We’re All Scared Of A Yellow Submarine
July 25, 2022
Some Good News
- Cuba to hold referendum on same-sex marriage (WaPo, $)
- Biden ‘doing just fine’ after testing positive for Covid, White House says (Guardian)
“Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.” – Hippocrates
Moving The Needle
Americans pay more for their prescription drugs than people in comparable countries, and 80% of adults say the cost of those drugs is unreasonable. Almost a third of U.S. adults say they haven’t taken their meds as prescribed due to costs. One drug in particular – insulin – could be the poster child for pharmaceutical price gouging. Insulin is needed to treat all people with Type 1 diabetes, and some people with Type 2 diabetes. Those who rely on insulin to stay alive – who don’t have the means to pay for all the insulin they need – those people may die. It’s as simple as that.
It costs between $2.28 and $3.42 for drugmakers to manufacture insulin, and very little about the way it’s produced has changed in a century. Yet people with diabetes pay hundreds of dollars for the life-saving medication because prices have skyrocketed over the past 10 years. Nearly 25% of people who take insulin skip doses because they can’t afford it. A study published this month in the journal Health Affairs estimated that 14% of people in the U.S. who use insulin face what’s described as a “catastrophic” level of spending on the drug, meaning that after paying for subsistence essentials like food and housing, they spend at least 40% of what remains on insulin. The study, which covered 2017 and 2018, didn’t include other costs related to diabetes care, such as glucose monitors, insulin pumps, or other medications. And even though drugmakers often offer programs that can lower out-of-pocket costs of insulin for both insured and uninsured patients, the financial burden on some can still be devastating.
Nonprofit drugmaker Civica Rx announced in March it planned to make and sell generic versions of insulin to consumers at no more than $30 per vial and no more than $55 for a box of five pen cartridges. And at least 22 states have passed laws that cap co-payments for insulin at $100 or less for a 30-day supply. California Governor Gavin Newsom announced his month he had approved a budget allocating $100 million to allow his state to begin making its own low-cost insulin. As great as these policies are, they don’t really help people who are uninsured, some of whom are simply dying. (NBC, Vox, Health Affairs, Civica RX, California Globe)
We’re All Scared Of A Yellow Submarine
- The Belgorod, the world’s longest known submarine, was turned over to the Russian Navy earlier this month in the port of Severodvinsk. The sub’s maker, Sevmash Shipyard, describes it as a research vessel, but experts say the Belgorod’s design is a modified version of Russia’s Oscar II class guided-missile submarines – just made longer in order to eventually accommodate the world’s first nuclear-armed stealth torpedoes and equipment for intelligence gathering.
- At over 608 feet, the Belgorod is the longest submarine in the ocean today – longer than the U.S. Navy’s Ohio class ballistic and guided missile submarines, which come in at 569 feet. If the Belgorod can successfully add espionage and possibly nuclear weapons capabilities to the Russian fleet, it could reinvent the Cold War under the ocean, with U.S. and Russian subs tracking and hunting each other in hair-raising face-offs. (CNN)
An Exercise In Fertility
- On Friday, China’s Chaoyang Intermediate People’s Court ruled, in effect, that healthy unmarried women in China are not allowed to freeze their eggs for a possible future pregnancy. Teresa Xu, who was 30 and single in 2018, went to a public hospital in Beijing to ask about freezing her eggs.
- After an initial examination, she was told she couldn’t proceed further because she couldn’t show a marriage certificate. She said the doctor also urged her to hurry up and get married before having children. Chinese national law doesn’t explicitly ban unmarried people from services like fertility treatments – it simply says a “husband and wife” can have up to three children.
- In practice, however, hospitals and other institutions implement the regulations in a way that requires people to show a marriage license. Xu sued in 2019 in what local media said was a first-of-its-kind case. Despite Friday’s judgment, an undaunted Xu said she plans to appeal the decision. (Guardian)
Additional World News
- Top U.S. delegation visits Kyiv, vows to ensure continuing support (Reuters)
- Al-Qaeda affiliate claims deadly Mali attack (Al Jazeera)
- Israeli forces kill two Palestinian fighters in West Bank gun battle (Guardian)
- Three dead in graduation shooting at top Philippines university (Reuters)
- EU looks to replace gas from Russia with Nigerian supplies (Reuters)
- Pope Francis visiting Canada to apologize for Indigenous abuse in Catholic residential schools (CNN)
- An old political prisoner warns against new Tunisian constitution (Reuters)
A Five-Alarm Fire
- A fire that erupted Friday in Mariposa County, California, southwest of Yosemite National Park, rapidly grew on Saturday as flames made runs through bone-dry vegetation caused by the worst drought in decades. By Sunday, the Oak Fire had burned out of control and turned into one of California’s biggest blazes of the year.
- Besides aircraft and bulldozers, some 2,000 firefighters battling the blaze are facing tough conditions that include steep terrain, sweltering temperatures, and low humidity. Thousands of residents in remote mountain communities across a several-mile span of a sparsely populated area in the Sierra Nevada foothills were forced to flee.
- The blaze had consumed over 22 square miles of forest land by Sunday, with no containment. The cause is under investigation. (CBS News)
Houston, We Have A Problem
- On Friday, the Justice Department announced it had opened an environmental justice investigation into allegations that the city of Houston, Texas, has failed to respond equitably to reports of illegal dumping in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods. The head of the DOJ’s civil rights division said the probe will focus primarily on the northeast section of the nation’s fourth-largest city, including the neighborhoods of Trinity and Houston Gardens.
- Residents in those communities have voiced long-standing concerns over the dumping of furniture, tires, medical waste, automated bank teller machines, dead animals, and even human bodies. The case was prompted by a 65-page complaint from Lone Star Legal Aid, which alleged the city has denied services and failed to enforce municipal codes in some neighborhoods that extend back years.
- Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner (D), who is Black, called the federal investigation “absurd, baseless, and without merit.” Turner, who took office in 2016, said his administration has prioritized the needs of communities of color that have been historically underserved. (WaPo ($), Lone Star Legal)
Additional USA News
- Bakery vandalized with hate speech in response to upcoming drag show (CNN)
- Iowa family killed in campground shooting survived by 9-year-old son (WaPo, $)
- Al Gore compares climate deniers to Uvalde law enforcement officers: ‘Nobody stepped forward’ (NBC)
- U.S. Taking Emergency Steps to Protect Sequoias From Wildfires (NYT, $)
- Two Americans killed in Ukraine’s Donbas region (CNN)
- Josh Hawley, senator who ran from Capitol mob, mocked by home paper (Guardian)
- Newsom Raises His Profile With Hardball Tactics, Starting With a Gun Bill (NYT, $)
Keepin’ It Wheel
- Don’t try this at home – or anywhere else for that matter. Two Italian men broke an unusual Guinness World Record by changing a tire on a vehicle while it was in motion. Guinness World Records announced driver Manuel Zoldan and tire-changer Gianluca Folco captured the record for fastest time to change a wheel on a car while driving when they achieved the feat in 1 minute 17 seconds on the set of Italy’s Lo Show dei Record.
- A YouTube video shows Zoldan driving a BMW 3-Series car onto a ramp that flipped the vehicle onto two wheels, allowing Folco to hang out of the car and quickly change the tire while the car continued moving. Guinness said the duo beat the previous record of 1 minute 30 seconds. (UPI, Guinness World Records)
Additional Reads
- Nielsen says 17.7 million watched Thursday’s Jan. 6 hearing (ABC)
- Sailfish leaps out of water, injures Maryland woman off Florida coast (CBS)
- Four Things Nations Can Do to Conserve Energy (NYT, $)
- Heads Up, Again: China Launches Space Station Module With Giant Rocket (NYT, $)
- Scandinavia and South America capture world’s top restaurant awards (CNN)
- Marvel Reveals MCU Phase 5 Schedule, Gives First Phase 6 Details (CNET)