Foster Research - Don't Halt it!
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A Good Day To Advocate for Better Healthcare
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Investigate Women’s Health News
About two weeks ago we reported that the Biden Administration was planning to fund research into women’s health for about $100 million. This was big news because most healthcare research is done on males and white males at that. So when women present with different symptoms, doctors may not provide the correct diagnosis or treatment. This is true for cardiac issues, like heart attack and for pain relief where women are given sedatives instead of pain medication.
It will be funbded through the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, or ARPA-H.
More GOOD NEWS
President Biden will sign an executive order today March 18th 2024, aimed at expanding research and improving government initiatives on women’s health, a move that will coincide with a White House Women’s History Month reception. The president’s executive order will “ensure women’s health is integrated and prioritized across the federal research portfolio and budget,” the White House said, with a focus on the administration’s Initiative on Women’s Health Research.
Among the actions will be the launch of an effort that will direct investments of $200 million in fiscal 2025 to fund new women’s health research. Biden has previously called on Congress to create a Fund for Women’s Health Research at the National Institutes of Health.
Promise kept - nicely done!! (The Hill)
Protect Yourself Against Medical Disinformation
Keep an eye out for instances where claims online jump to conclusions without evidence, or appeal to your emotions, advised Tara Kirk Sell, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. When you see a piece of medical content online, ask yourself: Does any aspect of the message seem designed to hook you? Does the message seem engineered to make you upset or concerned? Does the source correct itself when it makes a mistake? Pay attention and be cautious. Not every reporter has your interests at heart. (NY Times)
Gain of Function
Gain or Loss of Function is an area of medical research. It investigates how to add functions to or take functions away from a particular organism.
The organism can often be a virus. It is a particularly useful technique when developing vaccines or treatments for cancer. Modified viruses can be made harmless to normal cells but can be made to target and kill cancer cells.
In November of 2023, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives approved an amendment to the 2024 House spending bill that prohibits federal funding for all gain-of-function (GoF) research -- that which endows a pathogen with a new or enhanced property. Such restrictions could halt research pertaining to a wide variety of public concerns, including gene therapy, cancer treatment, and pandemic preparedness.
More than half of the currently FDA-approved gene therapies are based on viral engineering, with several more in the pipeline. The approval of Sarepta's delandistrogene moxeparvovec (Elevidys) marks the first gene therapy for Duchenne's muscular dystrophy (DMD), a life-limiting disease affecting approximately 1 in 3,300 male births worldwide. This revolutionary treatment is the result of GoF research that enabled an adeno-associated virus to deliver a therapeutic gene to patients.
Could you use gain of function to make a deadlier virus? Of course. Could your steer your car into a crowd and kill dozens? Of course. But that is not what happens.
Oncolytic virotherapy, a promising emerging class of anticancer immunotherapies, relies on viruses that selectively infect and destroy cancer cells. Although oncolytic viruses occur naturally, genetic modifications have improved their safety and specificity. BioVex/Amgen's talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC, Imlygic) -- an FDA-approved therapy for unresectable metastatic melanoma -- uses a genetically-modified herpes virus that preferentially infects tumor cells to boost the anti-tumor response. Not only has this first-in-class treatment improved the survival rate of patients with advanced melanoma, but its success would not have been possible without GoF research. (MedPage Today)
If you’d like to read more about gain and loss of function - here is a Wikipedia article that is pretty accessible.
ACTION
Let’s let our Senators know that gain of function is an extremely useful technique when studying vaccines and cancer treatments and that it should continue and be funded. In short, they should vote against any bill that contains the amendment that prohibits government funding for gain of function research. Their contact info is in in the Resources section or you can use RESISTBOT by texting SIGN PLAUOF to 50409.
Here is the email you will send.
“I am your constituent and I want you to know that the House of Representatives is actively trying to halt gain of function medical research. This research modifies organisms to make better vaccines, treat cancer and so much more. Conspiracy minded legislators have latched on to the false idea that this will start a pandemic, instead of treat cancer.
The House will send funding bills to the Senate that seek to deny funding to gain of function research and I want you to support science and research and support gain of function research. We should do good works with public money and saving lives is part of that.”
Healthcare Advocacy (Us)
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Find My Elected Officials
Contact the White House https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Contact State and Federal Representatives
By phone: (202) 224-3121
By email: democracy.io
Important Healthcare Resources
League of Women Voters Healthcare Reform Toolkit
Organizations to Contact
National Nurses United Medicare4All
Physicians for a National Health Program
One Payer States
Healthcare Now
Reproductive Health
NARAL - Pro Choice America
Charley. chatbot abortion resource - make sure to use a secure incognito browser if you live in a state that has banned abortion
Planned Parenthood
Miscarriage and Abortion Hotline has references about where to procure abortion medications. They also assist women in the process of self managed abortion or miscarriage by phone or text and will respond in an hour. Details and hours of operation at their website.
United State of Women Reproductive health page (bottom of the page) has important resources such as medical support, access to Telehealth, prescriptions by mail, and legal support references.
Practice careful communications - The Digital Defense Fund has a number of tips to keep texts, calls, and internet use private. Here is their site.
If you need financial help with an abortion try abortionfunds.org
Claims Denials and Appeals & What to Do
Appeal a Healthcare Decision
Appeal/Negotiate a Hospital Bill
Disinformation Management
Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency
Save Democracy
Chop Wood, Carry Water by Jessica Cravens
RESISTBOT
Link to the RESISTBOT site to learn more
Link to Chop Wood, Carry Water RESISTBOT write up
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Many (okay, most) politicians exhibit Empathy Deficit Disorder. I propose gain-of-function research targeting EDD. No other treatment could have secondary impacts affecting as many human beings in the US and worldwide.
Could we expand our view beyond allopathic medicine to include Ayurveda, Oriental Medicine, Indigenous practices, and Homeopathy? Focusing on allopathic medicine unnecessarily confines us, mostly to the use of pharmaceuticals. And so much research goes into drugs that other sources of healing are never considered. Additionally, our very environment contributes to ill health yet there is not much hew and cry about removing toxics from our world.