on. But one is the social media. We have been amazed that actually it is discussing COVID that affects you on social media. I personally thought having a robust conversation on Islam or have a robust conversation on the gender nonsense would. But actually it was it was COVID and of course you've been on Mark Steyn's show many times and Mark Steyn was removed from GB News through Ofcom, the regulatory body in the UK on communications because he talked to those who were vaccine injured. And I'm wondering, you looking at the States, is there a way through that or are social media companies going to hold that over us all, that if we talk out of line then immediately people will be punished. Where does that leave a free and open conversation? Well, it's stifled here in the United States. We have what is called the First Amendment protections. We have our Constitution of the United States, and we have what's called is the Bill of Rights. This is in the Constitution. It's equal to the Constitution. And America is built on the fact that our government is supposed to have very limited powers. The people are supposed to have an expansive set of powers, and those powers are guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, the first being freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of worship and religious expression, the right to petition our government, the right to gather together and assemble. Those are all a part of the First Amendment freedoms and including our Second Amendment, which is the right to keep and bear arms, guns, for the right to protect yourself. And when the founders passed the Second Amendment, it was so that the people could protect themselves against the government. That was the intention. So we have 10 of those amendments of rights. And what we've seen is that there's a new cohort of people in the United States, many of whom have obtained positions of power, and those people don't agree with what we have as our constitutional rights. And so we're seeing not only the threat to those rights in law, but in practice. And we've seen it most particularly through social media, where we are no longer allowed to have free speech. And as a matter of fact, it's even worse because people are told if they disagree with the the state line. That they are giving misinformation. In other words, they're harming the public. By giving an opinion that digresses from government. And I think you've had to deal with that in the United Kingdom as well. And it's egregious because it is anti-science. It is anti-freedom. Quite frankly, it is anti-human. Because if you look at the carnage, for instance, the fallout that happened from wearing masks, from being forced to get a vaccine when you didn't want to, but your livelihood depended on it, so you felt you had to. And then, despite everything that we were told, that we would be instantaneously cured of COVID if we take a vaccine. We would never go to a hospital. We wouldn't transmit the virus. We wouldn't die from it. Every one of those claims was proved false. And even more egregious than that, the number of people that we're seeing over and over the excess deaths, if you will, in the United Kingdom, in America, anywhere that these vaccines were pushed, people's lives are continuing to be harmed by what's happened. And there's been no review. There's been no honest, transparent review of what happened during those three years. We're still going through that. Here in the United States, Peter, there are colleges that still mandate that students must get vaccinated before they come into college. And this is after even the CDC director, the Centers for Disease Control director, Rachel Walensky, just this last week admitted, yes, you can still transmit COVID. You can still get COVID even if you take a vaccine. Well, what was this thing worth? What was it worth? Especially when you see the people who are physically harmed after taking this vaccine. So I think we need to move our compassion toward those who are trying, who are we're believing? Just on face value with the government and what the World Health Organization, what the CDC said, they just said, okay, well, they must be looking out for my welfare. Well, we don't wanna impugn motives if the CDC or the WHO was or wasn't looking out for people's welfare, that we don't know. But what we do know is the objective fact of what happened to people's lives. And there's ongoing carnage continually from these lockdowns, mask mandates, vaccines, all of the restrictions that happen, we're continuing to deal with the downstream impacts of it. And it is devastating, probably one of the worst public policy failures in human history.   One thing on the damage for going on to say some more more with the WHO. I was with a friend today from, who's over from the States and his business is property. He was talking about the ghost towns are being created across America. I mean generally in Europe we've had a, probably the majority have returned to work, to an office, but still you have some working from home. But he was giving me a picture of how bad it is of people working from home and then the damage that's causing to towns and cities across the country and then I guess the bankruptcy that's going to happen with property spaces not being filled and banks having to, I mean it's it seems to time bomb I mean what is it what is it like in the U.S. have people returned to the workplace or are they still working from home? Well, you're right. It is a huge problem. A lot of people who got used to being able to be at home so they could answer the door, take the dog out, throw the laundry in, throw it in the dryer. People just got used to that, not having to dress up for work, not having to commute. A lot of people like that. So in some ways, the positive is that some businesses saw that they don't have to take on the expense of leasing office space. They can get just as much productivity from employees at home. However, a lot of businesses have seen we don't get as much productivity from our employees who are at home. Plus, what we're really missing is that magic that happens when people come together and they talk to each other and they get ideas and they exchange information that they wouldn't have known otherwise. That just doesn't happen in a Zoom call or a Zoom meeting. And so there's a lot of interactions that no longer happen. I know. You know, in the United States in major metropolitan city after major metropolitan city, you hear of huge downtown office buildings, that no longer are being filled like you had mentioned in the UK and it's happening here as well. If I could just deviate for one second, when you opened your remarks, it reminded me of something else that happened. And that was, it was extraordinary when COVID hit that landlords who own apartment buildings or own smaller units that they leased out. Landlords were prohibited from evicting tenants if they couldn't pay their rent. And so here a landlord was not relieved of the duty to pay taxes or insurance or a mortgage, but they weren't allowed to evict anyone. So this went on for months and months and months and months and months. How do you penalize one business, one portion of the business sector, It's just unbelievable the confusion. So then you look at landlords of huge office buildings. I'll give you one example. Maybe people have heard of the corporation Target. That is from Minneapolis, Minnesota. So this is a huge department store in America and Target Corporation leased all sorts of office space in downtown Minneapolis. Well, there were a lot of riots that happened after George Floyd. That people in the UK heard of the George Floyd situation. And so Minneapolis downtown became very dangerous. People don't, employees don't wanna go downtown plus COVID. So now we see office building after office building. The largest hotel in Minneapolis couldn't make money because you remember hotels were shuttered because of the World Health Organization. And in our case in America, the CDC. So the largest hotel in downtown Minneapolis went up on auction because they couldn't make it anymore. So hotels, office buildings, then you have the guy trying to shine shoes, and then the guy trying to sell coffee, and then the local diners. And so what we're seeing is an absolute implosion in metropolitan areas. And metropolitan areas are like the tent post holding up a tent. And then you've got all the suburban areas. So that impacts real estate, people's abilities to buy homes, sell homes. So this is all continuing to happen. We're three plus years on. And these horrible decisions made by these bureaucrats at the World Health Organization with no accountability, and at the Centers for Disease Control in America with no accountability, and I'm sure for you it's the NIH, the National Institute of Health. These decisions are continuing to go on. Let me give you one more example. And this is one that we're not used to in the United States. We've always had very high quality health care in the United States. But now in the United States, you'd call, you'd make an appointment, you'd probably get in to see your doctor the same day. Now it's not like that. Now we have to wait weeks, in some cases months, to get in to see a doctor. That has never happened before in the United States. Now we're seeing waiting times on being able to get in And we've primarily been a private healthcare system, which has worked beautifully. The more government has gotten involved in our healthcare system, the worst it's gotten, the more expensive it's gotten, the more the times are lengthening. So the World Health Organization, from my perspective, caused a chain reaction of events that we're continuing to be harmed from today. And so that's why, Peter, again, it's so dangerous, the proposals that are on the table, to empower them even more after their failure? One area you talked about was the clash, the power of the WHO. Before we look in the funding in China, but simply that clash between national governments and their responsibility for their population and the WHO. And maybe in Europe, we have had that control above national governments in the European Union. But by and large, you don't really have the World Trade Organization doesn't have that much power in relation to what was in the WHO. So, I mean, it's it is concerning that every country seems to have to, well, fall into line or to bow down to the WHO's latest edict. And I wonder where that leaves nations like the US, like other nations, that independent, that supporting what is best for their populations, that seems to have gone out the window and the WHO seems to be the one that kind of plays the tune and countries have to dance to it. Well, we can blame the WHO, but really what we have to do is blame our own political leaders. I can't blame the WHO today entirely because they are a recommendation and advisory only body. That's it. So they can give advice. And the 194 member nations of the World Health Organization, There's about 200 nations in the world and 194 are members of the World Health Organization. So those nations don't have to follow those dictates if they don't want to, because the WHO only issues recommendations. The problem is our leaders, our leader, President Joe Biden, who took whatever the WHO said as gospel and forced that onto our our healthcare system, our centres for disease control, and then our national health grants, and our Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx, the ones who were standing up and telling Americans, you must do this, you must do that, even as silly as Dr. Fauci coming out on stage, wearing not one mask, not two masks, three masks, in some cases, four masks. It's like, this was theatre. This was theatre when he would come out and wear these masks. Especially in light of the evidence that was available before on masks, but even now more profound after COVID, how damaging and worthless these masks are. Not one of those masks could stop the prevention of COVID. So what was the point? Why did people have to sit for eight hours on an airplane flight wearing a mask when all it did is hurt the passenger? It didn't save anyone else on that plane. So this is the kind of nonsense we've had to deal with. And now there's an effort by our political leader. You know, you have your political leaders and what they've imposed on your population. Our political leader, Joe Biden, empowered, he didn't have to, he empowered the World Health Organization. But now last year in 2022, the Biden administration offered 29 amendments, to the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland. They meet annually once a year to change and radically alter the WHO. I'd like to say before that. During COVID, our president was Donald Trump, and Donald Trump saw the mess that was coming out of the World Health Organization. He saw a lot of the nonsense and a lot of the confusing contradictory pronouncements that they were making. So Donald Trump said, we're getting the United States out of the WHO. We're not going to stay in. So he pulled the funding for the WHO, and he also gave notice to the World Health Organization, to the UN, the United States will no longer be in. Well, the protocol that you have to follow is that it takes one year for a nation to fully pull out of the World Health Organization. As your audience knows, Donald Trump was not returned to the White House in 2020. Joe Biden became president of the United States. So on the very first day that Joe Biden became president, he put the United States back into the World Health Organization, and he restored all of their funding. And from there, he empowered them even more, to the point of offering and he's been the aggressor, he's been the lead, President Biden, to offer these amendments at the World Health Assembly, the World Health Assembly is the governing organization that governs the WHO. So the WHO is the UN organization, but the governing board is the World Health Assembly. And they meet once a week, the last week of May in Geneva, Switzerland. This has been going on since 2005. But curiously the amendments that were being offered would completely transfer the World Health Organization away from being an advisory only body to becoming an international regulatory body. And in some respects, these amendments are so incredibly strong, it would create a platform in the World Health Organization for a global system of government, so that the World Health Organization would be empowered to declare a public health emergency of international concern. Well, what's that? That means that the WHO would have the power to declare a global emergency. And then they would be empowered to set the standard and to put the orders out for what each nation has to do, whether it's lockdowns, whether it's masking, whether it's vaccinations, whether it's all of the PPP that people had to come up with. They could even order a country to supply PPP, pay for it, supply it to other countries. So this would be a redistribution of wealth. This is an absolutely jaw-dropping increase of power that they would have. This would affect the budgets of various countries, but it would impact the freedom that people have. These amendments are also stating what could be said and what couldn't be said in countries on healthcare. So if we thought that we were restricted on speech during this last pandemic, this would be globally enforced, what we can say and what we couldn't say. Every nation would be expected to toe the exact same line. Because remember, in Sweden, they didn't shut down their schools. Kids went to school in Sweden. Whereas in America, kids had to stay home. So this is an absolutely jaw-dropping level of power that the Biden administration tried to push. Now with those amendments in 2022, a few African nations pushed back. Thank God for these African nations like Botswana. They said, we don't wanna go along with these amendments. So they didn't go through last year. So now behind the scenes, President Joe Biden. And other nations have gotten together, and they're kind of spreading these amendments around with other countries. And I've got a video clip, actually I can send to you, Peter. And it's a video clip of the foreign minister from Indonesia meeting last November, the first week of November in 2022 at the B20. There's the G20 and the B20, the top 20 businesses. And this foreign minister said quite clearly that what they're planning to do is pass the international health rule amendments in Geneva, Switzerland in May of 2023. And that would change the World Health Organization. So they would be empowered to tell all nations on earth and all people on earth what they must do. And one of the first things they want to do is demand that every person on earth get a digital identity that would be on their phone. We'd all have our own digital identity and we would each be assigned a QR code. And what he was saying is this will be so great. Now we all don't have to stay home and be restricted from being able to travel. Those who do what they're told will be allowed to get on a plane. They'll be allowed to buy groceries at the grocery store or go to a hardware store, or they'll be allowed to buy things or get on public transportation. But woe be to those who don't follow with what the World Health Organization says. Their life is basically over. This has never happened before in human history. This has never happened. What country in their right mind would empower the World Health Organization, basically the UN, to become a platform for global governance? The last thing we would give the UN is power and more money or a military or the ability for taxation. You would never do that because here in the United States, as we've seen, our rights infringed by our own government and by corporations. Can you imagine? There are no rights when the UN controls the world. They're the rights. Whatever the elites want, that's what they get. So you're talking essentially global dictatorship. And the president of the United States is pushing this and the leaders of various foreign countries are pushing this. So this is a two track approach, Peter. One is through a global pandemic treaty, which is far more difficult to get adopted, but it is a possibility. The other track approach is changing these amendments at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland. That's a far easier proposition because that's basically majority rule and you can get it through. And so that's why we're very concerned. Now, in the rules of the World Health Assembly nations have 18 months to opt out, but I'm telling you, you don't want to get to that point. You don't want something like this to pass. And then you've got to try and figure out how to get out of it. You just don't want it to pass in the first place. And you would know better than anyone, your country has dealt with Brexit and the empowerment of the EU over your decisions in your nations. And so now imagine that breath-taking level of control going to the World Health Organization with the UN. So this is the World Health Alliance next month meeting in in Geneva, and my huge concern, you talked about funding with with the Bill and Melinda Gates organization being number two and then with China being number three. And you wonder what lies behind this push, because the call will be that it will make our lives easier. And convenience is a double-edged sword in many ways. But where, because then when you look at the digital ID, you're looking at the intrusion of AI. And obviously Bill Gates has a lot of experience in the tech world and branching out into all of the vaccines and the farming. And then China, it seems as though You've got some organisations that are, I guess, being forced along. But other organisations or countries are more intentional. China seems to be intentional with what it's doing, as does the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where other countries seem to be, I guess, useful idiots, kind of caught along. So tell us kind of about that power play that's happening?   Well, it's honestly, this isn't very difficult to figure out and see what's going on. It's control. There are some people in this world who are are just control freaks and they they tend to be extremely wealthy. We've got a lot of them in the United States. Mark Zuckerberg, who has Facebook now called Meta. He's one of them. And Bill Gates, who has Microsoft, and he was an early funder in vaccines. And now he's buying up farmland, and he is a very interesting character, Bill Gates, but he's not the only one. There are other people who are interested in being able to increase their level of control and perhaps even their own bottom line. They have their own ideas about how we should be living our lives, and it isn't necessarily in line with our interests. These people really fundamentally hate the idea of democracy. They hate the idea of people being able to choose the leaders to serve them, but then also the way that they live and the laws that they live under. They think they know better. This is a global nanny state that they're looking to create, but it's global control. So this isn't hard to figure out because if you look at the the entire, we have 5,000 years of recorded human history. And if you look at that history, there's a lot of ugly, bloody efforts where people, history is man's attempt to enslave man, to control mankind for their own best interests. And it's the idea of faith and religion in particular, the faith of the Bible where you kind of see that the story play out, where you have another way other than madmen controlling other men. And God, through the Bible, talks about freedom for men, and various governments were created because people were enlightened by that image of men being free. This worldview that we're seeing with trying to lift up and enlarge the power structure of the World Health Organization, primarily the UN is what we're talking about, that is not that structure, looking to empower people or to enhance freedom or have better options for people or better health care for people. That's not what this is. This is about more control for a very small group of people and less control for the rest of us. So it's easy to see what will happen. We all become serfs in a modern morality tale where we're the losers and very few people are the winners.   Can I just finish looking at the political response just last question on it because obviously this is the WHO are wanting this global push and control over each and every country and certainly in the US it doesn't matter if you've got one state which is red, one state which is blue, that kind of removes that advantage when when you have a large organization like this overarching countries. So does this, is this a pushback from the Republicans there in the States? And we look to you because we don't have, we have bright sparks of conservative movements breaking out across Europe, we do. Certainly in Sweden, in Hungary, in Italy, possibly in Austria. So there are things happening, but what does it mean for the U.S. politically? Politically, what it means is people, this issue hasn't been a high profile issue by design. The Biden administration has tried to down pedal this. They've really tried to go under the radar so no one knew what was going on. But there are some people who know. And I don't know if your listeners know, I mean, here in America, we are losing more and more rights every day to freedom of speech and expression, which again, from the inception of our nation is unknown. We've always had the rights to freedom of speech and expression, but we're seeing them squelch, particularly through social media companies. But people are finding out. So in America, because we are a constitutional republic where people can contact their representatives and let them know what they think, people are letting their senators and representatives know, we, don't want Joe Biden's plans to succeed. We don't want the World Health Organization to to take over our sovereign choices on healthcare. We wanna keep our choices on healthcare. So people are trying to get that message out. It's tough, it's a tough environment to get that message, but we're always hopeful. The one thing about Americans, they tend to be very optimistic. And just like we saw last year, it was literally a miracle where countries like Botswana and some African nations pushed back and stopped this from passing. They raised real concerns. There's no reason why people can't contact their representatives in the UK, in England, in Scotland, in Wales, in other nations throughout Europe to let your country know you have a vote. Every single country has a vote. There's 194 votes. Every country can register opposition and say, look, we're not giving over sovereignty to the World Health Organization. Because trust me, it won't be just healthcare, it will expand. And for instance, there's some language that I've read in the global pandemic treaty, but also with the healthcare amendments in Geneva, Switzerland, where they're saying that if a country is deemed to be racist, that that would be considered a health problem, or from climate change, if something is deemed to be climate change, the World Health Organization steps in. So it's about two steps away from world government. That's really what this is. So don't delude yourself into thinking this is only about trying to help poor countries during a pandemic. This has nothing to do with that. This is all about empowering a global entity. So this global entity will be able to force all governments to do its bidding. And the number one question I get, Peter, from people is, well, Michele, this would never happen because if the World Health Organization told our country to do something that we didn't want to do, our government wouldn't go along with it. Well, if Joe Biden is the lead instigator of handing over this sovereignty to the World Health Organization, I think he will be the enforcer because we will lose massive rights. And if there's one thing that history teaches us, it's this. Once you give up power, once you lose freedom, it's very difficult to get it back. And when it comes back, if it comes back, it's in a very different form. So a country like the United States was very unique when it was founded. And we've seen our own freedoms and our own rights chipped away to an extent that people in the United States, frankly, don't even recognize our country anymore. And we've been the nation that people have looked to, to help safeguard their rights. If the United States is no longer open and free and able to help safeguard other nations' rights, then where do we go. We all see what's happening, this is no clandestine story. Communist China has very clear designs on ruling the world. Just a couple of weeks ago, Xi Jinping was in Moscow with Putin, and he said, we will rule the new global order, the new global alliance. He said it three times during his visit. And again, if history teaches us anything, it's when a madman speaks, listen, Xi Jinping is stating the obvious, and he wouldn't state it unless he felt China was at the threshold of being able to accomplish this. They see the United States as past tense. They see themselves not only at the ascendancy, but just about to grab the brass ring of global domination. And part of that domination is having the 194 nations blindly and voluntarily give up their sovereignty on health care to the World Health Organization. Because Communist China knows they control the organization anyway, and then they can project their power to dominate the rest of the globe and be the true hegemon, the true leader globally if we have foolishly given away our power to the World Health Organization. And then just recognize the world will never be in the same place. So this isn't just doom and gloom despair. That's not what I'm saying. The reason why I'm saying this is we're free men, free women. At least that's what the advertising is. We're free men, free women. And so we've got to do what prior generations have done. We have to act. We have to make our voices heard, but we have to let our own governments know. And if a country like Botswana could have tipped the tide last year, why couldn't England this year? Why couldn't Wales this year? Why couldn't Scotland this year? Or Ireland or any other country? Of course we can. And so we're trying to get to every person that we can here in the United States, even though Republicans aren't in charge, it's the Democrats that are in charge, but we still have a voice and we can still pray. I'm a Christian, I believe in the God of the Bible, I pray, he's performed miracles when everything is impossible, there's a miracle. And so I think there's always room for optimism, always room for joy and hope. And we cry out to the God who created us and we ask him to deliver us. It's a perfect end and I've seen miracles many times in my life, I attest to that, Michele, when God steps in and does what is impossible makes it possible. But thank you for, this is a huge subject and just happening next month in Geneva and the viewers need to be aware of it. So thank you for coming along and sharing what's happening. And I think it is a rallying call for people to act, to engage with their elected officials and encourage them to vote properly at that assembly. So thank you so much for your time, Michele. You're welcome. And Peter, it's not over until it's over. A lot of people that evil designs before and they were foiled. This one could be foiled too.

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: World Malaria Day: Reflecting on Past Victories and Envisioning a Malaria-Free Future, published by 2ndRichter on April 25, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum. World Malaria Day, inaugurated in 2017 by the United Nations World Health Organization, reminds us of malaria's impact on humanity and the role we can take in preventing the disease. Malaria was only eradicated from areas like Europe as recently as the 1970s, and nearly half of the world's population was still at risk of malaria in 2021. Over 600,000 people died of malaria in 2021 and 247 million people contracted the disease in 2021—and three-quarters of those deaths were children under five. Almost half of the world's countries have eradicated malaria since 1945, and we have reason to hope that countries still affected can eradicate it as well. With significant scientific advancements, we know that effective malaria prevention can be impactful and relatively cheap. Typical interventions to prevent and treat malaria include insecticide-treated bednets, removing standing water from affected areas, and antiviral medications—and some of these interventions are relatively cheap. Only $5 USD can provide one malaria net and $7 can protect a child from malaria through malaria chemoprevention. Roughly $5000 USD will provide enough bednets or seasonal medicine doses to save someone's life. Recent advances in vaccines against malaria and in work exploring the use of gene drives provide further hope that we could eradicate malaria from countries that are still affected. On World Malaria Day, we encourage you to donate to Giving What We Can's fundraiser partnering with the Against Malaria Foundation and the Malaria Consortium. Malaria is preventable and treatable; a lack of resources leaves people personally affected by the disease or affected by the loss of loved ones. Your giving can directly impact the lives of those affected by malaria: if we reached the $1 million USD fundraising goal, we could directly prevent roughly 200 deaths from malaria. Put simply, this is an area where we really can make a difference. Plasmodium falciparum prevalence from 2000 to 2019. The decreasing amount of red, orange, and yellow represents the decreasing prevalence of one of the deadliest strains of malaria due to prevention efforts. Data from, animation idea by Sam Deere. Where we've been Malaria has been a part of human history for thousands of years, from infections in ancient Rome to the infections of several U.S. presidents. Early treatment for malaria came in the form of quinine from the cinchona tree, first isolated by French chemists in 1820, and was commonly administered in the form of tonic water or the gin and tonic. French surgeon Alphonse Laveran discovered the plasmodium parasite as the cause of malaria in 1880, opening up further research that would identify antimalarials like chloroquine and DDT. Proportion of deaths from malaria to deaths from all causes in the eastern United States, 1870 US Census. From Our World In Data/Statistical Atlas from the 9th Census of the United States 1870 (published 1874). Fighting malaria was the impetus for developing public health infrastructure in a number of countries. The predecessor to the United States Centers for Disease Control was the Office of Malaria Control in War Areas, designed to limit the impact of malaria during World War II around US military bases in the Southern United States (hence its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia rather than Washington DC). Roughly half of the world's countries have eliminated malaria in their territories through public health efforts, including some in tropical regions where malaria is most likely to be prevalent. 79 countries eliminated malaria from 1945 to 2010, and several more since 2010. Countries must achieve at least three consecutive y...

Folge 15: Abtreibungsrecht, Vorwahlen und Babynahrung (aufgenommen am 31. Mai 2022) Housekeeping Vortrag: Verschwörungstheorien – aus Sicht der Naturwissenschaft Talk: The Far Right After the Russian Re-Invasion Vorwahlen in den USA Open and closed primaries (FairVote) State Primary Election Types (National Conference of State Legislatures) Fair Fight Action Website Reelection Rates Over the Years (OpenSecrets.org) Trump endorses J.D. Vance in Ohio Republican Senate primary (CNN), Vom Trump-Kritiker zum Getreuen (tagesschau) Pence: Voting for Kemp sends ‘deafening message' that GOP is the future (The Hill) Trump and Pence hold dueling rallies for Perdue and Kemp on eve of Georgia's bitter GOP gubernatorial primary (Fox News) Website von GOP 2.0 (inkl. Video) Geoff Duncan's ‘GOP 2.0′ batters Trump with TV attacks ahead of Georgia rally (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution), Texas 28th Congressional District Runoff Election Results (The New York Times) Der Supreme Court und das Abtreibungsrecht America's Abortion Quandary (Pew Research Center) Polling shows America in the middle on abortion (Axios) Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows (Politico) What to Know About the Mississippi Abortion Law Challenging Roe v. Wade (The New York Times) US-Demokraten scheitern mit Gesetz für Abtreibungsrecht im Senat (Tagesspiegel) Zehntausende demonstrieren für Erhalt des Rechts auf Abtreibungen (Zeit Online) Statement by President Joe Biden (The White House) 13 states have passed so-called 'trigger laws,' bans designed to go into effect if Roe v. Wade is overturned (CNN) Could overturning Roe v. Wade have implications beyond abortion? (NPR Politics) How far the GOP might go post-Roe on abortion, contraception and travel (Washington Post) Ep. 20- EMERGENCY (Teil 1): Das Ende von Roe (Kreuz und Flagge Podcast) How we got here: Roe v. Wade from 1973 to today (VOX) Dobbs and the Fate of the Conservative Legal Movement (CityJournal) Understanding Pregnancy Resulting from Rape in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Mangel an Babynahrung und transatlantische „Luftbrücke“ Best & Worst States to Have a Baby (WalletHub) Erste Lieferung an Babynahrung über Ramstein in USA eingetroffen (SWR Aktuell) USA fliegen Babymilch über Ramstein ein (Deutsche Welle) U.S. Military Airlifts Baby Formula From Europe (The New York Times) Transatlantic Treat Netflix-Miniserie „Unsere wunderbaren Nationalparks“ Reservati und die surfenden Nilpferde (Süddeutsche Zeitung) Unsere wunderbaren Nationalparks (Netflix)

I am joined by Harry Stout, author and host of FinanciaVerse Podcast, as we continue our Intentional Money Matters Series on the BetterWealth Show. Harry shares with us about health insurance, medicare and medicaid and how to be strategic about being covered. What's The Difference Between Medicare and Medicaid? 1. Although both are government-run health care programs, the similarities end there. 2. Medicaid is available if you have low income, while Medicare eligibility kicks in when you turn 65 or have a qualifying disability. 3. If you meet the income eligibility thresholds, Medicaid can be an essential resource for covering health care expenses that Medicare does not. But not everyone can qualify for Medicaid, so you should enroll in Medicare when you reach retirement age. 4. Both programs are designed to offset the costs of healthcare services. Medicaid offers additional coverages that Medicare does not. If you're “dual-eligible,” based on your income status, you can qualify for Medicaid and Medicare and get coverage from both. Is Medicare the Same Thing as Medicaid? 1. Although they sound similar, Medicare and Medicaid aren't the same. The only similarity is that both government programs help cover health care costs for Americans. 2. Medicaid doesn't have an age requirement, so adults of all ages and dependent children can enroll. In 2021, there were 75.4 million people covered with Medicaid. Medicaid plans are administered by the states but funded jointly by the state and federal government. 3. Medicare is a federal program managed by the United States Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) handles Medicare enrollment and premium payments. It has an age requirement (65) unless you've been on disability for 24 months or have specific medical conditions. Episode links and resources The FinanciaVerse Podcast - https://www.financialverse.com/fvpodcast (https://www.financialverse.com/fvpodcast) FinancialVerse.com https://www.financialverse.com/ (https://www.financialverse.com/)

We know from COVID-19 that proximity between people is a major risk factor in the spread of outbreak disease - and yellow fever is no exception. As increasing numbers of people in Africa and South America move to cities, the risk of mass-outbreaks of yellow fever increases. Slums, favelas and other informal dwellings are particular risk hotspots. This episode hears from Dr Erin Staples from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr Matthew Steele of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

There have been almost 12,000 cases of mucormycosis, commonly called ‘black fungus’, in India so far. Mucormycosis has a death rate of about 54% according to the The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Usually considered a rare disease, it is infecting those recovering from coronavirus at an unprecedented number, especially those who are diabetic. Gujarat and Maharashtra are the worst affected with almost 3,000 cases each of mucormycosis so far. The Delhi High Court has ordered duty free import of mucormycosis medication Amphotericin B, while US-based Gilead Sciences is preparing to supply 1 million doses to India. But availability is not the only issue. The steep price of mucormycosis treatment is costing between five to fifteen lakhs per patient. Among the survivors of mucormycosis, some are losing their eyes due to the fungal infection. On this episode of The Suno India Show, our reporter Suryatapa Mukherjee speaks to Dr Akshay Nair, an oculoplastic surgeon in Mumbai. He has been treating several cases of mucormycosis in this pandemic. We explore causes, symptoms, preventive measures and treatment. So that if you encounter a mucormycosis infection, you’ll know exactly what to do. Additional Reading: Mucormycosis Statistics | Mucormycosis | Fungal Diseases National Diabetes and Diabetic Retinopathy Survey report 2015-2019See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.

On August 26, 2021, the United States Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that invalidated the federal tenant eviction moratorium issued by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”).    This ruling should end the CDC's tenant eviction moratorium unless Congress steps in.  In Alabama Association of Realtors v. Department of Health and Human Services, the high court upheld the district court's ruling that that CDC lacks statutory authority for its tenant eviction moratorium.  The high court noted that the CDC “has imposed a nationwide moratorium on evictions in reliance on a decades-old statute that authorizes it to implement measures like fumigation and pest extermination.”  The per curiam opinion allows to go forward the district court order invalidating the moratorium, which ruling had been stayed by a ruling of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.   The court found the CDC has power to prevent the interstate spread of disease by “identifying, isolating and destroying the disease itself,” and that the “downstream connection between eviction and the interstate spread of disease is markedly different from the direct targeting of the disease that characterizes measures identified in the statute.”  The court correctly noted that a reading to permit an eviction moratorium would make it “hard to see what measures this interpretation would place outside CDC's reach.”  The court then offered several specific examples such as free grocery delivery for the sick and free computers for stay-at-home schooling.Justice Breyer's dissent raised a number of criticisms.   One was that “the CDC's current order is substantially more tailored than its prior eviction moratorium. . . .”  Justice Breyer seems to want to treat this like some kind of constitutional review of narrow tailoring, but this is about statutory interpretation.  Better tailoring says nothing about how to read the statute.    The dissent also notes a history of health officials containing the spread of disease by preventing the movement of people.  It cites a New York Times article from 1920, more than twenty years before the statute in question was enacted.  This detour from the subject at hand involved police powers of states, which is entirely different from federal power, which is enumerated and limited.  The dissent does, however, cite legislative history of the federal statute under review, but legislative history is not the will of the body that enacted the law and should not resolve questions like this.  Finally, Justice Breyer notes the emergency of the delta variant and that COVID-19 cases have spiked in recent weeks.  I for one have found interesting courts' willingness to introduce new evidence not on the record when it protects the government, but not in support of a challenger.  For example, one who demonstrates that masks and lockdown orders do no good will not be heard.Something important is missing from this opinion, which I discuss in my book, COVID-19 Litigation: A Discourse on Nondelegation, Constitutional Rights and Statutory Interpretation.  https://www.amazon.com/COVID-19-Pandemic-Litigation-Constitutional-Interpretation/dp/B09733DTVT/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=COVID-19+pandemic+litigation&qid=1624303183&s=books&sr=1-1Specifically, there is no discussion anywhere of nondelegation problems.  If the court were to adopt Justice Breyer's statutory reading, there is a serious nondelegation problem.   The majority opinion gets to this in a way by warning of the endless and open-ended powers the CDC wou

Another 71 locally transmitted COVID-19 infections were reported on Tuesday, showing the worrying speed of the virus' spread.周二又报告了71例本地传播的新冠确诊病例，病毒传播速度令人担忧。Meanwhile, an investigation into the earlier infections in Jiangsu province has found that some victims fell sick as early as July 13, a week before infections were detected at the local airport, which means the scope of local transmission may be much greater than previously thought.与此同时，经江苏对早期病例的调查发现，一些患者早在7月13日，也就是在当地机场发现感染前一周就患病了，这意味着当地传播的范围可能比之前想象的要大得多。 ▲ People take COVID-19 vaccines at the temporary vaccination site at Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station in East China's Shanghai, May 29, 2021. Photo/XinhuaWith the central city of Wuhan, once the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak in China, mandating a fresh round of citywide nucleic acid testing upon the detection of new cases of local transmission, there is growing unease that the country may be returning to the dark days at the beginning of last year. As of Wednesday afternoon, the national public health authorities had designated 144 high-risk, and medium-risk areas in 17 provinces. And the rapid spread of the virus has triggered substantially upgraded pandemic prevention and control responses nationwide.随着曾经是中国新冠疫情集中爆发地的武汉在发现当地传播新病例后，政府要求在全市范围内进行新一轮核酸检测。人们愈发感到不安，担忧中国可能会回到去年年初那个黑暗时代。截至周三下午，国家公共卫生当局已指定了17个省的144个高风险和中风险地区。病毒的迅速传播，使全国的疫情防控措施大大升级。Considering the country's tried-and-tested approach to pandemic containment, featuring rigid mobility control, fears of an unstoppable wave will hopefully prove to be unfounded. The country's nationwide mobilization capacity has proved its worth before. But how well the country can perform in containing the latest wave of infections, which are mostly of the Delta variant, will probably depend, at least in part, on how well the domestic mass vaccination campaign proceeds. Over 1.7 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered so far.中国已经积累了丰富的疫情防控经验，包括严格控人口流动等举措，所以面对势不可挡的疫情不必太担心。中国的全民动员能力在之前就已经证明了它的价值。但是中国在防控最近一波主要由德尔塔变异株造成的疫情表现会如何，可能至少部分取决于国内大规模疫苗接种的进展情况。中国迄今已接种了17亿剂新冠疫苗。The daunting momentum of the current Delta variant does not allow for the ambivalence to vaccination to continue. People must get their jabs, which calls for redoubled efforts to improve public awareness of the necessity of getting inoculated against the disease.来势汹汹的德尔塔变异株不允许有关疫苗接种的矛盾情绪继续下去。人们必须接种疫苗，需要加倍努力提高公众对接种疫苗的必要性的认识。The Delta variant of the novel coronavirus has proved to be easily transmittable. In a recent report, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that the Delta strain of the virus appears to be as contagious as chickenpox and more dangerous than other COVID-19 variants.新冠病毒的德尔塔变异株已被证明传播能力非常强。在最近的一份报告中，美国疾病控制与预防中心指出，德尔塔变异株具有与水痘一样的传染性，比其他的新冠变种更加危险。Ironically, even as the latest Delta infections have prompted more people to consider vaccination, the fact that many vaccinated people have been infected both abroad and at home has fueled suspicions that vaccination doesn't provide protection.具有讽刺意味的是，尽管最近的德尔塔变异株感染促使更多的人考虑接种疫苗，但许多接种疫苗的人在国内外都受到了感染，这一事实使得人们怀疑新冠疫苗能否有效抵御病毒。While social media is full of speculative questions about the effectiveness of various vaccines, the medical professionals' voices asserting the vaccines do work and do help mitigate the severity of infections are weak. Should this continue to be the case, it will be difficult to get more people vaccinated.虽然社交媒体上充斥着各种关于疫苗有效性的推测，医学专业人士断言疫苗确实有效，而且确实有助于减少感染可能性。若继续对疫苗有效性持疑，将很难让更多的人接种疫苗。Clinical trials and real-world evidence in countries where Delta infections are rife show that having two shots of a COVID-19 vaccine is highly effective in reducing the severity of the disease. Greater efforts need to be made to convince people that not only are the vaccines safe, but it is in their own and others' interests to get their jabs.在德尔塔变异株感染盛行的国家，临床试验和真实证据表明，完成两针新冠疫苗注射对降低疾病的严重程度非常有效。需要作出更大的努力，让人们相信，疫苗不仅是安全的，而且可以保证自己和他人的安全 。

Korea24 – 2021.06.16. (Wednesday) - News Briefing: President Moon Jae-in arrived in Madrid on Tuesday and began his state visit to Spain with a meeting with King Felipe the Sixth. During his three-day stay, the president will also meet with the Spanish prime minister and visit the Senate of Spain before attending a business leaders’ forum. (Eunice Kim) - In-Depth News Analysis Part 1: Dr. Kirsty Short from the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences of the University of Queensland delves into the new COVID-19 ‘Delta Variant’ that has been classified by both the World Health Organization(WHO) and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) as a ‘variant of concern.’ Dr. Short also shares her assessment on the G7 leaders’ pledge to donate COVID-19 vaccines. - In-Depth News Analysis Part 2: Jeffrey Halley, the Asia Pacific senior market analyst for OANDA, discusses where Korea’s stock market is headed as South Korea’s benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index(KOSPI) hit an all-time high for the third day in a row on Wednesday, just ahead of the US Federal Open Market Committee rate decision. He also gives his thoughts on what to expect from the U.S. Federal Reserve. - Korea Trending with Bruce Harrison: Details surface about young a man found dead in Seoul(오피스텔서 나체로 숨진 20대男…두 달 전 실종 신고), South Korean diplomatic missions are swamped with calls over quarantine exemptions(격리 면제에 한국 방문 문의 폭주..미주 공관 비상), and Park Hang-seo helps Vietnam advance to the final round of the 2022 World Cup Asian qualifiers for the first time ever(박항서 감독 베트남, 동남아 유일 월드컵 최종 예선행). - Korea Book Club: Barry Welsh shares Lee Min-jin’s(이민진) debut novel, “Free Food for Millionaires(백만장자를 위한 공짜 음식).” He talks about how the 2007 piece, set in a 90s New York, tackles the misrepresentation of Asian Americans in both the media and arts. - Morning Edition Preview: Mark shares a piece from the Korea Herald on Seoulite subway passengers raising questions on the effectiveness of Seoul’s program of the pink seats designated for pregnant passengers. He also shares a Korea Times piece that covers the commemorative event that celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Korea-EU Free Trade Agreement(FTA).

There have been almost 12,000 cases of mucormycosis, commonly called ‘black fungus', in India so far. Mucormycosis has a death rate of about 54% according to the The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Usually considered a rare disease, it is infecting those recovering from coronavirus at an unprecedented number, especially those who are diabetic. Gujarat and Maharashtra are the worst affected with almost 3,000 cases each of mucormycosis so far.  The Delhi High Court has ordered duty free import of mucormycosis medication Amphotericin B, while US-based Gilead Sciences is preparing to supply 1 million doses to India. But availability is not the only issue. The steep price of mucormycosis treatment is costing between five to fifteen lakhs per patient. Among the survivors of mucormycosis, some are losing their eyes due to the fungal infection. On this episode of The Suno India Show, our reporter Suryatapa Mukherjee speaks to Dr Akshay Nair, an oculoplastic surgeon in Mumbai. He has been treating several cases of mucormycosis in this pandemic. We explore causes, symptoms, preventive measures and treatment. So that if you encounter a mucormycosis infection, you'll know exactly what to do.  Additional Reading: Mucormycosis Statistics | Mucormycosis | Fungal Diseases  National Diabetes and Diabetic Retinopathy Survey report 2015-2019 See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.

FEATURING DR. STACY DE-LIN – The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently recommended a pause on deployment of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine in light of a handful of cases of severe blood clots among those who had received the shot. Some European nations have similarly paused use of the Astra...

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, says not to mix and match vaccines, only in exceptional situations.

Adam Johnson and Nicole Rich host a panel of vascular surgeons representing the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Policy and Advocacy Council, Government Relations Committee (GRC), and the Political Action Committee. (PAC).  They discuss how they became involved and specifically their work regarding the United States Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Payment Reforms that will go into effect in January 2021. The updated physician fee schedule will substantially alter the Evaluation and Management (E/M) Codes that physicians use to bill for office-based services provided to Medicare patients. Our panelists detail how these changes will decrease reimbursement for surgical procedures, impact the field of vascular surgery, and the importance of surgeon involvement in the advocacy process. Panel Members Dr. Megan Tracci (@MeganTracci) is an associate professor of surgery at the University of Virginia (UVA) Health in Charlottesville, VA, and the chair of the SVS government relations committee (GRC). Dr. Matthew Sideman (@UTHSAvascular) is an associate professor of surgery at UT Health San Antonio in San Antonio, TX, and is the chair of the SVS Policy and Advocacy Council, as well as the SVS Representative to the RVS Update Committee (RUC). Dr. Peter Connolly (@phcvascular) is an associate professor of surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, NY, and co-chair of the SVS Political Action Committee (PAC). Dr. Mark Mattos is a self-employed vascular surgeon, the program director for the vascular surgery fellowship at Michigan Vascular Center in Flint, MI, and co-chair of the SVS Political Action Committee (PAC). Learn more about Payment Reform: SVS Town Hall: Financial Implications of Impending Payment Reform SVS 2021 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule One-Pager SVS Advocacy Resources for Members Surgical Care Coalition Vascular Specialist: Advocating for our Members CMS Newsroom Factsheet: Final Policy, Payment, and Quality Provisions Changes to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for Calendar Year 2021 Get involved in Policy and Advocacy through the SVS: Voter Voice: Contact Congress via the SVS SVS Virtual Coding & Reimbursement Workshop SVS Vascular Surgery Trainee Advocacy Travel Scholarship SVS Councils & Committees This episode is the first of our series working with the SVS political organizations.  Future topics may include coronavirus response legislation, student debt, prior authorization, and red tape reduction. What other topics would you like to hear about? Let us know more about you and what you think of our podcast through our listener survey or AudibleBleeding@vascularsociety.org.

When Congress (finally) returned from their COVIDcation, experts in medicine, vaccine development, law, and business testified under oath. In this episode, hear the highlights from 17 hours of that expert testimony during which you'll learn about a concerning new vaccine development policy, Mitch McConnell's dangerous demands for the next COVID-19 response law, and how Republicans and Democrats failed for the last two decades to secure the nation's medical mask supply.  Thank you to all Congressional Dish producers who make the independence of this podcast possible. Enjoy your show!  Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Click here to contribute monthly or a lump sum via PayPal Click here to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank’s online bill pay function to mail contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North, Number 4576, Crestview, FL 32536 Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Articles/Documents Article: Scientists Worldwide Are Questioning A Massive Study That Raised Concerns About The Malaria Drug Hyped As A COVID-19 Treatment By Stephanie M. Lee, Buzz Feed News, May 30, 2020 Article: CORPORATE IMMUNITY, MITCH MCCONNELL’S PRIORITY FOR CORONAVIRUS RELIEF, IS A LONGTIME FOCUS OF THE CONSERVATIVE RIGHT By Akela Lacy, The Intercept, May 26, 2020 Press Release: Trump Administration’s Operation Warp Speed Accelerates AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine to be Available Beginning in October, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, May 21, 2020 Article: Social Distancing Is Not Enough By Derek Thompson, The Atlantic, May 22, 2020 Article: Federal agency finds 'reasonable grounds to believe' Rick Bright's whistleblower claims: NYT By Eric Sagonowsky, Fierce Pharma, May 8, 2020 Article: McConnell’s coronavirus business liability pledge sparks lobbying frenzy By Jennifer Haberkorn, Los Angeles Times, May 6, 2020 Article: FDA cautions against use of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine for COVID-19 outside of the hospital setting or a clinical trial due to risk of heart rhythm problems, U.S. Food & Drug Administration, April 24, 2020 Article: As workers face virus risks, employers seek liability limits By Emily Kopp, Roll Call, April 17, 2020 Article: Hydroxychloroquine: how an unproven drug became Trump’s coronavirus 'miracle cure' By Julia Carrie Wong, The Guardian, April 17, 2020 Article: Sunlight exposure increased Covid-19 recovery rates: A study in the central pandemic area of Indonesia By Al Asyary and Merita Veruswati, ScienceDirect, Elsevier, 10 April 2020 Resources Tweet @JenBriney, Jennifer Briney, Twitter, May 27, 2020 Sound Clip Sources News Alert: Trump says he's taking hydroxychloroquine despite FDA warnings, Axios, Fox News, May 18, 2020 Interview: McConnell says next stimulus must have coronavirus liability protections, By Noah Manskar, The New York Post, Fox News, May 15, 2020 Hearing: Protecting Scientific Integrity in the COVID-19 Response, United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, May 14, 2020 Watch on Youtube Watch on CSPAN Witnesses: Dr. Richard Bright - Former Director of BARDA, current Senior Advisor at the National Institutes of Health Mike Bowen - Executive Vice President of Prestige Ameritech Transcript: 51:40 Rep. Ana Eshoo (CA): Was there a failure to respond with the needed urgency when you correctly pushed to ramp up production of masks, respirators, syringes, swabs. Dr. Rick Bright: Congresswoman, we've known for quite some time that our stockpile is insufficient and having those critical personal protective equipment. So once this virus began spreading and became known to be a threat, I did feel quite concerned that we didn't have those supplies. I began pushing urgently in January along with some industry colleagues as well. And those urges, those alarms were not responded to with action. 52:15 Rep. Ana Eshoo (CA): Was there a failure to take immediate action when you correctly push to acquire additional doses of the drug Remdesivir, which is the only drug so far that has appeared to be at least mildly effective, thank God, for treating people with COVID-19? Dr. Rick Bright: There was no action taken on the urgency to come up with a plan per acquisition of limited doses that Remdesivir nor to distribute those limited doses of Remdesivir once we had the scientific data to support their use for people infected with this virus. 1:04:00 Rep. Frank Pallone (NJ): My concern is, I'm very critical administration in terms of their I call it incompetence, with the supply chain, with lack of testing. I'm afraid the same thing is going to happen with vaccines and once it's in the distribution. I mean, should I be concerned based on your experience? Dr. Rick Bright: Absolutely, sir. We're already seeing those challenges with limited doses of Remdesivir with data that we're getting that Remdesivir has some benefit in people. And we have limited doses and we haven't scaled up production and we don't have a plan and how to fairly and equitably distribute that drug. If you can imagine this scenario, this fall or winter, maybe even early next spring, when vaccine becomes available. There's no one company that can produce enough for our country or for the world. It's gonna be limited supplies. We need to have a strategy and plan in place now to make sure that we can not only feel that vaccine, make it, distribute it, but administer it in a fair and equitable plan. And that's not the case at all. We don't have that yet and it is a significant concern. 1:11:50 Dr. Rick Bright: Normally it takes up to 10 years to make a vaccine. We've done it faster in emergency situations. But from when we had starting material in the freezer for Ebola, but for a novel virus is actually haven't been done yet that quickly. So a lot of optimism is swirling around a 12 to 18 month timeframe. If everything goes perfectly - we've never seen everything go perfectly. My concern is if we rush too quickly and considered cutting out critical steps, we may not have a full assessment of the safety of that vaccine. So it's still going to take some time. I still think 12 to 18 months is an aggressive schedule. And I think it's going to take longer than that to do so. Rep. Eliott Engel (NY): 12 to 18 months from now, or 12 to 18 months from when this all started at the beginning of the year? Dr. Rick Bright: It will be 12 to 18 months from when the particular manufacturers has first received the material or information that they need to start developing that vaccine. It's critical to note when we say 12 to 18 months. That doesn't mean for an FDA approved vaccine. That means to have sufficient data and information on the safety and immunogenicity if not efficacy, to be able to use on an emergency basis. And that is a consideration that we have in mind when we talk about an accelerated timeline. 1:14:20 Dr. Rick Bright: Congressmen our concern's centered around the potential use of chloriquine in people who are infected with this Coronavirus. There are data, the effective use and safe use of chloriquine in malaria patients and other patients and other indications. We also knew that there are potential safety risks with chloriquine they cause irregular heart rhythms, and even in some cases death. So our concern was with limited information and knowledge, especially of its use in COVID-19 infected patients and the potential for those risks, then we should make sure that any studies with that drug are done in a carefully controlled clinical study and a close watchful eye of a physician so they could respond to a patient if they did experience one of those adverse events. There wasn't sufficient data at that time to support use of this drug in patients with COVID-19 without close physician supervision. Rep. Eliott Engel (NY): And when you raised that issue of chloriquine use in Coronavirus patients with HHS leadership. What happened to you you removed as a director of BARDA. Is that not true? Dr. Rick Bright: I believe part of that removal process for me was initiated because of a push back that I forgave when they asked me to put in place an expanded access protocol that would make chloriquine more freely available to Americans that were not under the close supervision of a physician and may not even be confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus. The sciences, FDA, BARDA, NIH and CDC worked hard to switch that to a emergency use authorization with strict guardrails that the patients would be in a hospital confirmed to be infected with this virus under close supervision of a doctor and who could not otherwise participate in a randomized controlled study. My concerns were alleviated somewhat by being able to lock that in the stockpile with those conditions. However, my concerns were escalated when I learned that leadership in the department health and human services were pushing to make that drug available outside of this emergency use authorization to flood New York, New Jersey with this drug, regardless of the EUA and when I spoke outside of our government and shared my concerns for the American public, that I believe was the straw that broke the camel's back and escalated my removal. 1:47:15 Rep. Kathy Castor (FL): Dr. Bright you understood that America would face a shortage of respirators in January? Is that right? Dr. Rick Bright: We understood America would face a shortage of N95 respirators for a pandemic response in 2007. And we have exercise and known and evaluated that number almost every year since 2007. It was exercised even as late as early as 2019, August in Crimson contagion, that we would need 3.5 billion in 95 respirators in our stockpile to protect our healthcare workers from a pandemic response. Rep. Kathy Castor (FL): And you sounded the alarm repeatedly. But were ignored by the senior leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services. Please explain what steps you took and the responsibilities you received. Dr. Rick Bright: We knew going into this pandemic that critical medical equipment would be in short supply. I began getting alerts from industry colleagues in mid and late January, telling me that from an outside view, from the industry view that the supply chain was diminishing rapidly telling me that other countries that we relied on to supply many of these masks were blocking export and stopping transfer of those masks to the United States. I learned that China was trying to buy the equipment from the United States producers to have it shipped to China so they could make more. In each of these alerts, and there were dozens of these alerts, I pushed those forward to our leadership and asked for Dr. Cadillac and his senior leadership team. I pushed those warnings to our critical infrastructure protection team. I pushed those warnings to our Strategic National Stockpile team who has the responsibility of procuring those medical supplies for our stockpile. In each of those. I was met with indifference, saying they were either too busy they didn't have a plan. They didn't know who was responsible for procuring those. In some cases they had a sick child and we'll get back to it later in the week. A number of excuses, but never any action. It was weeks after my pushing that finally a survey was sent out to manufacturers or producers of those masks. A five page survey asking producers or companies if they actually made those masks. Rep. Kathy Castor (FL): In your whistleblower filing you discuss a February 7th meeting of the department leadership group, but which you urge the department to focus on securing and 95 masks. Can you describe what happened at that meeting? Dr. Rick Bright: They informed me that they did not say believe there was a critical urgency to procure mass. They conducted some surveys, talked to a few hospitals and some companies and they didn't yet see a critical shortage. And I indicated that we know there will be a critical shortage of these supplies. We need to do something to ramp up production. They indicated if we notice there is a shortage that we will simply change the CDC guidelines to better inform people who should not be wearing those masks. So that would save those masks for healthcare workers. My response was, I cannot believe you can sit and say that with a straight face. That was an absurd. Rep. Kathy Castor (FL): In fact, it took three months from your initial warnings - until mid April for the federal government to invoke its authority under the Defense Production Act, to require the production of millions of more N-95 masks. And even then, the administration required the production of only 39 million masks which is far fewer than you and other experts said that we would need. What was the consequence of this three month delay and inadequate response. Were lives in danger? Dr. Rick Bright: Lives were in danger and I believe lives were lost. And not only that, we were forced to procure the supplies from other countries without the right quality standards. So even our doctors and nurses in the hospitals today are wearing N-95 Mark masks from other countries that are not providing the sufficient protection that a US standard N-95 mask would provide them. Some of those masks are only 30% effective. Therefore, nurses are rushing in the hospitals thinking they're protected and they're not. 2:15:50 Dr. Rick Bright: I believe there's a lot of work that we still need to do. And I think we need still, I don't think I know, we need still a comprehensive plan and everyone across the government and everyone in America needs to know what that plan is and what role they play. There are critical steps that we need to do to prepare for that fall, for that winter coming. We do not still have enough personal protective equipment to manage our healthcare workers and protect them from influenza and COVID-19. We still do not have the supply chains ramped up for the drugs and vaccines and we still don't have plans in place on how we distribute those drugs and vaccines. And we still do not have a comprehensive testing strategy. So Americans know which tests do what, what to do with that information. And we know how to find this virus and trap it and kill it. There's a lot of work we still have to do. 3:40:15 Dr. Rick Bright: I think what's really interesting about the testing story that gets lost in the narrative sometimes is the confusion about the different types of tests. There's an antigen test that tells you if you have the virus in you, there's a PCR test, it says it may the fragments of the virus and there's antibody tests, it looks at your antibody titer to try to tell you you've been exposed already maybe immune to that the virus. There's a lot of confusion, I think the first thing HHS needs to do is determine which of those tests is most important to achieve which objective. If the antigen test is was needed, because it's faster and lower cost, and more readily available, in some cases, what does it tell Americans? What does it tell employers? What does it tell schools about the potential for an individual who has a positive or negative on that test and their potential to have different results the next day or later that day? There's a lot of confusion about these tests. So I think the first thing that HHS should do is determine the type of test and how that test would be used effectively. And then make sure that we have enough of those types of tests and they're in the right place and the people using them know what the data tells them and how to use it effectively. I think there's a lot of confusion there and they need leadership in HHS to distinguish those challenges and clarify that for the American public. 3:41:30 Rep. Blunt Rochester (DE): Why do you think that our nation has struggled with ramping up the testing capacity, unlike other countries, and were there contingencies in place or a backup, in light of this situation we're in now. Dr. Rick Bright: I think part of the struggle is waiting too late to think about it and to get it started. When we've had conversations with some manufacturers, they've been very creative and how they can ramp up. Another part of the challenge is, we have allowed many of these capabilities to be offshore. And so we have much more capability of expanding domestic capacity when it's in our country, and we can ramp up and bring innovation to those companies in the US. But if the supply chain is offshore, and there's a global need and competition for that supply chain, that also significantly impairs our ability to ramp up. 3:47:30 Dr. Rick Bright: We need to have a strategy that everyone follows, the same strategy, to test for the word the viruses who's infected with this virus. And then we have to appropriately isolate that person in quarantine so they don't infect others. And we rapidly need to trace their contacts to understand who they may have been exposed to, and be able to test to those individuals. And if they've been infected as well, we need to be able to isolate those. Through a concerted coordinated effort across the country, we can be able to identify where that virus is who's been exposed, give those people proper treatment and isolation and can slow the spread of this virus significantly. But that has to be in a coordinated way. We have to have the right tests and enough of those tests. It's not something we do once and we're done. It's something we have to continually do in the community. So it's not just that we need one test for every person in America. We need multiple tests and the right types of tests. We need the right types of individuals and professionals who know how to use those tests to trace the individual contacts and to isolate that virus and stop it from spreading. 4:11:00 Mike Bowen: Until 2004, 90% of all surgical masks worn and I'm including surgical respirators, were domestically made. That year, or about around that year. All of the major domestic mask sellers switched from selling domestically made masks to selling imported masks. Prestige Ameritech was founded in 2005 recognized this as a security issue in 2006. We thought that once America's hospitals learned that their mask supplies were subject to diversion by foreign governments, during pandemics, they would switch back to U.S. made masks. We were wrong. In November of 2007, we received a phone call from BARDA asking for a tour of our mask factory. BARDA was acting on George W. Bush's Presidental Directive 21, the purpose of which was to review America's disaster plans. Brenda Hayden with BARDA gave a presentation which showed that BARDA was concerned about the foreign controlled mask supply. We were thrilled that BARDA had discovered the issue until Brenda said that BARDA was only charged with studying the problem. We were disappointed but we took consolation in the fact that finally, a federal agency knew that the mask supply was in danger. We were very happy to have an ally. Two years later, I received a call from Brenda Hayden. She started the conversation by saying, we have a situation. Her serious tone caused me to ask her if she was talking about a pandemic. And she said, Yes. She asked if we could ramp up production, and I said yes. We built more machines bought an abandoned Kimberly Clark mask factory and tripled and tripled our workforce. America's hospitals needed us and we rose to the occasion. We told them about the high cost of ramping up. And they said they would stay with us. Unfortunately most returned to buying cheaper foreign made masks when they became available. The company survived by laying off 150 people who helped save the US mask supply by taking pay cuts. And by taking on more investors. The H1N1 pandemic, this is 2009 2010, wasn't severe enough to cause the foreign health officials to cut off mask shipments to America. So our predictions didn't come true...yet. In a weakened state, but undaunted, Prestige Ameritech continued saying that the US mask supply was headed for failure. We just didn't know when. In 2004 to give my security story more issue, I formed the Secure Mask Supply Association. You can find it at securemasksupply.org. Paraphrasing Ben Franklin, I told three competing domestic mask makers that if we didn't hang together, we would hang separately, as China was poised to put all of us out of business and put the country at even greater risk, Crosstex, Gerson, and Medecom all with domestic mask making factories agreed and joined the SMSA. Unfortunately, the Secure Mask Supply Associations warnings were also unheeded. During my quest to secure the US mask supply, I had the privilege of working with three BARDA directors, Dr. Robin Robinson, Dr. Richard Hatchet, and Dr. Rick Bright. They were helpful and they encouraged me to go continue warning people about the mask supply. I'll say a little bit more about that. After years of doing this, I quit many times. And the only reason I kept doing it is because of the directors of BARDA. They would encourage me and asked me not to not to quit. They said that they would express their concerns about the masks supply to anyone that I could get to call them. Anyone except reporters. They weren't allowed to talk to reporters, which was very frustrating to me. They also weren't allowed to endorse the Secure Mask Supply Association. Dr. Robinson was going to do so until HHS attorneys told him that it could cost him his job. He called me personally on vacation to tell me that I can confirm that the emails and Dr. Bright's complaint are mine. They are merely the latest of 13 years of emails I sent to BARDA in an effort to get HHS to understand that the US mask supply was destined for failure, Robinson, Hatchet and Bright all wanted to remedy the problem. In my opinion, they didn't have enough authority. Their hearts were in the right places. America was told after 911 that governmental silos had been torn down so that different federal federal agencies could work together for national securities. But I didn't see any of that. The DOD, the VA, the CDC and HHS could have worked together to secure America's mask supply. I suggested this to BARDA and to the CDC on several occasions. 4:23:00 Rep. Greg Walden (OR): This is your email to Dr. Bright and to Laura wolf. It says and I quote, "my government strategy is to help the US government if and only if the VA and DOD become my customers after this thing is over. Mike Bowen: Yes, sir. Rep. Greg Walden (OR): So Madam Chair, I'd like to submit the mail for the record. We'll send you an electronic copy as per our agreements here. Now, Mr. Cohen, I'm sorry. You said you want to help the U.S. government, you want to help Americans get the masks. Yet it appears that there seems to be a condition here. I assume that's because in the past, you ramped up, things went away, people bought from other manufacturers. And so here you're saying, and I have it here in the email, 'My strategy is to help my existing customers and bring on new customers who are willing to sign a long term contract. My government strategy is to help the US government if and only if the VA and DOD become my customers after this thing is over.' And here we were in a crisis is masks are going overseas now. The US government's not your only purchaser, right? Mike Bowen: The U.S. government has never bought from me except during a pandemic, sir. Rep. Greg Walden (OR): Okay. And so... Mike Bowen: In that email, and that statement, was basically saying that I don't want the government to only call me in a pandemic. Give me business during peacetime so that I can survive to help you during a pandemic. Rep. Greg Walden (OR): Did you ever ask for a sole source contract? Mike Bowen: I have. I have been on the DOD and the VA business. And I continually lose to masks that are made in Mexico, because the DOD does not obey the Berry Amendment. They buy foreign masks made in Mexico, because Mexico is a friend of ours and is called a TAA compliant country. Made the decision based on price... Rep. Greg Walden (OR): How long...Sir, if I may, can I reclaim my time? How long, you said you couldn't turn on these lines of manufacturing very quickly. How long? If you got a big order from the government today, would it take you to produce masks? Mike Bowen: Three or four months and the government wants to do that right now. HHS is asking me to do that. Rep. Greg Walden (OR): And it will take three to four months? Mike Bowen: Yes, I'm told. I told him it's going to take three or four months. They only want masks to the end of the year. So I would have to hire 100 people to train 100 people and then fire them at the end of the program. I'm not going to do that. Again. I don't want the government to only deal with me when... Rep. Greg Walden (OR): My time is expired. Madam Chair, I yield back. 4:29:45: *Mike Bowen:** Let me say this: China sells a box of masks for $1. I don't think anybody's making any profit doing that, because I sell them for about $5. So if their prices are so cheap that they've captured most of the world's mass market. Rep. Elliot Engel (NY): Does the government subsidize the Chinese government, the Beijing government? Mike Bowen: I don't know that. I don't know. All I know is their masks cost less than than materials. If I take my labor costs totally out, I'm still nowhere near the cost of their products. 4:30:30 Rep. Elliot Engel (NY): What steps can the federal government take to incentivize more medical manufacturing of critical equipment like surgical face masks in the United States? Mike Bowen: Well as in a letter that I sent to President Obama, I don't think it requires money. I think it requires the government saying and it's a national security problem. It requires the CDC telling America's hospitals, they are too dependent on foreign aid masks, and put them in legal liability. They have to protect their patients and staff. If in a public forum like this, you say, this is a national security issue, then those hospitals' attorneys are probably going to get on the ball and tell their hospitals to buy American made products. And they don't cost that much. The whole market is only a couple of hundred million dollars. This whole problem, this is a $30 million problem, folks, just for people trying to save pennies across the whole United States. It's not some multibillion dollar problem. 4:36:20 Rep. Brett Guthrie (KY): Mike Bowen: You thought it was necessary to go through Dr. Bright. You couldn't get anybody else to listen to them and Dr. Bright under No, no, no, you got it all wrong. First of all I wasn't looking for I'm just trying to find the information. Oh yeah. I wasn't looking for business. I opened my email. I don't need your business. My phones are ringing off the wall. I'm just I thought of BARDA - Dr. Robinson, Dr. hatchet and Dr. Bright. I thought of them as brothers in arms, and who they couldn't buy my products. I knew that. But they were the only people who believed it. I would like everybody to go to YouTube, put in Michael Burgess and Prestige Ameritech you'll see Mr. Burgess talking at our factory 10 years ago. You'll see him say that only 10% of the mask supplies are made in the United States. I talked to Michael Burgess. Ron Wright. Joe Barton. Patrick Leahy. My associate Matt Conlin talked to Chuck Schumer. I wrote Barack Obama letters, wrote President Trump and everybody in his early administration, Defense Secretary Mattis, General Jeffrey Clark, Nicole Lurie and Anita Patel with CDC, National Academies of Science. Greg Burrell, hundreds of hospitals, hospital purchasing groups, the hospital risk Managers Association. The hospital risk managers Association. Told them the mask supply is going to collapse, this is a risk. Nobody listened. Association of Operating Nurses, the Defense Department, the Veterans Department, Texas Governor Rick Perry. State Texas Rep. Bill Zedler, by the way, Bill Zedler got in dozens of reporters. I've been in every news show. I've done this for 13 years. Nobody listened. And my conscience is clean, Mr. Guthrie. I've been working on this damn issue for 13 years trying to save lives. Nobody listened. And now, I'm not going to take any of this. 4:46:20 Rep. Morgan Griffith (VA): We can't guarantee you a contract. I think everybody agrees we've got to have more made in America. Why not ramp up with the understanding that the policy is likely to change? I think it will change because I think we don't, whether it be masks or other PPE or drug supply, we're going to have to have a significant portion of these items made in the United States going forward. Knowing that, and your phone's ringing off the hook, why not ramp up those four lines? Mike Bowen: Because one day, the pandemics gonna end and the the usage will go down to the basement again, where it was there'll be 10 times less usage. And I'll have all these machines and people and these materials and have nothing to do with them. That's what happened to us before. It was a very difficult thing to ramp up. And let me say this again, let me remind you that we have ramped up. We've gone from making 75,000 respirators I'm going to about four... In 40 days, we'll be ramped up to making 4 million respirator per month. So don't concentrate on these four Chinese machines that we really don't know much about and would be a total pain to get going on top of... I'm trying not to kill my business partner who is in charge of getting all this stuff done. He's working 20 hours a day now with all the projects we've already got now, to dump this on top for some business that may or may not come? Absolutely not. 4:48:40 Rep. Morgan Griffith (VA): Okay, after H1N1 did you continue to produce masks for purposes of restocking the Strategic National Stockpile? Mike Bowen: I can't do that without the Strategic National Stockpile wanting to buy them. Rep. Morgan Griffith (VA):Did you have conversations with BARDA, SNS and HHS at that time about supplying the masks for the National Stockpile? Mike Bowen: I have talked to Greg Burrell on many occasions, sir. I've also offered those machines to him. And I've offered those machines to the Department of Defense. Rep. Morgan Griffith (VA): You're just gonna give the machines or you're gonna give them the production? Mike Bowen: No, listen to this. Here's what I wanted to do. I wanted CDC and VA and DOD to get together I had four machines, that very little money and that could make a whole bunch of masks and for years, and I got 13 years worth of emails, I can document all this stuff. I said to the CDC Hey, we can fix, we can make sure that the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration always has masks. I got these four machines sitting here doing nothing. Rep. Morgan Griffith (VA): You were willing to give them the production, but not the machines. Mike Bowen: Let me finish. Rep. Morgan Griffith (VA): I'm just trying to sort it out. Mike Bowen: Well here's what I was gonna say. We must use one machine, you'll make your whole annual usage for one machine, and we'll let three of them sit there in our factory just ready to go. When you need them, we can turn those things on and I couldn't get anybody interested in Rep. Morgan Griffith (VA): Were you going to give them to them or lease them? Mike Bowen: Didn't matter. I didn't have any money in them. I said give me your peacetime military hospital business and we'll give you these machines. I'll just sit there. Now we would have if we would have had had some kind of a plan, you know, to get materials and things like that. But I was basically saying we've got a warm base operation is not going to cost you guys anything. I made that offer to several agencies. Rep. Morgan Griffith (VA): I see my time is up. I yield back, Madam Chair. Mike Bowen: And by the way, let me Forgive me for being angry. I'm angry because I've done this for so, so long. And I've been ignored for so long. And I apologize. Rep. Ana Eshoo (CA): Well, Mr. Bowen, I don't think you need to apologize. At least that's my view. I think shame on us. I think shame on all of us that we've allowed this to happen. 4:58:30 Mike Bowen: America has a weakness for low prices. And I think Chinese prices are so low. A few years ago, I decided to go buy a 12 things from Lowe's Lowe's Home Improvement center, and I decided I was going to pay whatever it took to buy American. I couldn't make that decision. That decision was taken away from me. I bought one item, it was a plunger. A toilet plunger was the only thing I could find it was made in America. And it is what it is. It's the people like the Lowe's and Home Depot and the Walmarts and the medical companies that the way they want to make money is to lower their costs to where they lower their cost to go to China. The line is long and wide for people going to China, and that's why we're dependent on them for everything. I mean, go out and look in your closet. Look at your tools, look at everything. It's all from China. And the stuff that's in Mexico... When I say this, half of the US mask supply's in Mexico, it's got reservations to go to China. Mexico is not cheap enough. And hospitals are cash strapped and they're they're bidding out things. If this hadn't happened, Mexico would have lost their business and everything... China would have been five years China would have made all masks and respirators like they do the gowns. 5:35:40 Mike Bowen: I've dealt with this thing for so long and it's been so illogical. And I've tried to figure it out and who's at fault who's at fault. And so people ask me that, who's to blame? And I got to the point where it's human nature. It's all of us. I couldn't convince doctors. I couldn't. Listen to this. I had three directors of BARDA said that, Mike, if you get somebody to call me, I will verify that what you're saying is true. I'll tell them it was true. Mr. Schrader, I couldn't get him to call. I couldn't get hospitals to make that call. I don't think they wanted to hear it. They're programmed to save money. They're not programmed to say, I want to make sure my masks are gonna be here. It didn't compute. I was speaking Greek everyone. So to look at this story, and look back and blame everybody, I'm not even going to do that. I'm looking at this pandemic. There's a silver lining, the silver lining is - told everybody there's a big problem. And we can fix this problem and never go through this again. 5:50:00 Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): I'm still confused about your current capabilities. You said you've got four lines that are just sitting dormant sitting in the right now, is that correct? Mike Bowen: We have four idle respirator manufacturing lines. Yes, sir. Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): And they're just, I mean, they're not being used right now. Mike Bowen: Yes. But...go ahead, finish your question. Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): Yes, they are not being used, right. Correct? So you said you've already gotten machines for those lines. You don't have to procure them. The only thing you're going to have to do is to get staff in order to use those lines. Mike Bowen: No, now there's three things we need to hire 100 people, we need to train 100 people. We need to get all the materials for that and we need to get NIOSH approval. We bought those systems from a defunct Vermont mask company seven years ago, we really don't even know how to use those machines. They're kind of a last resort. And if you'll go back and look at my email to Dr. Bright, I said this would be a basically a pain to do but they're here. And if we need this for infrastructure, let's talk about it. But what we've done in the meantime, is we've gone from making 75,000 respirators a month. Think of that number 75,000 to 2 million, and then in another 40 days, we'll be at 4 million from 75,000. So that's thousands and thousands of percent. Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): You said you bought those you bought them for a purpose. You bought them to use them, right? Mike Bowen: No. Thank you for asking that question. No, they came as part of an acquisition we bought. We bought a defunct a medical company and those machines came as part of the acquisition. And made in China. But go ahead. Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): Did you say earlier that you phones ringing off the hook you got orders coming out of the yazoo? Mike Bowen: Yeah, okay, but I can't go on a suicide mission. I can't ramp up, hire all these people for something that I don't know how it's going to end or how long it's going to last. And we did this. You gotta remember, we almost went out of business doing this before. We ramped up and we spent money and got a bigger factory, hired 150 people, built more machines. And then one day, the business not only went away, it went smaller than it was. And we had to raise a million dollars. We had to take pay cuts, and we had to fire 150 people. Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): So what you're saying, and I'm not trying to put words in your mouth, but I'm saying I'm not gonna use them, you're not gonna fire them up unless you get a long term contract from the government. Mike Bowen: I'm not going on a suicide mission. Absolutely. Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): So that's yes, you're not going to use them unless you get a long term contract... Mike Bowen: Unless I get a customer who is going to commit to use those machines so I don't have to fire 100 people. Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): So that means that you'd have to have a long term contract from the government in order to do it. Mike Bowen: Yeah. Listen, we've gone from one shift to 3. 80 people to 200. We're making four times the products we made. We're making over a million masks a day, don't you look at me, and act like I'm sitting on my ass and not firing up four machines. It's not like just turning on a switch. It's putting people's lives... It's gonna, I'm not sure...Listen...let me tell you this. Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): I understand. I'm a businessman. And I understand what it takes Mike Bowen: I watched my business partner cry when he had to lay those people off. We're not doing that again. Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): So in order so it's gonna have to be a long term contract from the government, though, that that's my point. Mike Bowen: From somebody. Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): And I get it from somebody Mike Bowen: I can't hire 100 people based on a maybe based on a when's it gonna end who knows? Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): None of us can whether we're in the private sector or the public sector, we can't do that. We all understand that. Mike Bowen: You don't. You're not risking your livelihood and your... Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): I risked my livelihood for 30 years. As an independent retail pharmacist, I never had long... Mike Bowen: You want to buy machines or hire 100 people, I'll tell you what, I'll give you my machines if you want to hire 100 people, Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): But but the point is, is that you're here saying that I'm not gonna do it unless I get a long term contract from the government. Mike Bowen: I'm just gonna wait, no, no, no, go back to the context. The context of that was in those emails in hey, here's four machines. Let's... they're here, but I can't turn them on unless it's a long term deal. I'm not just going to flip them on and have you flip them off and leave me hanging like everybody did last time. And let me tell you what happened last time, the government sits around doesn't buy American made products, comes to me in a pandemic buys millions of masks. In 2010, you know what they do for those masks, they stored them for 10 years, then they auction them to some knucklehead who put them on eBay and sold them for 10 times what they were worth. So not only did I... have I not seen the government in 10 years, I got to compete with my own masks. And I gotta have thousands of phone calls to me from people who bought that 10 year old masks of mine on eBay for 10 times the price yelling at me, and I had nothing to do with it because the government waited and sold this stuff. I've been hit from every side on this thing. We have bled for this country. We have created jobs, we put our factory in Texas when everybody else had already left the country. So don't don't sit here and judge me for four machines that aren't running that I'd have to hire and fire 100 people for. I'm not going to do it. Rep. Buddy Carter (GA): Not unless you have a long term government contract. Rep. Anna Eshoo, Chairwoman: The gentleman's time has expired. Hearing: Corporate Liability During the Coronavirus Pandemic, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, May 12, 2020 Watch on CSPAN Witnesses Kevin Smartt - CEO of Kwik Chek Convenience Stores Anthony “Marc” Perrone - International President of United Food and Commercial Workers International Rebecca Dixon - Executive Director of the National Employment Law Project Leroy Tyner - General Counsel for Texas Christian University Professor David Vladeck - A.B. Chettle Chair in Civil Prodecure at * Georgetown University Law Center Helen Hill - CEO of Explore Charleston Transcript: 13:15 Professor David Vladeck: My name is David Vladek. I teach at Georgetown Law School mostly litigation related courses. And I spent more than 40 years as a litigator, mostly in state and federal court. Like all Americans, I am anxious to get the nation back on its feet. I applaud the committee for exploring ways to facilitate that process. And I can only imagine the heavy burden that weighs on your shoulders. As my testimony makes clear, businesses like Mr. Smarts that act reasonably to safeguard employees, and the public are already protected from liability. But as all of the panelists have said, We urgently need science-based COVID-19 enforceable guidelines from our public health agencies. Those guidelines not only safeguard the public, but at the same time, they provide the standards of liability that Mr. Tyner was just talking about compliance with those guidelines will eliminate any liability risk. On the other hand, it would be counterproductive for Congress to take the unprecedented act of bestowing immunity on companies that act irresponsibly. Workers and consumers are going to open this economy, not government sponsored immunity. We all know that large segments of the public are still justifiably fearful about reopening. Granting immunity would only feed those fears. Immunity sends the message that precautions to control the spread of virus is not a priority. Even worse, immunity signals to workers and consumers that they go back to work or they go to the grocery store at their peril. Why? Because the Congress has given employers and businesses a free pass the short change safety. 16:30 Professor David Vladeck: The line between unreasonable or negligent misconduct, and gross misconduct is murky, context based, and fact dependent. Any tort claim can constitute gross negligence, depending on the wrongdoer state of mind. Second, differentiating between the two tiers of liability turn on intent, questions of intent, questions of intent are factual questions for a jury, not a judge to resolve and conduct is labeled negligent or grossly negligent only at the end of a case, not at the outset. In other words, we don't know for sure whether conduct is grossly negligent until the jury says so. And third, and most importantly, the difference is utterly meaningless if we care about containing the spread of the virus. Irresponsible acts spread the virus just as easily, just as effectively as reckless acts. 17:45 Professor David Vladeck: Legislation that simply displaces state liability laws is not only unprecedented, it is likely unconstitutional. 30:40 Sen. Diane Feinstein (CA): ...how the corona virus spreads? How could a customer of... Well, given how it spreads, nobody really knows how, could a customer of a particular business prove they were infected at a particular business? If professor Vladeck could respond, I believe he's our legal counsel here. Professor David Vladeck: Yes. So the answer is they can't. See are the viruses so transmissible, that it's very difficult unless you have a situation like you've had in the meatpacking plant to know where the virus comes from. In New York, one of the findings was that even people who had been housebound for a long time contracted the virus, even though they hadn't gone out. And so part of the reason why there have been almost no tort cases, about COVID-19 people have bandied about figures, but the truth is, they're been almost none of these cases and they're likely to be very few, because in order to plead a case in court, you have to be able to establish causation. And if someone who's been out and about walking on the streets, visiting the grocery store, visiting another shop, contracts virus, there's no way in the world they're going to be able to say, it's Mr. Smith's fault. 43:45 Sen. Patrick Leahy (VT): Some people are talking about this wave of COVID-19 litigation as the justification for corporate immunity. Actually about 6% of the COVID-19 related lawsuits are tort related, constantly seeking immunity for 6%. And moreover, the corporation's claiming they need this immunity are often the ones that subjected the employees to mandatory arbitration clause, we know those almost always favor the employer. So, can you tell us how the prevalence of mandatory arbitration clauses actually within or across key industries impacts the likelihood of a so called wave litigation? Rebecca Dixon: Yes, Senator, I would say that the wave of litigation is actually mostly businesses suing other businesses and businesses trying to enforce insurance contracts related to the pandemic. So that's one important thing to put out there. And when you have forced arbitration, you must go through a secret process with an arbitrator. So you are barred from going to court. And we know that employees are being coerced into signing these if they don't sign those, they don't get the job. Sen. Patrick Leahy (VT): So the additional shield against losses would pretty much be done with, is that correct? Rebecca Dixon: Correct. Sen. Patrick Leahy (VT): Thank you. 1:25:15 Rebecca Dixon: For workers in particular, right now, they don't really have any enforceable recourse if their employer is not following the guidelines because they're not enforceable. And if they are injured because of it, they have the workers compensation system or they can file an OSHA complaint, but they're pretty much locked out other than that, so that's going to make it really risky for workers to when they're making a choice between wages and their health to choose to come back to the workplace. 1:36:00 Sen. Chris Coons (DE): Let's just clear the deck on this one. Mr. Smart, Professor, excuse me, President if I could Perrone, do you believe the federal government has set clear, consistent science based enforceable standards for what's expected of employers to protect the safety of their workers during a pandemic? Kevin Smartt: I do not believe so. No. Sen. Chris Coons (DE): Mr. President? Anthony “Marc” Perrone: Senator, I don't think that they've done that for the employees or the customers. 2:08:04 Sen. Kamala Harris (CA): In 49 states employers are required to carry workers compensation insurance. Is that correct? Rebecca Dixon: Yes, that's correct. Sen. Kamala Harris (CA): And is it correct that by and large businesses that carry workers compensation cannot be sued by their workers for negligence? Rebecca Dixon: That's also correct. Sen. Kamala Harris (CA): And is it also correct that forced arbitration agreements also prohibit workers from seeking justice in courtrooms? Rebecca Dixon: That's also correct. Hearing: COVID-19: Safely Getting Back to Work and Back to School, United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, May 12, 2020 Watch on CSPAN Witnesses Anthony Fauci - Director National of the Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health Robert Redfield - Director of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Admiral Brett Giroir - Assistant Secretary For Health at the United States Department of Health and Human Services Stephen Hahn - Commissioner of Food and Drugs at the United States Food and Drug Administration Transcript: 46:45 Sen. Lamar Alexander (TN): Let's look down the road three months, there'll be about 5,000 campuses across the country trying to welcome 20 million college students. 100,000 Public Schools welcoming 50 million students. What would you say to the Chancellor of the University of Tennessee Knoxville, or the principal of a public school about how to persuade parents and students to return to school in August? Let's start with treatments and vaccines first, Dr. Fauci, and if you can save about half of my five minutes for Admiral Giroir's testing I would appreciate it. Anthony Fauci: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Well, I would be very realistic with the chancellor and tell him that when we're thinking in terms. Sen. Lamar Alexander (TN): It's a her in this case. Anthony Fauci: I would tell her, I'm sorry, sir, that in this case, that the idea of having treatments available or a vaccine to facilitate the re-entry of students into the fall term would be something that would be a bit of a bridge too far. 48:30 Anthony Fauci: But we're really not talking about necessarily treating a student who gets ill, but how the student will feel safe in going back to school. If this were a situation where we had a vaccine, that would really be the end of that issue in a positive way, but as I mentioned in my opening remarks, even at the top speed we're going, we don't see a vaccine playing in the ability of individuals to get back to school this term. 52:50 Anthony Fauci: What we have worked out is a guideline framework of how to safely open America again. And there are several checkpoints in that with a gateway first of showing, depending on the dynamics of an outbreak in a particular region, state, city or area that would really determine the speed and the pace with which one does re enter or reopen. So my word has been, and I've been very consistent in this, that I get concerned, if you have a situation with a dynamics of an outbreak in an area such that you are not seeing that gradual over 14 days decrease that would allow you to go to phase one. And then if you pass the checkpoints of phase one, go to phase two and phase three. What I've expressed then and again, is my concern that if some areas city states or what have you jump over those various checkpoints and prematurely opened up without having the capability of being able to respond effectively and efficiently. My concern is that we will start to see little spikes that might turn into outbreaks. 54:30 Anthony Fauci: But this is something that I think we also should pay attention to, that states, even if they're doing it at an appropriate pace, which many of them are and will, namely a pace that's commensurate with the dynamics of the outbreak, that they have in place already The capability that when there will be cases, there is no doubt, even under the best of circumstances. When you pull back on mitigation, you will see some cases appear. It's the ability and the capability of responding to those cases, with good identification, isolation and contact tracing will determine whether you can continue to go forward as you try to reopen America. 1:05:40 Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT): The official statistic, Dr. Fauci is that 80,000 Americans have died from the pandemic. There are some epidemiologists who suggests the number may be 50% higher than that. What do you think? Anthony Fauci: I'm not sure, Senator Sanders if it's gonna be 50% higher, but most of us feel that the number of deaths are likely higher than that number, because given the situation, particularly in New York City, when they were really strapped with a very serious challenge to their healthcare system, that there may have been people who died at home, who did have COVID, who are not counted as COVID because they never really got to the hospital. So the direct answer to your question, I think you are correct, that the number is likely higher. I don't know exactly what percent higher, but almost certainly, it's higher. 1:26:30 Sen. Rand Paul (KY): You've stated publicly that you'd bet at all that survivors of Coronavirus have some form of immunity. Can you help set the record straight that the scientific record as is as being accumulated is supportive? That infection with Coronavirus likely leads to some form of immunity. Dr. Fauci? Anthony Fauci: Yeah, thank you for the question, Senator Paul. Yes, you're correct. That I have said that, given what we know about the recovery from viruses, such as Corona viruses in general, or even any infectious disease, with very few exceptions, that when you have antibody present is very likely indicates a degree of protection. I think it's in the semantics of how this is expressed. When you say has it been formally proven by long term Natural History studies, which is the only way that you can prove one is it protective, which I said and would repeat is likely that it is, but also what is the degree or titer of antibody that gives you that critical level of protection. And what is the durability, as I've often said, and again, repeat, you can make a reasonable assumption that it would be protective. But Natural History studies over a period of months to years will then tell you definitively if that's the case. 1:31:30 Anthony Fauci: You don't know everything about this virus. And we really better be very careful, particularly when it comes to children. Because the more and more we learn, we're seeing things about what this virus can do that we didn't see from the studies in China or in Europe. For example, right now, children presenting with COVID-19, who actually have a very strange inflammatory syndrome, very similar to Kawasaki syndrome. I think we've got to be careful if we are not cavalier in thinking that children are completely immune to the deleterious effects. So again, you're right in the numbers that children in general do much, much better than adults and the elderly, and particularly those with underlying conditions. But I am very careful, and hopefully humble in knowing that I don't know everything about this disease, and that's why I'm very reserved in making broad predictions. 2:30:15 Anthony Fauci: We do the testing on these vaccines, we are going to make production risk, which means we will start putting hundreds of millions of dollars of federal government money into the development and production of vaccine doses before we even know it works. So that when we do and I hope we will and have cautious optimism that we will ultimately get an effective and safe vaccine that we will have doses available to everyone who needs it in the United States, and even contribute to the needs globally because we are partnering with a number of other countries. 2:49:00 Sen. Mitt Romney (UT): Given our history with vaccine creation for other coronaviruses, how likely is it? I mean, is it extremely likely we're going to get a vaccine within a year or two? Is it just more likely than not? Or is it kind of a long shot? Anthony Fauci: It's definitely not a long shot, Senator Romney, the I would think that it is more likely than not that we will, because this is a virus that induces an immune response and people recover. The overwhelming majority of people recover from this virus, although there is good morbidity and mortality at a level in certain populations. The very fact that the body is capable of spontaneously clearing the virus tells me that at least from a conceptual standpoint, we can stimulate the body with a vaccine that would induce a similar response. So although there's no guarantee, I think it's clearly much more likely than not that somewhere within that timeframe, we will get a vaccine for this virus. 3:06:50 Sen. Jacky Rosen (NV): Can you talk about PPE for the general public? Anthony Fauci: Well, you know, the best PPE for the general public, if possible right now is to maintain the physical and social distancing. But as we've said, and I think all of us would agree, there are certain circumstances in which it is beyond your control, when you need to do necessary things. Like go to the drugstore and get the occasion, go to the grocery store and get your food that in fact, you need some supplementation to just physical distancing. That's the reason why some time ago, recommendation was made, I believe it was Dr. Redfield at the CDC, who first said that about getting some sort of a covering we don't want to call it a mask because back then we were concerned, we would be taking masks away from the health care providers with some sort of mask like facial covering, I think for the time being, should be a very regular part of how we prevent the spread of infection. And in fact, the more as you go outside right here and where I'm sitting in Washington DC, you can see many people out there with masks on, which gives me some degree of comfort that people are taking this very seriously. 3:20:00 Sen. Lamar Alexander (TN): You didn't say you shouldn't go back to school because we won't have a vaccine? Anthony Fauci: No, absolutely not. Mr. Chairman, what I was referring to, is that going back to school would be more in the realm of knowing the landscape of infection with regard to testing. And as Admiral Giroir said, it would depend on the dynamics of the outbreak in the region where the school is, but I did not mean to imply at all any relationship between the availability of a vaccine and treatment and our ability to go back to school. Addressing the Senate: McConnell: Americans on the Front Lines Need Action, Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader, May 12, 2020 Hearing: Shark Tank: New Tests for COVID-19, United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, May 7, 2020 Watch on Youtube Watch on CSPAN Witnesses: Francis Collins, MD, PhD - Director of the National Institutes of Health Gary Disbrow, PhD.- Acting Director, Biomedical Advanced Research And Development Authority, Office Of The Assistant Secretary For Preparedness And Response at the Department of Health and Human Services Transcript: 1:36:20 Gary Disbrow: We do know that Coronavirus, the COVID-19, is one the immune system recognizes and eradicate the virus, we do know that people recover from it. And after a while you can't recover the virus anymore. That's good. That tells you the immune system knows what to do with this. It's not like HIV. At the same time, we do know that this virus can mutate. We've already been able to observe that it's an RNA virus. Fortunately, it doesn't mutate the way influenza does. So we don't think it will have this sort of very rapid seasonal change that we have to deal with with influenza, which means last year's vaccine is maybe not the one you want this year. We really don't know the answer, though to a lot of your questions, and they're fundamentally important. Can you get reinfected with this? There have been a few cases of that they're not incredibly convincing. If you do develop immunity, how long does it last? We do not have a good reason... Sen. Bill Cassidy (LA): Can I ask you though there is evidence both from rhesus monkeys that this antibody is protective it and there's also from SARS1 if you will, somebody writes about immunity being for 18 years. So it does seem If the scientific evidence is pointing in that direction, Gary Disbrow: It's pointing in that direction. You're absolutely right. And we're counting on that to be the answer here. But until we know, we will need to know. Sen. Bill Cassidy (LA): Now, let me ask you though what is defined as knowing because knowing may not be for one or two years, and yet we have to make policy decisions, hopefully before then, Gary Disbrow: Indeed, and I think at the present time to be able to evaluate the meaning of a positive antibody test, one should be quite cautious, I think it's going to help a lot to see if there anybody who has such an antibody test, it turns out to get infected again, in the next six months or so because a virus is going to be around, we'll start to get an early warning sign there. But we won't know whether it's three years or five years or 10 years. Sen. Bill Cassidy (LA): So you suggested to me that not only should we test but we should be tracking who is positive so that we can follow them longitudinally to see whether or not they develop once more. Gary Disbrow: With their appropriate consent of course, and this is where the All of Us program that you and I have talked about which is enrolled now 300,000 Americans who are pre consented for exactly this kind of follow up is going to be very useful to track and see what happens. 2:16:00 Sen. Mitt Romney (UT): I was in a hearing yesterday with the Homeland Security Committee. And the suggestion was between 50 and 90% of the people that get COVID-19 have no symptoms. If that's the case, should we let this run its course to the population and not try and test every person. I'm saying that a bit as a straw man, but I'm interested in your perspective. Gary Disbrow: I appreciate you're putting it forward as a straw man, because while it is true, that lots of people seem to get this virus without any symptoms at all. And the estimates are that maybe 60% of new cases are transmitted by such people. It's still the case that 74,000 people have died from this disease. And so the people who are out there infected who may not themselves be suffering or passing this on becoming a vector to others who are vulnerable with chronic illnesses or in the older age group. And sometimes young people too. Let's not say that they're immune. There are certainly plenty of sad circumstances of young people who really you would not have thought would be hard hit by this, who have gotten very little or even died. So I think it is extremely unusual to have a virus like this that is so capable of infecting people without symptoms, but having them then spread it on, we just haven't encountered something like that before. But it doesn't mean that it's not a terribly dangerous virus for those people who aren't so lucky and who get very sick and end up in the ICU and perhaps lose their lives. The only way we're really going to put a stop to that is to know who the people are who are infected, even if they have no symptoms, get them quarantine, follow their contacts. It's just good solid shoe leather public health, and we've learned it over the decades and it applies here too. 2:31:45 Gary Disbrow: In terms of the need to track people to see what happens, and particularly as was brought up earlier, is the presence of antibody actually something you can say makes you immune. I think maybe our best chance at this is this program that Congress has funded, and it's part of 21st Century Cures Act. So I'll have to specifically give a shout out to this committee about that to the chairman. And that is this program called All of Us, which is tracking when we get there a million people over time, we're already up to over 300,000 that have signed up. And those individuals answer lots of questions. Their electronic health records are available for researchers to look at after they've been anonymized. They get blood samples over the course of time, so you can track and see, oh, it didn't have the antibody, then oh, now it does have the antibody, what happened there? We should be able to utilize that for this and many other purposes to try to get some of those answers. And I totally agree. We need those. Hearing: COVID-19 Response, United States House Committee on Appropriations, May 6, 2020 Watch on Youtube Watch on CSPAN Witnesses: Dr. Tom Frieden - President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, and former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Caitlin Rivers - Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Transcript: 47:00 Dr. Caitlin Rivers: You heard from Dr. Frieden that contact tracing is really a key component, a key approach that will allow us to reopen safely. One thing that I don't hear a lot about about contact tracing, though that I want to bring to your attention is that it's also a key source of data that we badly need. We currently have very little understanding about where people are getting infected, our most new cases in long term care facilities or correctional facilities, which we know are high risk settings. But we don't have a good sense of whether 99% of our cases originate in those special settings or whether it's a small fraction. We don't know whether people who are essential workers still performing duties in the community are getting infected, or we don't know whether most infections are happening at home. Getting a better understanding of what that looks like will help us to guide better interventions. If it is special settings.

RXVIP Concierge is partnering with CareSignal, a remote patient monitoring company, to provide accurate COVID-19 information and support to the community using three accessible text messaging platforms designed for patients and pharmacists. Additionally, NeedyMeds has created a new COVID-19 resource center, listing organizations that are offering help with healthcare costs and financial hardships for those impacted by the virus. "Like millions of Americans, I myself want accurate and timely information on the COVID-19 virus so that I can deal with the feeling of isolation caused by the pandemic. I am also challenged with multiple chronic disease states that require medication management and care coordination," said Ken Sternfeld, Chief Pharmacist Officer of RXVIP Concierge. He added, "We all need companions and connections during these unsettling times. As a pharmacist who has always focused on patient engagement, this partnership with CareSignal aligns perfectly with my personal and professional values. NeedyMeds was our first partner when we started RXVIP, so we are pleased that they have joined us in this initiative to offer their great resources and support for patients. The creation of our new patient initiative, 'Stand Up To COVID19,' allows us to connect the next generation of PharmD providers with CareSignal's remote patient monitoring tool." COVID Companion, COVID Connect and COVID Staff Support support thousands of patients and front-line clinical staff by leveraging credible resources and enabling users to effectively monitor their symptoms. COVID Companion is a community-facing, text-message-based platform that shares information about local public health resources and recommendations from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). COVID Connect is a patient-facing, text-based platform that allows patients to self-monitor their symptoms at home. If their symptoms worsen, the tool automatically connects patients to the CDC's COVID-19 hotline. COVID Staff Support is a provider-facing, text-based platform that makes it easy for healthcare workers to self-monitor symptoms of COVID-19, offers a resource for reporting burnout and gives healthcare providers access to mental health resources. All three programs are available free of charge to United States healthcare organizations. "Being asked to help PharmD 2020 candidates graduate now so they can take a leadership role in our StandUp2Covid19 campaign is a tremendous honor," stated the newly appointed RXVIP National Brand Ambassador Nabila Ismail. "So much has changed since I entered the pharmacy profession just last year, but our purpose as pharmacists always is to help the patient," she added. "Now is the time for us to secure our position as true health care providers at a time that patients need us. My focus will be to raise awareness through community social engagement so the next generation can enter the profession at a time when their dedication to patient care and skill set will help save lives," Ismael concluded. Those who wish to subscribe to COVID Companion can text "RXVIP" to 67634. COVID Companion is available in English and Spanish. The tool will ask basic questions of users in order to provide COVID-19 information that is specific to their needs. Users will receive: CDC-recommended prevention tips and recommendations on what to do if they experience COVID-19 symptoms Ways to connect with public health resources in their local area Users over the age of 60 and those who have chronic diseases are directed to the CDC information specifically directed at high-risk populations

  In this week's edition fo the BryghtCast Weekly Podcast, Consultant Bray Wheeler is solo discussing three recent events and their potential impact on private sector organizations. Topics Discussed South China Morning Post:  China coronavirus outbreak could be 10 times worse than SARS, expert says South China Morning Post: Another city joins Wuhan in quarantine lockdown as Beijing tries to contain deadly outbreak BBC:  Davos / World Economic Forum Hub US Department of Homeland Security:  Iran Bulletin US Department of Homeland Security: National Terrorism Advisory System //static.leadpages.net/leadboxes/current/embed.js Episode Transcript Hello. Welcome to this week's episode of BryghtCast Weekly. Today is Tuesday, January 21st, 2020. My name is Bray Wheeler, consultant with Bryghtpath. In this week's episode, we're going to talk about the World Economic Forum, a recent bulletin by the National Terrorism Advisory System, and we're going to begin this week actually talking about the Wuhan coronavirus. So, the United States Centers for Disease Control has announced that the first case of the Wuhan coronavirus has been diagnosed in Washington State, here on Tuesday. The virus appeared last month in the Wuhan province of China and has already made hundreds sick. It's killed about six people already in Asia, according to current counts. The U.S. has become the fourth country outside of China with a confirmed case of the virus. The other countries include Japan, South Korea, and Thailand. While the virus can be spread from person to person, health professionals are indicating that it's not as easily spread, they think, as influenza or measles, for example. But there's not a lot of information kind of about this new virus, in terms of really what makes it tick, where it's kind of... They have a general idea of where it's coming from, but they don't have a lot of the details that they need, in order to effectively kind of combat the virus, as it stands right now. So, the World Health Organization is set to meet tomorrow, to decide whether to declare an international public health emergency. But more than likely, here in the U.S., the CDC has announced that in addition to previously announced passenger screenings... Which they announced on January 17th, I believe, at JFK Airport in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco International Airports... the CDC is also going to start screening passengers flying into Hartsfield Jackson Airport in Atlanta, as well as O'Hare Airport in Chicago. Now, these screenings will only be for passengers that are flying directly or indirectly through Wuhan at the moment. Now certainly, if this kind of virus continues to spread, or things change, it will likely change the way in which they're screening at some of these things, and we could very well see an expansion to different airports. So, what can organizations do right now? Kind of with this new virus, people are already mentioning references to the SARS outbreak, or H1N1, or things like that. But really, kind of for medical facilities especially, a lot of them are beginning to change some of their intakes prompts, to make sure that they're asking anyone with a fever or respiratory symptoms if they've been to or been in contact with anybody who has been in China. We certainly would recommend this to any of our hormonal contraceptive clients or listeners here, to consider implementing those types of steps now. Certainly these facilities and U.S. organizations, as healthcare companies and facilities, definitely are kind of best positioned to respond to some of these and have plans and processes in place around epidemics, or outbreaks of different viruses and things like that. We're certainly in cold and flu season, so a lot of facilities are on alert for those. We've had measles here in the last couple of years, being kind of a real thing, in terms of needing to make sure that those things are contained. So, nothing new, but certainly something that you want to start asking those questions if you're a healthcare, medical company. For other organizations, it's definitely important now to kind of determine your level of travel exposure within Wuhan province in China, as well as other Asian countries, including kind of just China at large. But really, you're going to want to start connecting with your travel agencies or travel security and health vendors, to discuss resources, review processes for offering medical assistance, and just to ensure employees, when they return or if they're currently in or will be going to China or Asia, are aware of the virus, are aware of what medical resources you as an organization have in place for them. Where they should be going, who they should be contacted to make sure they're reporting any concerns about their travel safety or health, or issues that they're having, to your travel safety or security teams, your global operation centers, or just to their managers and leaders. That's kind of the most basic kind of reporting structure. From a broader standpoint, within the organization, it's good... This is kind of a good reminder, at this point, or a good prompt to review your business continuity workforce plans, your pandemic planning. Any related plans or processes, in terms of how you would manage through an incident around an issue like this. It's just a good time to start, kind of... If you haven't dusted them off in a while, it's a good time to dust them off. If you're kind of regularly engaged with them, making sure that you're accounting for any of the new kind of nuances or new information resources that you might be tracking, that are being made available through the CDC or other agencies around this virus. Now, certainly this virus here is... You know. There's not a lot of information there. It's not quite to the level of global concern that SARS is at, but it's definitely getting there. You know, the situation is evolving. It's not yet reached those levels. As I mentioned earlier, the international, or the World Health Organization hasn't issued anything yet. They probably will tomorrow. But it will be important to kind of make sure that you're right-sizing the threat of this for folks, too, because there could be a lot of concern as this thing kind of grows, and more people start talking about it. It's definitely made some headlines here today on Tuesday. But it's important that you as an organization are right-sizing this, in terms of kind of the severity and threat, as well as reviewing and discussing what you would do now, rather than when it's having a tangible impact or a real impact on your workforce, on their families, or on your company operations. Shifting gears a little bit, our next topic is the World Economic Forum is occurring this week in Davos, Switzerland. It's the forum's 50th anniversary, where countries, business leaders, thought leaders, international organizations of all different kinds and advocacy levels convene to discuss global economic issues. It tends to trail into some other topic categories, but the Forum is really about kind of bringing as many folks together, with some intense conversation around some of the major global issues that are going on right now, particularly economic issues. Prominent topics for this year's forum. Kind of the main one that's being talked about is just climate change. Australia's wildfires, rising sea levels, stronger storms, issues in places like Jakarta and California and I mentioned Australia, and others, as well as kind of the sensation that is internationally the Swedish environmental activist, Greta Thunberg, is set to speak. I believe she's speaking actually today, Tuesday, on the issue of climate change. And so, this issue is really looming large over this year's forum, of the announcements. Kind of Black Rocks Movement, and some other organizations and things like that. A lot of those attend these forums. There's a lot more pressure, and a lot of focus on this just as a real issue, because there are some tangible things that organizations and folks are starting to see, even though other organizations have different points of view. Whether or not you believe it's a real thing that's happening or not, we don't tend to get into the politics of it here, but it is the issue that probably will set to kind of take over the primary conversation there. Other topics that are expected to take some sort of center stage, and most likely will: Rising tensions in the Middle East. Certainly, the recent tensions between the U.S. and Iran, as well as some things that are going on in Yemen and Saudi Arabia and others, will likely have folks talking this week. Income inequality. Rising debt. China's rising economic power, kind of compared to Western economic frameworks and setups, is definitely a big issue. Brexit, of course, will likely be an issue, as that is coming down the road here. And then just kind of the forum itself. Its primary ideology is that of globalism, and really taking a focus that the more open borders, the more free trade, the more partnership that's occurring in the world economically, the less likely there will be conflict or broader issues. But there's definitely, folks are seeing kind of that counterpoint that's happening right now to globalism, is that rise of nationalism, authoritarianism, things like that. And so, that's kind of an undercurrent of a conversation that folks are expecting may be a real topic starter throughout the conference here, or the Forum this week. Finally this week, the Department of Homeland Security has, over the weekend, on Saturday, January 18th, released a National Terrorism Advisory System bulletin. It's kind of their lowest level of advisory. But, regarding the potential for Iran-backed terrorism occurring over the next few months. So, there's been kind of... Certainly, the tensions, as the media has indicated, have kind of started to shift down. However, with Iran's admission of its downing of the Ukrainian flight, as well as some other conversation things happening between Trump's administration and Iran in different speeches... You know, those tensions are still very much there, so what DHS has indicated here publicly is that they don't have any information indicating a specific or credible threat to the homeland. However, there is concern about Iran's ability to potentially carry out cyber attacks, as one of kind of the main offshoots here. We heard a lot about that right at the onset of potential responses. Iran ended up responding immediately with those missile strikes off of the U.S. base, which may or may not have injured U.S. military personnel. Initial indications were there were no injuries. There is some indication now that some service members were injured. Regardless of that fact, that was kind of the initial response, but folks kind of expected that there would be some other things that Iran would do in response to this, cyber-attacks being one. So, not really any new information, other than this going in an official bulletin. However, Iran and its partners and proxies, particularly Hezbollah, have demonstrated their abilities to conduct attacks inside and outside of the United States. Iran has a very global reach. I think we've talked about that before. I think Brian's talked about that a little bit in Managing Uncertainty Podcast. But their ability to kind of, for conventional conflict, is not on par with the U.S. or other world powers. However, their ability to fight proxy wars across the globe... Excuse me... is pretty significant. They are pretty well-positioned to do that. And so, there is a real chance that those things could happen inside or outside of the United States, you know, over the next few months. So, this bulletin is set to expire on March 18th, 2020. However, DHS often kind of updates or extends these bulletins as appropriate. They may cancel it earlier. I doubt it. They tend to let them either just expire organically, or oftentimes these are updated. And I expect that this one probably will, as well. But in terms of what organizations can do, the biggest thing for companies and organizations to do right now is to ensure that your cyber and your physical security teams are aware of this potential threat. I'm sure most are. I'm sure most of you get these types of alerts from DHS. But if you don't already, please, please subscribe to these DHS, NTAS alerts. You can find a link to those in our episode notes. It'll actually take you straight to this bulletin, and within the bulletin, there's a link that you can set up to subscribe to these things. But other opportunities exist for your organization. You know, just in terms of the kind of republishing general preparedness, safety, evacuation reminders. You want to be careful in that messaging, though, to avoid any unnecessary alarm or distraction that may be associated with these reminders, especially if you're talking about this threat or other threats that you may encounter. You just want to make sure that you're setting the table appropriately, and that you're not necessarily referencing it to a specific incident or issue. It's really just kind of a great time to issue some of those general responses, so that it's on top of mind for folks, but you're also not overly alarming folks as they go through about their normal business day. So, that will do it for this week's edition of BryghtCast Weekly. You can find links to the topics that we talked about today in the episode notes, as I've mentioned before. Thank you for joining us, and we'll talk to you next week.

Back from a well-earned vacation, Dr. Cris Alves discusses the latest in cannabis science and industry news. Today he discusses an in-depth article from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the causes behind vaping associated lung injuries in North America. We will continue to provide accurate updates on this very serious phenomenon as they become available. Additional information and references: https://cannabisconciencia.org/ http://www.coopradio.org/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHJmIluvev_unEsqNZD2KwA?sub_confirmation=1 Do you believe vaccines are safe? Do anti-vaxxers have any evidence? I summarize how vaccines work. I give examples of a bacterial and viral vaccine. We learn why everybody should take vaccines, and why they are perfectly safe. We learn the difference between live attenuated vaccines and inactive types. Do vaccines cause autism or ADHD? We exam reports from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Preventation (CDC). Follow me on social media and support me on Patreon for video requests: https://www.soundcloud.com/science-talk-tv https://www.patreon.com/ScienceTalkTV https://www.sciencetalktv.com https://www.facebook.com/ScienceTalkTV/ https://www.twitter.com/ScienceTalkTV1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHJmIluvev_unEsqNZD2KwA? Credits: Videos: Property of Science Talk TV and StoryBlocks Standard License Video Camera Work: www.amaryroad.com Music: Youtube Audio Library Creative Commons Research: https://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/do-vaccines-cause-autism#1 https://chadd.org/adhd-weekly/vaccines-have-no-role-in-adhd/ Public Domain Photos (Wikimedia Commons): https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/4311800266_3c7029dc5f_bSmallpox.jpg Otis Historical Archives of “National Museum of Health & Medicine” (OTIS Archive 1) [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Washington_Crossing_the_Delaware_by_Emanuel_Leutze%2C_MMA-NYC%2C_1851.jpg Emanuel Leutze [Public domain] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Watercolour_drawings_showing_smallpox_and_cowpox_inoculation._Wellcome_L0015949.jpg See page for author [CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/Smallpox_vaccine_site.jpg Nathaniel C. Sheetz [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Melingue_Jenner_peint.jpg Gaston Mélingue [Public domain]

Do you are someone you know struggles with Alcohol Use? Did you know that Alcoholism doesn't have any boundaries and affects all cultures from all walks of life? Did you know that Alcoholism effects the entire body, specifically, the brain, heart, pancreas, mouth, liver, and immune system? According to the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC), more than 88,000 people die from alcohol-related deaths each year in the United States. Given these statistics, alcohol continues to be one of the nation's most preventable causes of death, second only to tobacco and a poor diet/sedentary lifestyle. Join Dr. Alise and Special Guest, Registered Nurse and Alcoholism Expert, Lisa Boucher as she shares her own story and take us on a deeper discussion about Alcoholism and Recovery.

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), coupled with some medical researchers here and abroad, have found climbing rates of many STDs in this demographic. Herpes, Chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, and even HIV and AIDS are no longer diseases only for the young. In fact, in seniors (ages 45-64+), rates for most of these infections has almost tripled in the past ten years.  With the possibility of pregnancy disappearing after a certain age, it can be more tempting for seniors to forego protection during sex. According to statistics from the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, HIV diagnoses in older Louisianians went up from 2010 to 2011. For Louisianians aged 65 and over, the number rose from 66 in 2010 to 78 in 2011. The age 45 to 54.demographic went up from 207 in 2010 to 232 in 2011.

On this weeks show, Accelerating precision medicine for cancer patients, Avivagen partners with NRC to tackle antibiotic resistance in humans, and Knight buys in on an Israeli biotech, We have all this and more on this week’s Biotechnology Focus Radio Show Podcast. Welcome to another episode of Biotechnology Focus Podcast. I’m your host Shawn Lawrence, here to give you a rundown of this week’s top stories on the Canadian biotech scene, Story Montreal’s Knight Therapeutics-a specialty pharma company reports it is taking a small stake in an Israeli-based company, Protalix BioTherapeutics, through the acquisition of 6,200,000 common shares of the company at an average price of US$0.57 per share. With the purchase, Knight now owns approximately five per cent of the outstanding common shares of Protalix. The shares were purchased by Abir Therapeutics Ltd., Knight’s wholly-owned Israeli headquartered subsidiary, which owns 28.3 per cent of Medison Pharma (Medison), Israel’s third largest pharmaceutical company ranked by revenues. It is anticipated that Medison will provide selected services to Abir in order to launch innovative pharmaceuticals in Israel.  Protalix, a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company is focused on the development and commercialization of recombinant therapeutic proteins expressed through its proprietary plant cell-based expression system, ProCellEx®. Protalix’s first product manufactured by ProCellEx, taliglucerase alfa, was approved for marketing by the U.S. FDA. Story In VICTORIA, BC, Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. reports it has selected Worldwide Clinical Trials as its Clinical Research Organization (CRO) for the company’s AURORA Phase 3 study of volcosporin for the treatment of active lupus nephritis (LN). Voclosporin, an investigational drug, is calcineurin inhibitor and immunosuppressant. According to the company, by inhibiting calcineurin, voclosporin blocks IL-2 expression and T-cell mediated immune responses. It is made by a modification of a single amino acid of the cyclosporine molecule which has shown a more predictable pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic relationship, an increase in potency, an altered metabolic profile, and potential for flat dosing.  Lupus Nephritis (LN) in an inflammation of the kidney caused by Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and represents a serious progression of SLE. SLE is a chronic, complex and often disabling disorder and affects more than 500,000 people in the United States (mostly women). With the selection of Worldwide, Aurinia will now proceed with conducting a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind global 52-week trial in approximately 320 patients. The primary endpoint as in the Phase 2b AURA trial is renal response (complete remission), at 24 weeks. In addition to the assessment of renal response, a key marker of clinical benefit in this population is the duration of proteinuria improvement. Therefore, secondary endpoints will include the duration of renal response at 52 weeks (48 weeks in AURA), an efficacy measure which delineates durability of renal response (remission), an important parameter in evaluating long-term outcomes for the treatment of LN. Story On the business front, Mississauga’s Aralez Pharmaceuticals announced last week that it is opening new offices in Dublin, Ireland. The company, which focuses on cardiovascular, pain and other specialty areas, says it plans to add more highly skilled jobs in Dublin by the end of 2017, and use these offices as a launching pad for expansion into the broader European Union market. The Dublin offices are Aralez's first permanent business premises outside of North America.   Story New findings published in Nature are highlighting the potential of a new messenger RNA vaccine to protect against Zika virus. Acuitas Therapeutics Inc., a private biotechnology company based in Vancouver published the data demonstrating that single low dose immunization with a messenger RNA delivered in an Acuitas LNP carrier has the potential to protect against infection by Zika virus. The company is developing a lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery technology for the messenger RNA (mRNA).  In the Nature paper, Acuitas Therapeutics scientists and academic researchers including Dr. Drew Weissman, a professor of Infectious Diseases in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania showed that single low-dose immunization with mRNA-LNP encoding the pre-membrane and envelope (prM-E) glycoproteins of a Zika virus strain responsible for the 2013 outbreak elicited potent, durable and protective neutralizing antibody responses in animals. The company in collaboration with Dr. Weissman say they hope to further advance this exciting new therapeutic modality. Story In Ottawa, ON, Avivagen Inc., a life sciences company commercializing products intended to replace the antibiotics added to livestock feeds, with the help of the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) has launched a new project to establish proof-of-concept for a first human health application of its OxC-beta™ Technology. The technology is derived from Avivagen discoveries about carotenoids, compounds that give certain fruits and vegetables their bright colors and is a non-antibiotic means of maintaining optimal health and growth. OxC-beta™ Livestock is a proprietary product shown to be effective and economic in replacing the antibiotics commonly added to livestock feeds.  Specifically, the project will evaluate the efficacy of OxC-beta™ Technology (“OxC-beta”) in an established research model of an infectious disease of humans. Work will be conducted by NRC experts at its facilities based upon a jointly developed protocol and is expected to be completed in 2017. Dr. James (Jamie) Nickerson, Avivagen’s director of product validation, commented on the project and its objectives, saying the company is pleased to be working with NRC. He adds that OxC-beta has demonstrated safety and effectiveness across more than a dozen livestock trials and those results suggest it could also prove to be important to human health and well-being. Neither the NRC or Avivagen have disclosed the specific disease target at this time, in the hopes of ensuring the patentability of this potential new application for OxC-beta™ technology. What is known is that the disease target is one of the top 18 urgent, serious or concerning drug-resistance threats listed by the United States Centers for Disease Control (the “CDC”). Story Vancouver’s Aequus Pharmaceuticals has landed $100,000 in funding from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program to support the ongoing Proof of Concept clinical study of its lead product candidate, AQS1301, a once-weekly transdermal aripiprazole patch. Aripiprazole is an atypical antipsychotic and the active ingredient in Abilify®, a leading medication in the US used for the treatment of a number of psychiatric disorders including bipolar I disorder, schizophrenia, major depressive disorder and irritability associated with autistic disorder. Aripiprazole is currently available in once-daily oral tablets and a once-monthly injectable form, however, medication adherence continues to be a significant challenge for patients. In terms of the clinical study, Aequus anticipates results of this repeat dose, 28-day study in the first quarter of 2017. The results will be used to inform the final design of the patch to be advanced into the regulatory phase of its clinical trials. Aequus expects to confirm its regulatory development plan in a pre-Investigational New Drug (pre-IND) meeting with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the second half of 2017. Story In Toronto, Trillium Therapeutics Inc, a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company developing innovative therapies for the treatment of cancer, has initiated dosing in its second Phase 1 clinical trial with TTI-621 in patients with relapsed or refractory percutaneously-accessible solid tumors and mycosis fungoides. Trillium is developing TTI-621 as a novel checkpoint inhibitor of the innate immune system, and the drug is currently being evaluated in an ongoing 10-cohort Phase 1b study in patients with relapsed or refractory hematologic malignancies. The two-part clinical trial is designed as a multi-center, open-label Phase 1a/1b trial, with TTI-621 being evaluated as a single-agent in patients. The escalation phase will include single or multiple doses of TTI-621 delivered by intratumoral injections, which will be followed by an expansion phase during which one or more selected dose levels of TTI-621 will be tested. Story Wrapping things up this week, in a national first,t he Terry Fox Research Institute and two leading cancer centres in Canada -- the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto and the BC Cancer Agency in Vancouver – are partnering on an innovative pilot project to accelerate precision medicine for their cancer patients. The initiative comes at a time when other developed countries are investing heavily in strategies to improve survival from cancer through precision medicine and increased collaboration. The pilot will provide much-needed evidence on how best to roll out a broader vision for data sharing and collaborative translational and clinical research to enable precision medicine for cancer patients.  The pilot is the first phase for developing and implementing a national program that will link high-performing comprehensive cancer research centres, hospitals and universities and their clinical and laboratory programs across Canada through the Terry Fox Designated Canadian Comprehensive Cancer Centres Network. Through the pilot project, each organization will provide complementary analyses of specimens (e.g. tumour biopsies and blood samples), identify and determine ways to harmonize their research processes, set up an IT infrastructure for data sharing, and develop resources required to conduct multi-centre precision medicine clinical trials.  The initial focus will be on colorectal, ovarian, and prostate cancers, with the goal of improving the health outcomes of patients through treatment by precision medicine. Each organization is contributing $4 million over the next two years for a $12-million total investment that will see multidisciplinary teams focus on four specific research thrusts that are institutional priorities: genomics, immunotherapy, molecular imaging and data sharing. That concludes another episode of the Biotechnology Focus Podcast. If you like our show, let us know via a twitter, you can We’re also always looking for your feedback, story ideas and suggestions so we’d love to hear from you.  You can also listen to past episodes online via our podcast portal at www.biotechnologyfocus.ca . For all of us here at Biotechnology Focus, thanks for listening.

According to a recent statement from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cases of the flu are on the rise; and experts are warning that this year’s could be worse than the last.Dr. Jim Roach is an integrative medicine expert; he joined "Trending Today USA with Rusty Humphries" to talk about what folks could do to minimize, or even prevent, flu-like symptoms.Image credit: shutterstock.com

LONDON—The hazard of passing lethal syphilis infection from mother to unborn child is being targeted by a new partnership combining the efforts of several key health organisations: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The World Health Organisation, Save the Children, the United States Centers for Disease Control and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Professor Rosanna Peeling explained to Peter Goodwin how the new group could reduce stillbirths and deaths in early life from more than a million pregnancies around the world.

Established over 60 years ago, the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has used its scientific expertise to help people throughout the world live healthier, safer, and longer lives. Tackling issues across borders, the CDC’s focus on global health has seen progress in curbing the spread of infectious diseases, as well as made huge gains in finding long-lasting and low-cost preventative measures to combat non-communicable diseases.  In this audio lecture CDC Deputy Director for Policy and Communication Donald Shriber speaks about how the agency coordinates and manages its efforts and resources to effectively respond to emerging threats to global health.  This lecture was convened as part of the 2011 Global Health Series organized by the Stanford Global Health Center in partnership with the Stanford Graduate School of Business. https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/donald_shriber_global_health_speaker_series