Category: pharmacy

FOX News -Not Leading Edge News Source for Pro-lifers

~ Pharmer

A good number of social conservatives regard FOX news as fair and balanced, and a good source of news that other networks choose to lose.  This has sometimes, but not always been the case.

It used to be that when a pro-life health care professional was fired, demoted or suffered other kinds of discrimination for their refusal to kill patients, almost no news coverage would result.

Breaking into the news on this issue required the development and use of the internet.  Once the information reached critical mass there, it was then possible to get some mainstream media attention.   In other words, it had to become sufficiently common knowledge before the media would feel obligated to cover it.

Once the news about being fired for refusing to dispense abortive drugs had sufficient internet attention, and made a few local news papers, and the American Center for Law and Justice put out a press release about a lawsuit, then Bill O’Reilly got interested enough to cover it.   Actually many local FOX news reporters inquired and attempted to set up interviews, but their EDITORS could never find the time or means for them to follow up.  Instead, FOX news generally  left it to NBC,CBS and ABC (and international media)  to cover the desire to avoid chemically killing unborn humans as a freak show.

In an interesting contrast, FOX has decided to extensively cover a Nurse who was fired before Christmas for refusing a flu vaccine because she is pregnant.  She was fearful of using an vaccines during her current pregnancy because of a recent history of miscarriages.  She cites the comparative lack of studies of flu vaccine use during pregnancy.   (It’s not uncommon for vaccines to go into general use without extensive safety and efficacy data in various subpopulations.)

Your friendly Pharmer would not be using the flu vaccine at this time of life, if it were not a job requirement. It is possible through personal hygiene practices to significantly reduce the likelihood of infection.  Most vaccines, (which confer only partial protection against disease)  are more helpful  for the people who do not exercise a knowledge of infectious processes in their daily living habits. Kids who are too young to be personally hygienic can benefit from certain vaccines, for example. The population whose Mamas did not teach to wash their hands after going potty would obtain significant overall  benefits from such a public health program.  Where cleanliness is not possible as a means to prevent disease, the vaccines confer the most benefit.  As the “environmental engineering” departments  inside hospitals become defunded, due to the crunch of socialized medicine,  and the filth becomes apparent to the naked eye, vaccines will become more and more necessary in the United States.

Pharmer feels empathy for the nurse who was fired on Dec 17th, likely after she blew the big dollars  on various Christmas preparations.  This is basically due to a instinct towards freedom, bodily autonomy, and the right to choose one’s own form of hygiene, as well as having gotten the boot at a similar time of year.
Pharmer is happy that FOX decided to cover the story, so that people can see the heavy hand of governments and corporations encroaching on personal bodily integrity.  Prayers for Ms. Dreonna Breton, for her baby-on-board, and her future job prospects in nursing.

Pharmer is still wondering which government bodies and advertisers stopped FOX News from similarly covering those  pro-lifers who were fired for refusing to dispense chemically abortive drugs, and left the stories  to all of the other U.S. and international media outlets.  The decision by FOX News and the U.S. Catholic Bishops to ignore this issue is the reason that that we now  face the spectre of the HHS mandate (temporarily stayed by Justice Sonia Sotomayor last night), which will force participating U.S. citizens to be complicit in birth control, sterilization and abortion practices, despite their religious beliefs.

Go to your alternative media for the news that FOX chooses to lose.  Lifenews is growing by leaps and bounds, and as an important source of info and events which get NO coverage elsewhere, is worth your attention, and perhaps your monetary support.

Non News: Plan B Morning After Pill Does Not Work Well for Big Girls

~ Pharmer ~ 3 Comments

The European manufacturer of Norlevo, which is their version of Plan B  (Levonorgestrel) has very kindly decided to warn people that their product does not work for women over 176 lbs, and is less effective for women over 165 lbs.

Thanks, HRA Pharma.

Check out the new warning in the Norlevo Package insert for yourself.  It discourages women over 75 Kg from relying on the drug.

This comes under the “told you so” dept. of Pharm information.  In fact, people ALSO could learn here that the newer morning after pill, Ella (ulipristal acetate) has the same problem. 

All of this  is obvious to those who pay attention to how drugs are designed.   Pharmer has openly warned people for years not to expect good efficacy for birth control pills designed for 130lb women  t0 be as efficacious in women who are much larger.

The U.S. recently moved the  snake oil drug, Plan B, over the counter.   Perhaps this was a crony capitalist effort to help manufacturers snap up as much profit as they could before the general news came out that the drug is not reliable for any women, and really worthless for the larger set.

It appears that Mother Jones is the first of the mainstream media to let the kitty out of the bag in the United States.  They note that the average weight of American girls is 166.2 lbs, which puts them over the weight limit for Plan B to  work at its touted 60 percent effectiveness.   The avg weight of Black and Hispanic women from 20-39 years of age is 186 lbs, which means that they can completely forget about Plan B.

Any hospital or clinic  using  this drug as a part of rape treatment is therefore pushing ineffective treatment and  charging fraudulently.   Planned Parenthood and its ilk are doing the same.

Pharmer’s favorite and oft cited birth control researcher, Anna Glasier, sent up a warning flare in 2011. Click on her effort to identify the groups for which morning after pills do not work.

The American manufacturers have not put out this warning in their product package inserts yet.   Please help your female friends  who will be paying $50 bucks for this drug at the pharmacy,  to understand that Plan B One-Step, Next Choice One Dose, My Way, and various generic one and two pill packs of levonorgestrel morning after pills are fairly worthless as birth control, and when they do work, can have an objectionable mechanism that operates AFTER fertilization.    (As a practical matter,  any perverts who are abusing underaged girls ought to be made aware of this too, so that at least one aspect of the abuse might cease.)

Noting that these hormone analogs have weight dependent efficacy, how much should women be relying on the daily or continuously administered birth control drugs????

Who is REALLY waging the war on women, who remain the  medical underclass????

Related: The low information guys weigh in.
A comprehensive review of Planned Parenthood’s Plan B Scam

 

Celebrities Have Access to Vital Nutrients Which Are in Shortage at Hospitals.

~ Pharmer

“Children are dying,” says Steve Plogsted, a clinical pharmacist who chairs the drug-shortage task force of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN). “They’re not getting any calcium or any zinc. Or they’re not getting any phosphorous, and that can lead to heart standstill. I know of a neonate who had seven days without phosphorous, and her little heart stopped.” Click the quote.   This situation of parenteral (administered intravenously)  nutrient shortages, described by Alexandra Robbins in the Washingtonian is absolutely true.   Your friendly Pharmer has been adjusting physician orders, in response to this situation for years now.

At one time, the U.S. could take drastic measures to enhance the supply of  life saving drugs.  Breweries were co-opted during war time to bolster supplies of penicillin, halfway through the last century, for example.   Mired in the inertia of huge government and its regulations,  shortages of relatively easily supplied medications can no longer be managed.  Now it takes years to bring up a new production facility when an older one fails or goes out of business. There are only a few manufacturers  which provide electrolytes and nutrients for parenteral use, for those patients whose digestive tracts are not able to process food.   Very possibly, the new progressive administration, staffed with many who regard humanity as a pestilence upon the earth, is not motivated to address the shortages and mal-distribution of lifesaving drugs.

Most recently Ms. Robbins has exposed the fact that celebrities are using parenteral nutrients for cosmetic reasons, performance enhancement, or hangover treatment  while premature babies are dying for lack of vital nutrition. It seems that the clinics which provide these treatments are not put at the back of the line for products which have been on shortage.

Your friendly Pharmer knows directly that there have been shortages of many electrolytes, soluble vitamins, lipids and trace elements which are needed for parenteral nutrition.  When some shortages subside, other shortages take their place.   There is a constant need to reformulate parenteral nutrition solutions in order to rebalance electrolytes to make up for those which are unavailable.  While older patients can usually  survive for awhile without some nutrients,  the premature babies are out of luck.    It’s not good for health care business for providers to  advertise that vital supplies are missing from their institutions.   It’s not good for the current administration for the media to advertise their incompetence or unwillingness to address this problem.

Please take the time to read Alexandra Robbins two articles linked above.  Her style of writing will adequately convey the nature of this problem and its consequences to those without specific medical training.  Pharmer recommends either to  lower your expectations of health care, or call your legislators and ask them to address this problem, and while they’re thinking about health care, remind them  to defund the “Affordable” Health Care Act  this September.  Links to the Senate and House contacts are on the side bar of this blog ALWAYS.  Monitor drug shortages for yourself.  There’s an app for that!

Is Plan B Worthy of Pharmacy Shelf Space?

~ Pharmer ~ 3 Comments

Now that whacky Judge Korman has removed the morning after pill, Plan B or Plan B One-Step from pharmacist purview altogether, it might therefore be treated by the pharmacists as an unhealthy thing, not to be sold in pharmacy environments at all. There are various over the counter products which are regarded by us to be ineffective and/or deleterious quack remedies, not worthy of being associated with any health care practice. Tobacco, ma huang (Ephedra sinica), and bitter orange have been deleted from the stock of pharmacies for health reasons. Many pharmacists have relegated homeopathic remedies to the trash heap, on account of the infinitesimal chance that the recipient might be ingesting or applying  an active medicinal ingredient.
The levonorgestrel in Plan B (U.S.)  and Levonelle (U.K),  is likely the least reliable hormonal birth control drug on the market.  It’s less than 60 percent effective per use, and is in a race with ulipristal acetate, or Ella, to the bottom.  Repeated reliance on this drug is likely to soon result in pregnancy, with the embryonic baby clinging to life, awash in an unbalanced mix of hormones.  Might not pharmacists be doing their patients a favor by telling them that this drug is too much of an unreliable, (and unethical)  mess to be used for birth control?

Life Dynamics and Jill Stanek: Groundbreaking Legal Means to Stop Child Predators

~ Pharmer

As many pro-lifers know, Jill Stanek has joined with Life Dynamics to report news on the life issues. She’s now reporting on a groundbreaking push by Life Dynamics to hold the abortion industry accountable for concealing the sexual abuse of minors.
This blog has repeatedly referred to the first study, done more than 10 years ago by Life Dynamics, which revealed that over 90 percent of abortion clinics, who were called by an actress portraying a 13 year old girl with 22 year old boyfriend, showed a willingness to flout the laws requiring reporting of suspected sexual abuse of minors. Many of these abortion clinics even provided the methodology to conceal the sexual abuse.
Now Life Dynamics has mailed CDs to 53 thousand personal injury attorneys to educate them on the state laws pertinent to this issue, and the possibility of bringing suit against school officials, health care professionals and clinics which provide services to minors who have been sexually abused by adults, and fail in their legal requirement to report such abuse to the state.
Jill Stanek reports that Mark Crutcher’s phone at Life Dynamics has been ringing incessantly ever since launching this campaign.

Your friendly Pharmer suggests that further rich ground for the lawyers exists and that fear of litigation can dissuade retail pharmacies from stocking Plan B and Ella.

The government can force retailers to sell these drugs to the sexual predators, only if they stock the drug.
In the future, lawsuits might be the tool to stop the government from forcing retailers to stock these drugs. None of the businesses could survive a group of civil lawsuits for aiding sexual predators.

Currently good target states for this kind of litigation are Washington, Oregon and of course, New York. The large retail pharmacy chains would run screaming to the State Boards of Pharmacy for relief from the governments requirement to sell these drugs to minor females and their rapists.

Life Dynamics Facebook Announcement of the Campaign to Educate Personal Injury Attorneys.

WND Article explains Life Dyanamics Campaign to Legally Restrain the Enablers of Child Sex Abuse

 

Appellate Court Upholds Decision Protecting Pharmacists of Concience in Illinois

~ Pharmer

Court: Illinois Can't Force Pharmacists to Sell Plan B Drug | LifeNews.com.

The 2005 Blagojevich edict forcing pharmacists to dispense the morning after pill and all other birth control drugs without question or delay, suffered a second defeat, this time in appellate court. In 2011 the trial court had found that the law was invalid because it targeted a specific group, and that Illinois law prohibits discrimination in licensing those who cannot provide a particular service due to religious beliefs.
This lawsuit, which passed its second review, was the one involving pharmacy owners, Luke VanderBleek and Glenn Kosirog. Another lawsuit, which ended in favor of conscientious objectors, involved employee pharmacists in the same state.
The Appellate court opinion is available HERE.
VanderBleek and Kosirog have been represented since 2005 by attorneys of the ACLJ and the Becket Fund.

Master of the Obvious on Proton Pump Inhibitors

~ Pharmer

Proton Pump Inhibitors Linked to C difficile Diarrhea.

Some obvious things need a study to be established as fact.

The acidity of the stomach is good for beginning the digestion of proteins and for protecting the gut from unwanted, microbial, disease causing organisms. It also contributes to immediate and later absorption of vital nutrients such as iron. When the proton pump inhibitors such as prevacid, nexium, protonix first came onto the market, and were said to be much more effective in reducing stomach acid, Pharmer told the retail patients to be careful what food they ate at the picnics and wedding receptions. It would be easier to get bacterial food poisoning while taking a proton pump inhibitor. Pharmer also began mentioning to patients that it would decrease absorption of iron.

Who paid the FDA to put proton pump inhibitors over the counter? (Weren’t the H2 blockers, e.g. cimetidine, famotidine, enough?)

People are chowing down on these strong stomach acid suppressors, using them like Tums. Diarrheal episodes abound. Clostridium difficile (among other beastly buggs) blooms throughout the nursing homes, community, and hospitals. It’s getting more and more difficult to deal with, as resistance to antibiotics increases.

Amazing! There’s an association between use of the proton pump inhibitors and clostridium infections.

Proton pump inhibitors are what you use when life style changes fail and none of the other antacids work. See a physician who isn’t so crazy with the prescription pad.

Federal judge says Washington State cannot force pharmacies to sell morning after pill

~ Pharmer ~ 1 Comment

Governor Christine Gregoire is expected to appeal the federal court ruling which supports the pharmacists’ right to not dispense Plan B for reasons of conscience.
Judge Ronald Leighton noted that Washington state accepted all sorts of secular reasons for not stocking or dispensing a drug, but excluded conscience reasons. He declared the application of their rules to force pharmacists to dispense morning after pills to be unconstitutional. He noted that the Washington Board of Pharmacy stocking rules were “designed to force religious objectors to dispense Plan B.”
Judge Leighton had originally blocked the application of the dispensing rule to make Stormans’ pharmacy carry Plan B, but that was overturned by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which remanded the case back to Leighton. After an 11 day trial, this new opinion was issued, which Leighton says has been created with a skeptical appeals court in mind.
Kevin Stormans, owner of Ralph’s Thriftway pharmacy and fellow pharmacists have been waging a legal battle since 2007, with the aid of The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, and Seattle law firm of Ellis, Li & McKinstry.

Pharmer congratulates these courageous Washington Pharmacists on their legal victory, and prays for their continued success.

See the Ruling by Judge Ron Leighton HERE.

Drug Shortages Are Speeding Cancer Deaths, Survey Says

~ Pharmer ~ 1 Comment

Drug Shortages Are Speeding Cancer Deaths, Survey Says.

The above claim comes from the results of an Epocrates survey of prescribers. The participants are paid a bit for their time, but the input is stirred up to make the submissions anonymous. What they found is that slightly less than half of the oncologists think that the drug shortages of chemotherapeutic agents have caused recurrences of tumors in their patients. This is due to the inability to properly schedule their treatment regimens due to short supplies. About 40 percent of the respondents think that some patients have died sooner as a result.

This article attributes most of the problem to economics: inadequate reimbursement for generic injectables, which discourages production. Pharmer recognizes the contribution of tax rates and government regulatory burdens from employment, to work place, environment, and production to the problem. The documentation of compliance imposes a dizzying cost, preventing new starts into production of pharmaceuticals.

There’s a Drug Shortage Prevention Act being pushed through to address this problem. It appears to address the manner of FDA oversight of drugs on the market to prevent that agency from causing more shortages, but apparently not the reimbursement issue. This might be best, if the cost of drug production is significantly reduced.

Pharmer likes to watch Medscape, because a lot of useful information is distilled there, though by no means without bias. In order to see most of the articles, you have to join. Check it out.