{"id":8677,"date":"2020-10-23T17:13:58","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T17:13:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/pandemicbook\/?page_id=8677"},"modified":"2021-11-14T14:42:32","modified_gmt":"2021-11-14T14:42:32","slug":"10-23","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/pandemicbook\/10-23\/","title":{"rendered":"10-23"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Friday, October 23<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUS Cases 8.52 million
US Deaths 224,769<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Oct 22:  The second and, presumably, final presidential debate occurs<\/a>. Gilead\u2019s remdesivir is the first FDA-approved drug to treat COVID-19 <\/a>after 3 randomized trials found<\/a> it to decrease the length of hospital stays and reduce the likelihood that patients will require oxygen. Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee advance<\/a> Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Trump follows<\/a> through on his threat to post footage of an interview with 60 Minutes, <\/em>which he walked out on, before CBS could air it. <\/em>The 37-minute video shows<\/a> Stahl asking Trump, “You’re okay with some tough questions?” Trump responds, “No, I’m not.” Rocky Mountain National Park closes<\/a> due to massive fires.<\/p>\n

Oct 23: The U.S. sets<\/a> new single-day coronavirus case record at 85,000. The FBI reports that a far-right extremist from the “Boogaloo Bois” opened<\/a> fire on Minneapolis’ third police precinct and sparked violence during May’s George Floyd protests<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tFrom the Cutting Room Floor...\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Today I read that the Justice Department announced the settlement with OxyContin-maker Purdue<\/span> Pharmaceuticals\u2014$8.3 billion over their predatory profiting and promotion of the the opioid epidemic in this country. It seems like Dr. David H. Gorski\u2019s skepticism regarding the trustworthiness of the country\u2019s regulatory agencies expressed earlier this month was dead on. To be sure, it is a massive settlement. And they were able to connect the Sackler family to the 2012 Purdue marketing plan called \u201cEvolve to Excellence.\u201d Pudue Phama\u2019s plan targeted physicians who were already writing as much as 25-times the typical number of OxyContin prescriptions for patients.[1]<\/a> The belief is that strategies like this helped fuel a good portion of the opioid crisis for many years, before doctors slowed down prescriptions and users transitioned to heroin and other street drugs.<\/span><\/p>

If the settlement is approved by Judge Robert Drain of the Southern District of New York, who is overseeing the possible dissolution of Purdue Pharma, it will set up a public trust under government control. Theoretically, the trust will manage the dispensation of opioids in a more measured way. Nonetheless, that trust will continue to manufacture opioid medications, making the government a drug dealer. That deal could also put the personal assets of members of the Sackler family out of reach from future lawsuits about their role in the opioid crisis.[2]<\/a><\/span>
[read_more id=”1″ more=”Read more” less=”Read less”]
These punishments seem too soft to many. Twenty-four states continue their fight over settlement fees.[3]<\/a> Connecticut, in particular, sued because \u201cPatients [on] \u2026 80mg OxyContin, die of opioid related overdose at a rate of almost 2%,\u201d which Purdue knew and did nothing about.[4]<\/a> The fact that the Sackler\u2019s themselves will not be seeing a jail cell rankles even more.[5]<\/a> There is more consternation than celebration at this news.<\/span><\/p>

Here we are, about eight months into a pandemic that has killed over 220,000 Americans, and there\u2019s a fair amount of evidence to suggest that the government is still offering more support to the individuals and companies who control the biomedical-industrial complex than they are to the nation\u2019s financially and medically vulnerable. The Sacklers will likely stay billionaires, despite pushing a drug that has crippled thousands of families. Recently, Congress shot down a bipartisan bill that was supposed to protect Americans from surprise out-of-network bills in the case of a hospital visit because of, say, an acute case of COVID-19.[6]<\/a> As I learned in February, almost 40% of all visits to emergency rooms are classified as \u201cout-of-network\u201d by health insurance companies, which drastically increases the bill that one has to pay. Moreover, 27% of in-network hospital visits still result in an out-of-network bill.[7]<\/a> This means that even people with health insurance are being bankrupted by medical expenses. As soon as the bipartisan bill passed out of committee, the private equity firms that make money from these sorts of charges blitzed Republicans like Senator John Cornyn of Texas with ads to muscle him into keeping surprise billing alive and well. Perhaps not surprisingly, Texas is one of the states where these surprise bills are most common.[8]<\/a> Although there is some state legislation in Texas now that could help patients avoid these costs of several hundred to several thousand dollars, much of the rest of the country has no such protection.[9]<\/a><\/span><\/p>

In the midst of a pandemic, with healthcare providers and members of Congress influenced by rapacious corporations, one would think we could come together to acknowledge our shared goals of curbing the exploitation and staying alive. Sadly, when private equity firms charge surprise fees at local hospitals, they call it \u201cindividual freedom,\u201d and we fail to see that there is nothing free about any of this.[10]<\/a><\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Notes<\/p>

[1]<\/a> Meryl Kornfield et al., \u201cPurdue Pharma Agrees to Plead Guilty to Federal Criminal Charges in Settlement over Opioid Crisis,\u201d Washington Post<\/em>, October 21, 2020, https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national-security\/2020\/10\/21\/purdue-pharma-charges\/<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>

[2]<\/a> Brian Mann, \u201cPurdue Pharma Reaches $8B Opioid Deal With Justice Department Over OxyContin Sales,\u201d NPR, October 21, 2020, https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2020\/10\/21\/926126877\/purdue-pharma-reaches-8b-opioid-deal-with-justice-department-over-oxycontin-sale<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>

[3]<\/a> Daniel Fisher, \u201cFee-Fight Emerges in Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy over Paying Plaintiffs Firms,\u201d Legal Newsline<\/em>, November 13, 2019, https:\/\/legalnewsline.com\/stories\/520068650-fee-fight-emerges-in-purdue-pharma-bankruptcy-over-paying-plaintiffs-firms<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>

[4]<\/a> Josh Kovner, \u201cConnecticut and Other States Opposing Settlement with Purdue Pharma Say Company Has Failed to Act to Protect Patients as OxyContin Users Continue to Die,\u201d Hartford Courant<\/em>, December 10, 2019, sec. Connecticut, https:\/\/www.courant.com\/news\/connecticut\/hc-news-purdue-pharma-oxycontin-stamford-20191210-q4753hqydfevdmg7wlvupu46r4-story.html<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>

[5]<\/a> Sissi Cao, \u201cCritics Rage as Purdue Pharma Settlement Won\u2019t Send Sacklers to Jail,\u201d Observer<\/em> (blog), October 21, 2020, https:\/\/observer.com\/2020\/10\/purdue-pharmaceutical-settlement-no-jail-time-sacklers-outrage\/<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>

[6]<\/a> \u201cAlexander: Senate Health Committee Votes 20 to 3 for Bipartisan Bill to Reduce Health Care Costs,\u201d The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions, June 26, 2019, https:\/\/www.help.senate.gov\/chair\/newsroom\/press\/alexander-senate-health-committee-votes-20-to-3-for-bipartisan-bill-to-reduce-health-care-costs<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>

[7]<\/a> Avik Roy, \u201cHow To End The Scourge Of Surprise Medical Bills In The Emergency Room,\u201d Forbes<\/em>, March 12, 2019, https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/theapothecary\/2019\/03\/12\/how-to-end-the-scourge-of-surprise-medical-bills-in-the-emergency-room\/<\/a>; Avik Roy, \u201cHouse Democrats\u2019 Capitulation on Surprise Billing Proves They\u2019ll Never Pass \u2018Medicare for All,\u2019\u201d Forbes<\/em>, February 19, 2020, https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/theapothecary\/2020\/02\/19\/house-democrats-capitulation-on-surprise-billing-proves-theyll-never-pass-medicare-for-all\/; Eric C. Sun et al., \u201cAssessment of Out-of-Network Billing for Privately Insured Patients Receiving Care in In-Network Hospitals,\u201d JAMA Internal Medicine<\/em> 179, no. 11 (November 1, 2019): 1543, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1001\/jamainternmed.2019.3451<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>

[8]<\/a> Paul McLeod, \u201cHere\u2019s How Private Equity Firms Targeted Republican Sen. John Cornyn With Dark Money To Preserve Surprise Medical Billing,\u201d BuzzFeed News, October 19, 2020, https:\/\/www.buzzfeednews.com\/article\/paulmcleod\/john-cornyn-surprise-medical-billing-ads<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>

[9]<\/a> Jack O\u2019Brien, \u201cTexas Governor Signs Surprise Billing Legislation,\u201d HealthLeaders, June 17, 2019, https:\/\/www.healthleadersmedia.com\/finance\/texas-governor-signs-surprise-billing-legislation<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>

[10]<\/a> Charles P. Pierce, \u201cSometimes, Freedom\u2019s Just Another Word for Not Giving a Damn,\u201d Esquire<\/em>, October 22, 2020, https:\/\/www.esquire.com\/news-politics\/politics\/a34453401\/rural-missouri-covid-outbreak-hospital-beds-masks\/<\/a>.<\/span> [\/read_more]<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEric Feigl-Ding. \"BREAKING\u2014US Sets Another New Record of 83,000 #COVID19 Cases in a Single Day. This Comes after 77,000 Cases Were Reported the Day before (Itself the Highest Ever). Smashing the Previous Record Just a Day Later Is Insane! This Is Only Getting Worse. 100k\/Day Possible Soon. Https:\/\/T.Co\/9vyUGN3OSk.\" Tweet. @DrEricDing (blog), October 23, 2020. https:\/\/twitter.com\/DrEricDing\/status\/1319779361013288960.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Ulrike Heimes & Markus Steinhausen, “How Dangerous Is the Air around Us?,” COVID-19 Special, DW News, October 23, 2020, https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jYzzkKtMxz0<\/a>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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CBS News. Trump Administration Violates Agreement, Releases \u201c60 Minutes\u201d Interview Footage<\/i>, 2020. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qKUtIp_dvFA<\/a>.<\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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60 Minutes. President Donald Trump: The 60 Minutes 2020 Election Interview<\/i>, 2020. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FdAh2HJ98WE<\/a>.<\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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