Fourteen Senators Are Mad As Hell

Okay, they're not mad as hell; they are Democrats, after all. (And one Independent.) But they're definitely at least mildly displeased with the HHS' absurd decision regarding Plan B and with President Obama's support of that decision, so they have written a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, requesting a scientific explanation for her decision:

Dear Secretary Sebelius,

We are writing to express our disappointment with your December 7, 2011 decision to block the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) recommendation to make Plan B One-Step available over-the-counter. We feel strongly that FDA regulations should be based on science. We write to you today to ask that you provide us with the rationale for this decision.

As numerous medical societies and patient advocates have argued, improved access to birth control, including emergency contraception, has been proven to reduce unintended pregnancies. Nearly half of all pregnancies that occur in the United States each year are unintended. Keeping Plan B behind the counter makes it harder for all women to obtain a safe and effective product they may need to prevent an unintended pregnancy.

We ask that you share with us your specific rationale and the scientific data you relied on for the decision to overrule the FDA recommendation. On behalf of the millions of women we represent, we want to be assured that this and future decisions affecting women's health will be based on medical and scientific evidence.

The letter is signed by Democratic Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell of Washington, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), Barbara Boxer (CA), Richard Blumenthal (CT), Daniel Akaka (HA), Carl Levin (MI), John Kerry (MA), Tom Harkin (IA), Al Franken (MN), and Frank Lautenberg (NJ). Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who is an Independent and caucuses with Senate Democrats, was the fourteenth signatory.

Greg Sargent quite rightly notes that the letter "is strongly worded stuff, particularly when directed at a Democratic president. It stops just short of accusing the Obama administration of deliberately ignoring science in making this decision. It also puts the administration in an awkward spot. Either it produces a scientific rationale that's acceptable to these Senators, which will will be extremely difficult at best, or it will face more criticism for failing to justify its policy, reinforcing the sense that this Democratic administration abandoned science and put politics first."

This is the last thing the President needs in an election year—which is something he should have thought of before throwing women and trans men under the bus. Again.

World AIDS Day- A Challenge

Yesterday, Melissa sent me a link to this story, saying that this probably wasn’t news to me as I work for an HIV/AIDS services organization, but that I might want to write about it. I decided to save the post for today, as it is World AIDS Day (although as we say at my agency, “Every day is World AIDS Day.”). And yes, reading this isn’t particularly surprising to me (although I was blown away by the discrimination statistics), but the numbers are still shocking:

Medical progress now ensures that HIV/AIDS is no longer a death sentence, but only for those who can access good medical care. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that almost three out of four Americans with HIV are not receiving enough medicine or regular health care “to stay healthy or prevent themselves from transmitting the virus to others.” Out of the 1.2 million people in the U.S. have HIV, 850,000 aren’t receiving regular treatment to keep the virus at a low enough level to prevent transmission or hurt their own health and 240,000 Americans don’t even know they’re infected with HIV.

Indeed, as the first sentence states, HIV is now a very manageable medical condition if you can access care. Access to a knowledgeable medical provider is very important, but without access to medications, the phrase “HIV/AIDS is no longer a death sentence” doesn’t hold much water. With so many people lacking insurance that covers prescriptions, and with so many states creating ADAP (AIDS Drug Assistance Program) waiting lists, access to the medication needed to combat HIV infection is a very real problem. For people not living in the USA, access to medications may be impossible. Many of the problems that made HIV so difficult to combat early in the epidemic are still very present today, such as lack of education and stigma.

Recently, I was talking with a co-worker and he was mentioning to me a talk he had recently with a rather prominent HIV activist. In this discussion, he was shocked to hear that this person was very misinformed about a risk behavior that could lead to possible HIV infection. Hearing this was very surprising to me as well, and reminded me that even those of us who are touched by HIV on a daily basis always have something new to learn. I bring this up not to waggle a shaming finger at this person, or anyone who may lack certain knowledge about the disease, but to illustrate that all of us should be educating ourselves.

So. Here is my challenge to you, dear reader, on World AIDS Day.

First, if you are able to, get tested. Know your status.

Second, educate yourself about HIV and try to spread at least one fact about HIV to people you know. Here is my fact for you.

When discussing how HIV is working inside someone, the most common terms you will hear are “CD4 count (or t-cells) and “viral load.” Basically, CD4 cells help your body fight off disease, and viral load refers to HIV virus cells. Doctors measure the number of these cells in a cubic millimeter of blood (a small drop). So, the goal is a high CD4 count and a low viral load. Sometimes you will hear people say they are “undetectable.” This means their viral load is so low, the HIV cells cannot be detected in that drop of blood.

However, this does not mean the person is cured of HIV, or that the HIV cells are gone.

And most importantly, even with an undetectable viral load, it is still possible to infect someone else with HIV. Although it is more difficult to contract HIV from someone with an undetectable viral load, it is still possible. This is why we encourage people to always practice safer sex.

Until there is a cure, knowing your status, educating yourself, and eliminating stigma are the best ways to fight HIV/AIDS.

Number of the Day

56%: The percentage of USians who believe that the Affordable Care Act (aka "Obamacare") includes a public option. Whooooooops it does not.

At the link, Igor makes the good point that "voters either like [the actual provisions in the law] or don't know about them," which creates an opportunity for Democrats "to build support for the measure by highlighting and campaigning on some of its best features, a task that will seem less daunting as a growing number of voters begin to actually benefit from the law."

The potential flipside to that, however, is that among the more than half the voting populace who believe a public option exists are people who will be disappointed to find out it doesn't.

It isn't just the socialism alarmists who erroneously believe in the existence of a public option. It's also people who desperately want and need one.

When Mendacious Corporate Media Shills Say With Affected Wide-Eyed Wonder That They Just Can't Figure Out What Occupy Wall Street Is All About...

...it is quite reasonably pointed out to them by patient people who indulge their manufactured ignorance that many USians are quite frustrated with the banks, and deregulation, and the erosion of workers' rights, and corporate greed. Unemployment. Student loans. Foreclosures. Bankruptcies.

Big concepts. All correct. But it's also just shit like this, wearing on people day in and day out and grinding them down until they're nothing but raw nerves, vibrating with anticipated pain from the constant attacks on their security and dignity:

Like a lot of companies, Veridian Credit Union wants its employees to be healthier. In January, the Waterloo, Iowa-company rolled out a wellness program and voluntary screenings.

It also gave workers a mandate - quit smoking, curb obesity, or you'll be paying higher healthcare costs in 2013. It doesn't yet know by how much, but one thing's for certain - the unhealthy will pay more.

The credit union, which has more than 500 employees, is not alone.

In recent years, a growing number of companies have been encouraging workers to voluntarily improve their health to control escalating insurance costs. And while workers mostly like to see an employer offer smoking cessation classes and weight loss programs, too few are signing up or showing signs of improvement.

So now more employers are trying a different strategy - they're replacing the carrot with a stick and raising costs for workers who can't seem to lower their cholesterol or tackle obesity. They're also coming down hard on smokers. For example, discount store giant Wal-Mart says that starting in 2012 it will charge tobacco users higher premiums but also offer free smoking cessation programs.

I'm not going to get into, yet again, the reality that weight is not a great indicator of health, nor the inherent disablism in a policy requiring people to lose weight irrespective of any underlying illnesses or disabilities contributing to weight gain, nor the outsized fuckery of penalizing people for eating crap like ubiquitous, fat-making HFCS or being addicted to cigarettes which our government allows tobacco companies to make increasingly more addictive, because, while those things are ALL TRUE, the average worker being subjected to this garbage isn't thinking, "This is bullshit! I am being tasked with finding an individual solution to systemic problems!" but is thinking, "Oh my god, how am I going to pay for my healthcare?" and/or "I'm a moral failure because I am fat!" and/or "CHEESUS FUCKING CHRIST THERE IS TOO MUCH PRESSURE ON ME FROM UNPAID DEBT AND UNPAID OVERTIME AT MY UNDERPAID JOB AND MY MOTHER IS COMING TO LIVE WITH ME BECAUSE SHE LOST HER HOUSE AND MY KID NEEDS NEW CLOTHES AND MY CAR'S ABOUT TO DIE AND I HAVEN'T HAD A VACATION IN TEN YEARS AND I DON'T HAVE TIME TO READ THE PAPER AND I AM GOING TO CRACK."

Hey, USians! We heard you didn't have enough stress already, so howsabout adding "quit smoking" and "lose weight" to the pile? Sound good? Great! Love, Corporate America.

That's what people are feeling. And all the arguments about "healthfulness" and "long-term costs to the collective" and whatever are not going to change the fact that hard-working and highly-stressed people are hearing, "You know that cigarette or candy bar you enjoy at the end of another shitty, soul-destroying day in the employ of a corporation who is wringing every last shred of carefreedom out of your life to maximize its profits so its CEO can have a gold-plated bidet installed in his executive bathroom? Well, YOU CAN'T HAVE IT ANYMORE. Not if you want healthcare benefits."

It doesn't matter if that thinking is right, or wrong, or ethically neutral. What matters is that's what a hell of a lot of 99 percenters are thinking. And when they think it, they aren't blaming institutional prejudice, and they're not blaming Washington, and they're sure as shit not blaming themselves for wanting the ability to exercise a little fucking control over their bodies and lives.

They're blaming corporations—their employers, and their benefits providers.

And rightfully so.

* * *

About the same article, Digby makes a related point: "Libertarians make the argument that the government is a threat to liberty because it employs 'men with guns' who can rob you of your life and freedom. Without getting into that tired debate, I would just like to make one observation: for most Americans, the greatest threat to their freedom comes from 'men with pink slips' not men with guns, particularly now. (These men with pink slips, by the way, are exalted by 'free market' worshipers of all philosophical bents.)"

Quote of the Day

"What Shannon and Casey are seeking is the same treatment that their straight counterparts, who are legally married, receive every day without question and take for granted."—Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, who is organizing a lawsuit brought by Massachusetts Army National Guard Major Shannon McLaughlin, 41, her wife, Casey, 34, five other troops, and two career Army and Navy veterans, who are "challenging the constitutionality of the federal ban on gay marriage and federal policy that define a spouse as a person of the opposite sex."

This was the inevitable result once Don't Ask Don't Tell was rescinded, because now DOMA prevents spouses of legally married gay servicemembers from accessing benefits provided to spouses of married straight servicemembers by the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs, including "military identification cards, access to bases, recreational programs, spousal support groups and burial rights at national cemeteries." Maj. Shannon McLaughlin, for example, is able to enroll their 10-month-old twins in her military-provided healthcare plan, but is not allowed to add her wife Casey, who instead has to pay about $700 monthly for her own healthcare coverage, despite the fact they are Massachusetts residents who are legally married in their state.

This patchwork of rights and access is unsustainable. It's only a matter of time before the US federal government is forced to recognize same-sex marriage, and soon thereafter the entire house of bigoted cards will crumble. Heh heh heh.

It's written all over your face

Dolex is the name under which Panadol pain and cold symptom relief drugs are marketed in Columbia. This attention-getting (but seriously unnerving) campaign is one of those ones that tells people that they look like shit when they're sick.

They'd be better off staying home and away from other people, but anyway...

Add caption

"Sore Throat"

"Watery Eyes"

"Stuffy Nose"

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Via AOTW