The New York Times: Three years after the Central Intelligence Agency set up a phony hepatitis vaccination program in Pakistan as part of the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the Obama administration told a group of American health educators last week that the agency no longer uses immunization programs as a cover for spying operations. […]
Health
Posted inTV
Does The Biggest Loser Lie About Important Weight Loss Information?
This Cracked article by Evan V Symon, headlined “5 Details They Cut from My Season of The Biggest Loser,” deserves to be read by a bigger audience. Symon tells the story of Biggest Loser runner-up Kai Hibbard, and it’s more horrifying than you’d think. Everyone knows that reality shows are total bullshit, but the amount […]
Posted inHealth
E-Cigarettes Will Now Be Regulated
New York Times: The Food and Drug Administration will propose sweeping new rules on Thursday that for the first time would extend its regulatory authority from cigarettes to electronic cigarettes, popular nicotine delivery devices that have grown into a multibillion-dollar business with virtually no federal oversight or protections for American consumers. One effect of the […]
Posted inHealth
The Mercury Marijuana Guide!
Sure, recreational marijuana isn’t legal in Oregon… YET. But it’s widely considered inevitable that by next year or the one after, it will be. We like to think ahead, so this week we published a big olde guide to gigglebush that covers some of the basics, like: —What Oregonians are looking at in term of […]
Posted inPolitics
Obamacare Cheaper Than Expected
Kate Pickert at Time says: The cost of expanding coverage under the Affordable Care Act will be billions less than previously expected, according to a report released Monday. An analysis from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office found that the coverage provisions of the ACA, also known as Obamacare, will cost the federal government $104 billion […]
Posted inHealth
Obamacare Is Working
German Lopez at Vox says: A new RAND Corporation survey estimates 9.3 million Americans gained insurance between September, the month before Obamacare’s marketplaces kicked off, and mid-March. That represents a drop in the uninsured rate from 20.5 percent to 15.8 percent, according to RAND. The report doesn’t necessarily translate to a huge victory for Obamacare’s […]
Posted inPolitics
Obamacare Enrollment Hits 7,000,000 Target
NPR: Seven million was the White House’s initial projection. After a rash of severe technical problems during the roll out of the healthcare.gov website, the White House brought that number in line with the Congressional Budget Office’s 6 million figure. As we’ve reported, the month of March has been a blockbuster for the new health […]
Posted inHealth
A Complete History of Republican Aggression Against Obamacare
Igor Volsky at ThinkProgress has assembled a comprehensive timeline of Republican attempts to kill Obamacare. When all four years of threats, futile repeals, and baseless claims are put together like this, it almost looks like Republicans have no idea what they’re doing.
Posted inSex
HIV Treatment = HIV Prevention
Who gives a shit about Fred Phelps? This, for me, is the headline of the day: No-one with an undetectable viral load, gay or heterosexual, transmits HIV in first two years of PARTNER study More from AIDSMap: The second large study to look at whether people with HIV become non-infectious if they are on antiretroviral […]
Posted inComedy
Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis (And Some Dude Named “Barack Obama”)
It is truly an incredible world when President Barack Obama pays a visit to Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis—and true, he’s mostly there to plug Affordable Health Care, but trust me when I say the President sneaks in some wicked hot burns. (Got insurance for those burns, Zach?) More context from the NYT: The […]
Posted inHealth
This Might Be Why Your Kid is Home Sick All the Damn Time
Okay, the fluoride debacle was one thing. So far as rejection of science goes, it could be worse. Like, say, leading the country in not vaccinating your children. Oh, wait. Mother Jones This post over at Mother Jones highlights how and why American children aren’t being vaccinated. Of course, there’s large elements of Jenny McCarthyism […]
Posted inHealth
Crest Launches Chocolate Toothpaste; Ummm… FINALLY!
Well, it’s certainly taken them long enough, but the makers of Crest toothpaste have finally gotten their shit together and have produced what is obviously the greatest advance in dental hygiene since Glide tooth floss: CHOCOLATE FLAVORED TOOTHPASTE. From Daily Mail: Priced £3, the Mint Chocolate Trek flavour, pictured, is part of Procter & Gamble’s […]