Friday - January 07, 2011
GUY EATS 20,000 CALORIES A DAY. GUY GETS GROSS. GUY SUES NATIONAL HEALTH. FIGURES.
I guess this is just one result of growing up, (and boy did this fat ass grow) believing the state should be responsible rather then the individual. The state in this case being the NHS. National Health Service.
I need to warn you about the photo on line of this slob.
I will never post a photo like this here. You can go to the link but have a bucket handy.
btw ... 1 Stone is equal to 14lbs.
It’s not my fault, the NHS should have helped: The former world’s fattest man to sue health service for his weight gainBy Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 9:08 AM on 7th January 2011A man who once weighed nearly 70 stone is to launch legal action against the NHS, claiming they failed to help him as his size soared.
Former postman Paul Mason received life-saving gastric surgery last year binge-eating his way to gargantuan size.
But the 50-year-old, who now weighs in at a comparatively small 37 stone, said he should have been helped years ago.
Mr Mason, who was eating 20,000 calories a day at his heaviest, claims he sought help from his GP after ballooning to 30 stone.
Instead of receiving a treatment programme to manage his weight, he has complained he was told in 1996: ‘Ride your bike more’.
He has pledged to put any compensation he receives if successful towards helping other obese people lose weight.
An NHS spokesman said of the purported lawsuit: ‘As we have not heard from Mr Mason, it would be inappropriate to speculate.’
Mr Mason’s care bill costs taxpayers an estimated £100,000 a year and is believed to have topped £1million over the last 15 years.
At the height of his binge eating, he was consuming 20,000 calories every day - ten times the recommended daily intake for a man.
Posted by peiper
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Permalink • Thursday - January 06, 2011
Lost Post: Autism Study A Fraud
Drat, I lost a whole post from last night. Beats me what happened. No time to write it over again, so here’s the main link.
It looks like the past 12 years of parental panic over measles vaccine (MMR) being a cause of autism in children has been a con. A fraudulent bit of “science” by a paid-off doctor.
I had heard at one point that it was the mercury used as part of the preservative in the vaccine that was the problem. That too has been discredited.
Not surprisingly, with the public fear of the side effects of the vaccine, many parents are not getting their children immunized. Thus measles is on the rise, and the number of cases right now is higher than in the past 12 years. Great.
Lawsuits against the vaccine companies are being thrown out in the USA. No proof, bad science; no case. Buh bye.
Other research into the causes of autism is focusing on heavy metals poisoning (lead, cadmium, etc), even though the levels of those elements in our daily lives is far lower today than it has ever been. And I mean ever, going right back to the Roman Empire.
So why are the cases of autism on the rise? I don’t know. Research has shown that there are certain genetic conditions that may show a predisposition for it, but that in itself is not a cause, merely an indication of susceptibility. Have the definitions been broadened so that a much wider population is now categorized that way? We have seen that happen with “dangerous levels of lead” toxicity over the past 50 years: today’s “danger” level is below the “who cares” level from the late 1950s. In most places (across the USA at least) the air and water is much cleaner than it was when I was a kid. Is infant mortality down so much that significantly more children are living long enough to have this syndrome diagnosed? Are misdiagnoses becoming common? Again, I don’t know, although I don’t think the US infant mortality rates have improved all that much in the past couple of decades. Preservatives in our food? Corn syrup? Artificial ingredients? Is this rise endemic to the USA or is it worldwide? I have no answers; I know just about nothing about autism. I’ve known only one child in my whole life with autism, and there was no way that was a misdiagnosis in his case.
I had a whole bunch of links, but this stuff is pretty easy to Google up, or just read the article and follow the link to the Chart blog.
Posted by Drew458
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Permalink • Thursday - December 30, 2010
docs mis diagnose …. man loses his … ah …. it got cut off in error. OUCH!
Somethin’ tells me this might be the end story of the year. Perhaps the decade? Scares one off doctors and the medical profession. There are stories that pop up all year long about unfortunates who go through hell, some have amputations, only to find a mistake has been made. For example, a kid with broken bones and missed at the ER. ??? How’s that happen? One fellow you may recall, as reported here, had a broken back so the story went. And that was mis-diagnosed.
But this case .... well ..... ?
Swede told he had cancer and forced to have penis amputated following a YEAR of mis-diagnosis
By Daily Mail Reporter
An elderly Swedish man has had to have his penis amputated after doctors misdiagnosed his condition.Rather than being the urinary tract infection doctors had thought, he had contracted cancer, and medics had missed the signs for over a YEAR.
As the disease had been undetected for so long, the cancer had taken hold and doctors were left with no option other than to lop off his manhood.
The sexagenarian originally visited his local clinic in Blekinge, southern Sweden, in September 2009 for treatment on what he was told was an infection.
When he returned in March 2010 complaining of foreskin irritation, the doctor on duty at the time diagnosed the problem as a simple case of inflammation, the local paper, Blekinge Läns Tidning (BLT), reported.
After three weeks passed without the prescribed treatment alleviating the man’s condition, he was instructed to seek further treatment at Blekinge Hospital.
But it took five MONTHS before he was able to schedule an appointment at the hospital.
When he finally met with doctors at the hospital, the man was informed he had cancer and his penis would have to be removed.
It remains unclear if the man would have been able to keep his penis had the cancer been detected sooner.
But the matter has been reported to the National Board of Health and Welfare in Sweden.
Two years ago Philip Seaton also suffered a similar fate when went to be circumcised at a hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, but awoke to find his penis had been amputated.
Mr Seaton filed a lawsuit against the doctor who performed the procedure and the anesthetist, claiming mental anguish and pain.
He also said he has lost the enjoyment of life, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit says doctors only received consent to perform a circumcision and that Mr Seaton did not consent to his penis being removed.
His lawyer, Kevin George, said the organ was cut off after cancer was found, but that doctors only had consent to remove the foreskin.
Mr George said: ‘Sometimes you have an emergency and you have to do this, but he could very easily closed him up and said, “Here are your options. You have cancer,” and the family would have said, “We want a second opinion. This is a big deal.“‘
Posted by peiper
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Permalink • Sunday - December 19, 2010
London has become the “tuberculosis capital of Europe.
Temperatures set to hit record low of -26C in England as forecasters predict freezing countdown to Christmas
By Daily Mail Reporter· Mercury could plunge to -26.1C this week
· Christmas getaway chaos as Heathrow stays closed
· Transport carnage as petrol tanker topples on M25
· Coalition accused of not being prepared for big freezeForecasters are predicting that the lowest temperature ever recorded in England could be broken this week.
They suggest that the record low of -26.1C could be topped as the snow and bad weather caused air and road chaos across the country.
While they say that their prediction is a cautious one, the winter solstice this coming Tuesday is said to increase the chance as the sun is at its lowest point in the sky.
And that’s the GOOD NEWS.
Take a look at this scary report.
London ‘the TB capital of Europe’London has become the “tuberculosis capital of Europe” due largely to immigration, according to a paper published today in The Lancet.
By Stephen Adams, Medical Correspondent
Britain is now the only Western European country with rising rates of tuberculosis, according to the paper, with more than 9,000 cases now diagnosed annually.
Four in 10 cases are diagnosed within London, with cases rising by nearly 50 per cent since 1999, from 2,309 to 3,450.Doctors suspect these numbers underestimate the true extent of the problem by almost a third.
“Victorian” living conditions among migrants are behind the rise, said Prof Alimuddin Zumla of University College London, a tuberculosis expert.
Prolonged, close contact with a person with “active” TB is generally required for infection to occur.
Prof Zumla wrote: “The increase in the number of tuberculosis cases in the UK has largely been in non-UK born groups; in 2009, these were black African (28 per cent), Indian (27 per cent), and white (10 per cent).”
But it appears many people are now becoming infected here, rather than bringing it in from their countries of origin.
“Interestingly many of these cases were not in new migrants; 85 per cent of individuals born overseas had lived in the UK for two or more years,” he said.
Tuberculosis was “common in London boroughs that are relatively deprived”, he noted.
“Poor housing, inadequate ventilation, and overcrowding —conditions prevalent in Victorian Britain —are causes of the higher tuberculosis incidence rates in certain London boroughs.”
Tuberculosis was known as “the white plague” during Victorian times, as it causes a deathly pallor in its sufferers.
It’s late and I’m knackered as the Brits say ....
Bye for now but Stay Tuned ....
Posted by peiper
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Permalink • Tuesday - November 30, 2010
No Worries Here
Meanwhile, the 2 or perhaps 3 confirmed cases of cholera in the entire United States all came from recent Haitian immigrants, and all were immediately contained and cured.
Cholera case in Orange County poses little risk, experts say
A woman who recently moved from Haiti to the Orlando area has been diagnosed with cholera, but county health officials say she has been treated with antibiotics and has recovered.The woman, whose identity is protected by privacy statutes, moved to Orange County within the past month. Health officials say the disease did not spread to her family members or close friends.
Since an outbreak of cholera surfaced last month in Haiti, at least 1,344 people on the island have died, and nearly 57,000 others have become ill.
...
The case of cholera was identified through the state’s disease-surveillance system, and a laboratory sample was sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where it was confirmed.The Orange County woman’s illness was the second confirmed case of cholera in Florida, according to the state’s Department of Health. Health officials are investigating a third possible case involving a doctor returning from Haiti. So far, all the cases of cholera reported in the U.S. have been in Florida.
Because travel to and from Haiti has increased since the Haitian earthquake earlier this year, the state has asked local health-care providers to watch for people who become sick or show symptoms of cholera after returning from Haiti. In addition, the Florida Department of Health is encouraging health-care providers to administer specific cholera testing in suspected cases.
Posted by Drew458
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Permalink • The Next Epidemic
Wonderful. A combination of illegal immigrants who have no immunizations and no health care mixed with a generation or two of parents who haven’t seen the need to immunize their children ( or bought into the fears of side effects from them ) have brought us to this: a deadly disease once rarer then hen’s teeth is now back on its feet. But hey, so is tuberculosis. And for all I know, polio is right around the corner. Anyway, this is a reminder to get yourself immunized, or to get a booster shot if you haven’t had one in decades. Because this one is here, unlike the annual “insert animal of choice here"-flu lack of vaccine, we’re all gonna die!!! scary news story.
Whooping Cough Reaches Epidemic Level in California
Federal health officials say whooping cough has reached epidemic proportions in California and could escalate in other states if more adults don’t get vaccinated.Dr. Patrick Joseph, a California infectious disease physician, told reporters at a press conference Wednesday in Washington that more than 6,400 cases of pertussis—aka whooping cough—have been diagnosed in his state this year. He said the epidemic is at its highest level in more than 50 years and implored more adults to get vaccinated. At least 10 infants, all under 3 months old, have died from the disease this year. “While the epidemic is in adults, the tragedy is in kids,” said Joseph, who is vice president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID). “The situation is grave when babies too young to be immunized are dying.”
Although California has faced the worst of the outbreak, several others states are seeing unusual spikes in the disease, including Ohio, South Carolina, Michigan, Texas, Idaho and New York.
NFID Medical Director Dr. Susan Rehm said most American adults still remain unvaccinated against many preventable diseases. “For more than six decades, vaccines have protected us from infectious illnesses that have a wide range of consequences, from lost work days to pain, hospitalization, long-term disability and death,” she said. “By foregoing vaccines, adults not only leave themselves vulnerable to sickness, but they expose those around them to unnecessary risks, too.”
Federal officials also released the results of a survey showing slow growth in adult awareness of vaccines that prevent diseases. In fact, less than half of adults know that vaccines exist for several major illnesses, including shingles, pertussis, hepatitis B, and meningitis. “Awareness is not nearly as high as we would like it to be,” said Dr. Melinda Wharton, deputy director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
LOS ANGELES—More than 5,270 cases of whooping cough have been reported in California’s growing epidemic, which has killed nine infants this year. This week’s report from the California Department of Public Health found that the highly contagious illness hasn’t infected this many in the state since 1955, when 4,949 cases were reported for the entire year.
[ Chicago area ] Over the Thanksgiving break, Winnetka School District 36 maintenance staff is doing “enhanced cleaning” in the schools due to whooping cough and stomach virus outbreaks.
On Nov. 3, the Tribune reported six local cases of pertussis, otherwise known as whooping cough. That number has since increased to 17, according to a message on District 36’s Web site, signed by the two interim co-superintendents.
The first six cases were reported at Carleton Washburn School. There are now 14 confirmed cases at that school, along with two at The Skokie School and one at Crow Island School, according to interim co-superintendents Ken Cull and Mark Friedman.
Whooping cough has swept through schools in the North Shore in the last six weeks, with a total of 41 cases reported across 11 schools in Winnetka, Wilmette, Glencoe, Kenilworth and Northfield, according to statistics from the Cook County Department of Public Health.
“Pertussis is a highly contagious illness that is easily transmitted through coughing and sneezing and may persist among a population for weeks to months,” according toa letter to District 36 from the County Health Department. “Symptoms of pertussis usually occur five to 10 days after exposure, but can take up to 21 days to appear. Initially symptoms are similar to a common cold: a runny nose, low-grade fever and a mild occasional cough. However, the cough can become severe and spasmodic — with a distinctive ‘whooping’ sound — and can progress to vomiting between bouts of coughing.”
Whooping cough was also reported earlier this month at Highcrest Middle School, 569 Hunter Road, Wilmette, where 14 fifth-graders were diagnosed with the disease. The County Health Department visited the school and administered a vaccine to 84 students.
New York State has now reported a total of 462 cases of whooping cough in 2010, 66 from New York City and 396 from counties the CDC labels “upstate” [ which means not NYC, not Long Island, and not Westchester County ]. In 2009, at the same time, the state had reported 244 cases. The increase is entirely outside the City.
Twelve states have reported over 300 cases [ each ] in 2010. Upstate New York’s rate of growth in case numbers from 2009 places it second behind California. California continues in the grip of a declared pertussis epidemic. As of October 12, the California Department of Public Health is reporting 5,658 cases of whooping cough in 2010.
Three states, California, Texas and Ohio, have reported over 1,000 cases. The twelve states reporting over 300 cases in 2010 represent 75% of all whooping cough cases reported in the United States. All but Texas have higher case counts in 2010 than in 2009. Texas has reported 62 fewer cases in 2010, at 2,020.
The issue of vaccination remains at the core of the case counts. Twenty states allow parents to refuse immunizations for their children based upon a “strong personal belief”. Four of the top five states with high case counts allow this exemption. 74% of the total whooping cough cases reported in 2010 are from the 20 states allowing the exemption.
12,680 cases of whooping cough have been reported from six states, California, Texas, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania. These states have the highest case counts and all six states allow the personal belief exemption. New York State does not allow a personal belief exemption.
[ Texas ] Pertussis is a bacterial infection of the respiratory system that produces a persistent, chronic cough, according to the National Institutes of Health. Also known as whooping cough, it’s most prominent in children and especially dangerous for infants.
The pertussis vaccine was first developed in the 1930’s. Before the invention of the vaccine, whooping cough was one of the most common childhood diseases and a major cause of death.
The worst case of pertussis since the 1960’s occurred in 2005 when the Travis County Department of Health reported just over 500 cases. Since the outbreak began in November 2009 over 1,000 children were tested for the contagious disease and no less than half of that number tested positive for whooping cough. More concerning, according to UCLA research, “The odds of having a history of asthma was twice as great among vaccinated subjects than among unvaccinated subjects.”
I would rather that my child had a greater chance of getting some asthma than be dead. And it’s just a greater chance, not a guarantee. And asthma comes in all strengths, from really mild and merely slightly annoying from time to time, all the way up to life threatening. And any one of those conditions beats being dead.
Whooping cough—also known as pertussis—was once a major cause of childhood illness and death in the United States, but all that changed with an effective vaccine introduced in 1940. That vaccine reduced whopping cough to a minor blip on the medical radar, with less than several thousand cases reported annually. However, there is an increasing number of parents wary of vaccines which has led to a resurgence in whooping cough in California and in several states across the nation.
Whooping cough is a serious bacterial infection caused by the bug Bordetella pertussis. It is spread through the air, meaning that coughing, sneezing, or simple conversation can spread the infection. It starts with symptoms such as a runny nose, sneezing, and a general body ache. While seeming like a normal, dry cough accompanying a cold, within the first week it turns into a wheezing cough where the patient suffers attacks of coughing. After gasping for air, these symptoms can become worse over time if not treated properly. The cough can end in a high-pitched whooping noise, hence where the infection got its interesting name. Whooping cough is dangerous in nature because if ignored it can lead to pneumonia, ear infections, and even seizures.
Bordetella Pertussis, a rod-shaped coccobacillus human pathogen, is nonenteric and encapsulated that can be transmitted through direct contact with droplets or inhalation of aerosols. It is a gram-negative bacteria, like brucellosis and Legionnaire’s Disease. It is very similar to bordetella bronchiseptica which causes bronchitis (kennel cough) in livestock and pets. Hard surfaces can be disinfected with dual quat disinfectants like that D-128 stuff I always talk about. Phenolic disinfectants should also work (eg Lysol disinfectant, not the detergent), as may chloride based ones (eg bleach); look for “encapsualted bacteria” on the kill list of the product if Bordatella is not specifically listed. Another way to disinfect cloth would be with sodium dichloroisocyanurate, commonly called NaDCC and used in water purification tablets; NaDCC will kill both encapsulated and unencapsulated bacteria. It also kills canine parvo, distempter, and the Bordetellas that your veterinarian is concerned with on contact, so I’d bet on it for disinfecting laundry too if nothing else was available.
Be concerned. Be prepared. And get your immunizations up to date.
Posted by Drew458
on 11/30/2010 at 02:48 PM
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Permalink • Monday - October 25, 2010
Death Count Rising
On Friday the death count was at 150, with 1526 people infected. Today, Monday, the number of fatalities has increased to 253 (reported so far) and 3015 infected. The WHO and teams of international aid workers are rushing fresh water and medicine to the beleaguered island nation, but with outbreaks now plotted in nearly a dozen areas, expect the counts to climb nearly vertically before the outbreak can be contained.
The Artibonite river in Haiti has turned deadly. Once a source of water for the villagers that live along its banks, now it is thought to be the source of the cholera epidemic.
For those who used to bathe, play and do laundry in the river - or drink from it - life has changed drastically. Aid agencies deliver bottled water daily and leaflets are being given out to the villagers. “This is very good information,” one man tells me, as he reads about how handwashing is important in combating the spread of the disease.
“If we had learned this before, lives could have been saved,” he observes.
The guy can read, but he doesn’t know that washing your hands is the most basic step in sanitation. They’re doomed.
The public information campaign is well underway. Outside St Nicholas’ hospital in St Marc, a song blares out from the sound system, encouraging people to use clean water and clean toilets. There is plenty of bottled water, courtesy of the aid agencies, but clean toilets are another matter.
...
Haitian authorities hope the epidemic may now be stabilising, but the human cost continues to mount, in a country which has already seen so much suffering.
“It should be possible” to keep an outbreak of cholera out of the capital of Haiti, but the potentially deadly disease remains “a major risk,” an international aid worker told CNN Monday.
“I think we’ll be able to contain it fairly well, but it is a risk, it is a major risk,” said Jason Erb, deputy country director for the International Medical Corps.
The fast-moving outbreak has claimed at least 253 lives on the impoverished island nation, which is yet to recover from January’s massive earthquake. Another 3,015 cases have been reported, according to Haiti’s Health Ministry. Even if the disease can be kept out of the capital, Port-au-Prince, it remains a serious risk in the tent camps that are still home to tens of thousands of earthquake survivors, Erb warned.
“It’s a danger because the camps are so crowded and so unhygienic,” he said
But meanwhile, officials are stepping up sanitation efforts and setting up quarantine areas in Port-au-Prince. Authorities are bracing themselves for a possible larger outbreak nationwide.
“I think the only responsible thing we can do at the moment is prepare and plan for the worst-case scenario,” [UN aid spokesman] Wall said.
On Friday, officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Agency for International Development discussed the outbreak and efforts to work out a containment strategy.
The CDC will send an 11-member team to Haiti over the next few days to find out which antibiotics will be most effective in treating the outbreak. USAID will provide supplies needed to set up treatment centers. The group already has 300,000 oral re-hydration kits in position and is distributing water purification kits in affected areas.
The U.N. mission in Haiti credited access to clean water and free medical facilities for preventing feared outbreaks of cholera and tuberculosis.
Great. So the next outbreak will be TB. Guaranteed.
Posted by Drew458
on 10/25/2010 at 07:31 AM
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Permalink • Tuesday - October 19, 2010
An ObamaCare Owie
In what could be a game changer for the deadlocked Washington Senate race, Boeing notified 90,000 employees, concentrated in huge plants in Washington, thattheir health premiums would increase next year as the company braces for the impact of President Obama’s national health care law.
Citing the need to shift plans to avoid new taxes in the plan, the company will increase annual deductibles for employees’ family plans by $300 to $900.
The letters to tens of thousands of Boeing employees in Washington will powerfully reinforce the message from Sen. Patty Murray’s Republican challenger, Dino Rossi, that the president’s health care law is bad for the state’s top employer.
At their debate Thursday, Murray defended the law and said that it would help the state, rebutting Rossi’s claim that the legislation had passed without being read by saying “Not only did I read it, I helped write it.”
Aerospace giant Boeing is joining the list of companies that say the new health care law could have a potential downside for their workers.
In a letter mailed to employees late last week, the company cited the overhaul as part of the reason it is asking some 90,000 nonunion workers to pay significantly more for their health plan next year.
This seems like conflicting stories here. Which is it: lowered benefits (ie higher deductible) or raised premiums? YES. It’s both. Why? Because Boeing has a very good insurance plan for it’s workers. So good, in fact, that it falls into the government’s “Cadillac” category. So to avoid having to pay a FORTY PERCENT TAX on this “excessive” package, they have to stick it to the workers and cut the benefits by some degree. This creates a new group policy, and that means a large rate increase. The talking heads on TV were saying it could be upwards of $1000 per worker. Gee, thanks Odumbo.
Spokeswoman Karen Forte said the Boeing plan is more generous than what its closest competitors offer, and the company was concerned it would get hit with a new tax under the law.
The tax on so-called “Cadillac” health plans doesn’t take effect until 2018, but employers are already beginning to assess their exposure because it is hefty: at 40 percent of the value above $10,200 for individual coverage and $27,500 for a family plan.
Deductibles, the share of medical costs that employees pay annually before their plan kicks in, will go up to $300 for individuals, an increase of $100. For families, the new deductible will be $900, an increase of $300.
In addition, Boeing is instituting a copayment of 10 percent after the deductible has been met. The copayment will rise to 20 percent in 2012.
Those changes will reduce the value of the Boeing plan, but it’s unclear whether that will allow the company to escape the tax looming in 2018.
So much for having a good job with good benefits. ALL ROUND PEGS WILL BE HAMMERED DOWN UNTIL THEY FIT THE SQUARE HOLES. Did you notice that the new “Cadillac” tax is higher than the top income tax bracket? Just saying. Because the guy who screws the wheels onto 747s is rich you know. And the rich have to be taxed until they’re just as poor as the rest of us.
More and more I am seeing the talking heads on Fox News come right out and say that the only real goal of ObamaCare is a one payer system: health insurance run by the government. It is their intent, and they wrote this massive law specifically, to put the thousands and thousands of private insurance companies out of business. Gee, no kidding. That’s what we said 2 years ago, and nobody listened.
Posted by Drew458
on 10/19/2010 at 01:36 PM
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Permalink • Tuesday - August 31, 2010
YOUNG GIRL 6 FOOT 9 ,,, AND GROWING. NOT A HAPPY STORY
Short video and some story. Gotta feel sorry for the kid. Life expectancy can’t be good.
The 14-year-old Brazilian girl who at 6ft 9in cannot fit on the bus
By Mail Foreign ServiceIt’s hard standing out from the crowd when you are a teenager but few schoolchildren can claim to be more visible than Elisany Silva.
The 14-year-old measures an unbelievable 6ft 9in tall, making her one of the biggest teenagers in the world.
The pretty youngster is believed to be suffering from a rare disease which has caused her extreme growth.
However, its exact nature has not been determined because her parents cannot afford to pay for doctors to investigate further.
Jeeze ... wouldn’t you think doctors or some clinic or group would be interested enough to dig into this without cost? It isn’t like it happens every day.
MORE HERE AT THE SOURCE, THE DAILY MAIL
Posted by peiper
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Permalink • Wednesday - August 25, 2010
Anecdotal ObamaCare?
I suppose it could have nothing whatsoever to do with ObamaCare…
As I delivered the mail to the Chevrolet (aka ObamaMotors) dealership on my route a large notice on the employee bulletin board caught my eye. It informed (and I don’t remember the exact wording) All Employees: Effective 9/1/2010 all employee dental plans are cancelled. It went on about contacting the HR office for details and options.
I thought it was an interestingly ominous notice.
Thatisall.
Posted by Christopher
on 08/25/2010 at 07:32 PM
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Permalink • Monday - August 23, 2010
Let No Crisis Go To Waste, Part 71,230
FDA commissioner says agency needs more authority
Food and Drug Administration chief Margaret Hamburg, beset with an egg-and-salmonella food safety challenge, said Monday the agency must move from a reactive to [a] preventive enforcement strategy.
Giving a series of network interviews in the wake of some 1,300 salmonella cases from tainted eggs, Hamburg said the FDA is taking the issue “very, very seriously.” At the same time, she said Congress should pass pending legislation that would provide her agency with greater enforcement power, including new authority over imported food.
“We need better abilities and authorities to put in place these preventive controls and hold companies accountable,” Hamburg said as she discussed the salmonella poisoning outbreak and the recall of roughly a half-billion eggs from two Iowa egg distributors.
Two Iowa farms linked to the disease outbreak — Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms — share suppliers of chickens and feed as well as ties to an Iowa business with a history of violating state and federal law.
...
The egg industry has consolidated over recent years, placing fewer, larger businesses in control over much of the nation’s egg supply to consumers.
Ok, on the one hand ... hey Turd World - are you listening? HALF A BILLION EGGS. TWO FARMS. TWO weeks production. Ha, I fart in your general direction. USA! USA! USA!
On the other hand though ... come on. Maybe there is a need for some more egg inspectors. Or at least egg inspectors who speak English, are citizens, and who have had some useful training. And perhaps EggWorld has become a bit too much like a monopoly these days.
But Hamburg (oh, the gleeful irony of that name in that job) is using this as a power play. More authority over more food! And more imports! Give it a rest Margie baby.
Posted by Drew458
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Permalink • Thursday - August 19, 2010
Healthcare ‘monovision’ cr@p
It’s that time of year again; time to scramble and get all those little annoying health items attended to, paid for, and file the refund claims on your healthcare flexible spending account.
That’s the bad thing about FSA’s: You guess what your out-of-pocket medical expenses will be for the next year––that much is withheld from your paycheck––if you don’t use it, you lose it. The government just keeps your money. I wish I qualified for a plain medical savings account. Then what I don’t use just rolls over.
I’ve had an healthcare FSA for the last six years. I/we have used it all every year.
But this year I’m worried: I increased my ‘guess’ at our out-of-pocket health expenses this year. My goal was to goad my wife into getting a full physical, with the attendant co-pays and deductibles. My mistake...I know how she feels about doctors...she’s never had a full physical in our 20+ years of marriage. It’s not for lack of my encouragement either: whenever I suggest a physical it starts a figh...er...an argument. So, I still have a full FSA to spend…
Today I decided to take care of one of the little items I’ve neglected: new glasses/contacts.
I was shocked! The expense...was...far cheaper than I’d expected. So today I got an exam for both glasses and contacts. I ordered two pairs of bifocals, and walked out with a test set of contact.
That’s right. Contact. Only one. In my __ eye.
( __ eye = ‘dominant eye’. In the interest of identity protection, you do not need to know which of my three eyes is ‘dominant’. 
)
I’d never heard of this before. It’s called ‘monovision’. The doctor knew which of my eyes was ‘dominant’. I never knew eyes were ‘dominant’ or ‘submissive’. When I questioned him about how he knew which eye was dominant, he handed me a small box, told me to hold it like a camera. ‘Now, put it to your eye like you’re looking through the viewer’. Guess what? I do use my __ eye for that. I started remembering...it is indeed my __ eye I use when star-gazing through my telescope. Who knew?
(The Doctor Knows...mwhahahahaha!)
With the ‘monovision’ option, he’s just putting one contact in to correct my dominant eye to see far away (I’m near-sighted). The other eye is still free for reading and other close work. My other option was bifocal contacts, which are more expensive. The downside is (and this I got off a Wikipedia article when I got home) some disorientation due to loss of depth perception (particularly in the uncorrected eye).
BTW, this is all out of my own pocket. No health insurance coverage for this. (maybe the insurance would cover some small part of the eye exam itself, but it’s so small as to not be worth the time to file, or even the envelope and postage stamp.)
ObamaCare went entirely the wrong way.
Ideally, I’d have a medical savings account that I fund with my own money. This would be for out-of-pocket expenses. What I don’t spend this year would roll over. I’d also shop around for medical insurance to cover me/wife/us for something catastrophic. These would get the same tax-breaks that employers get for providing health insurance. This would mean freedom. This means I can shop around for the best and/or cheapest medical service. And…
!
It would save the government money by removing healthcare from the Federal budget. Period!
Posted by Christopher
on 08/19/2010 at 04:44 PM
Filed Under: • Amazing Science and Discoveries • Editorials • Health-Medicine • Personal •
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Permalink • Saturday - August 14, 2010
The next liberal ‘Chicken Little’ government pandemic.
They (Government) tried the ‘bird flu’. They tried the ‘swine’ flu. No ‘pandemics’ actually occurred. It’s so embarrassing that the UN recently declared the ‘swine’, or H1N1, pandemic over. It never started!
But here’s the newest crisis: The era of antibiotics is coming to a close.
No. Really.
In just a couple of generations, what once appeared to be miracle medicines have been beaten into ineffectiveness by the bacteria they were designed to knock out. Once, scientists hailed the end of infectious diseases. Now, the post-antibiotic apocalypse is within sight.
Hyperbole? Unfortunately not. The highly serious journal Lancet Infectious Diseases yesterday posed the question itself over a paper revealing the rapid spread of multi-drug-resistant bacteria. “Is this the end of antibiotics?” it asked.
Doctors and scientists have not been complacent, but the paper by Professor Tim Walsh and colleagues takes the anxiety to a new level. Last September, Walsh published details of a gene he had discovered, called NDM 1, which passes easily between types of bacteria called enterobacteriaceae such as E. coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae and makes them resistant to almost all of the powerful, last-line group of antibiotics called carbapenems. Yesterday’s paper revealed that NDM 1 is widespread in India and has arrived here as a result of global travel and medical tourism for, among other things, transplants, pregnancy care and cosmetic surgery.
“In many ways, this is it,” Walsh tells me. “This is potentially the end. There are no antibiotics in the pipeline that have activity against NDM 1-producing enterobacteriaceae. We have a bleak window of maybe 10 years, where we are going to have to use the antibiotics we have very wisely, but also grapple with the reality that we have nothin
Now, we all know that some of this is true. My mother lost most of her leg to a MRSA infection she caught in the hospital. But, she’d have never gotten it if she’d taken her medicine as prescribed. If she’d done that, she’d never been in the hospital to catch MRSA. So we know there’s just enough truth to this.
What is the solution? The usual liberal solution to any problem. Can you guess?
Beyond that, there is a real need to conserve those antibiotics we have. “To me, it has many parallels with the problems of energy in economies around the world,” he says. Carbon trading was dreamed up to try to conserve oil and reduce its pollutant effects. There have now been a couple of interesting papers suggesting a Pigouvian tax – which he defines as one levied on an agent causing an environmental problem as an incentive to mitigate that problem – for antibiotics.
Like oil, he points out, antibiotic usefulness is finite. And the cost of drug resistance is not reflected in the price of the drug. “If you consider antibiotic sensitivity as a resource like oil, you want to maintain that by introducing a tax,” he says. It would be worldwide and the proceeds could fund new drug development.
I don’t understand why anyone listens to liberals. Their solution to any problem is…TAX IT!
Posted by Christopher
on 08/14/2010 at 09:41 PM
Filed Under: • Economics • Health-Medicine • Stoopid-People •
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Permalink • My first Demotivator
This is my first attempt at creating a demotivator. Not up to the Skipper’s standards, but I liked the result.
Posted by Christopher
on 08/14/2010 at 07:54 PM
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Health-Medicine • Motorvators • Obama, The One •
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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
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Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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