[Laminar]

Originally Posted by subego 

https://www.wbez.org/stories/frozen-...b-98cfc13abe00

The government is surveilling your poop.

But what does the constitution have to say about this? What would the founding fathers have wanted for our poop?

[subego]

“No poop shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.”

[BLAZE_MkIV]

It's same as cops looking through you're trash. you have not expectation of privacy.

[reader50]

I think this data has been adequately anonymized. Any COVID detection can no longer be tied to an individual, only an area.

[subego]

Poop contains DNA.

[Thorzdad]

Kansas lawmakers threaten state medical board over investigating doctors who prescribe ivermectin for COVID.

Proposed budget amendment would remove funding for investigations. Bill would also authorize doctors to prescribe hydroxychloroquine sulfate and ivermectin, and force pharmacists to dispense them.

[subego]

This quote interests me more as a general question.

“[I]t would force pharmacists to dispense the drugs, even if doing so is against their professional judgement.”

How does that work now? My knee-jerk assessment is doctors kinda outrank pharmacists, and pharmacists are not pharmacologists. The professional judgement of a pharmacist is about catching errors, not deciding what medications a patient should be prescribed.

Again… knee-jerk responses. I’m probably missing things.

[subego]

Not related to that. Kinda getting the feeling mandates have suddenly become very unpopular.

[Thorzdad]

Pharmacists have great leeway over what they dispense, especially anything being prescribed off-label.

[subego]

Originally Posted by Thorzdad 

Pharmacists have great leeway over what they dispense, especially anything being prescribed off-label.

Should they?

For me, living in a city, is there even a point? I just pharmacy shop until I find someone who will do what the doctor is instructing them to do. I’ve got 6 pharmacies in walking distance.


Edit: this usually comes up with pharmacists refusing to dispense birth control, which I kinda feel they shouldn’t be able to do, unless there’s a health risk the Doctor missed.

[reader50]

I'm about ready to let natural selection solve the problem. If they want iverectim, let them buy all the horsey medicine they want. No prescription needed. After all, you can buy it in feed stores without involving a doctor. Just make that official.

That lets the medical board off the hook. If it's sold in grocery stores, then pharmacies and doctors won't even be involved.

[subego]

I smoke a lot of cigarettes, so I’m not in a position to tell people they shouldn’t do stupid shit to themselves.

[Waragainstsleep]

Originally Posted by subego 

Poop contains DNA.

Not just your own. Though hopefully not any other human's either.

[ghporter]

As a health care professional, I can chime in on the professional judgement thing.

I will refuse to administer a treatment if that treatment is, in my professional judgement harmful to the patient. For example, people with MS react poorly to heat; heat from a hot shower can shut down the impaired nerve connections they have, and render them nearly (if not totally) paralyzed for some unknown, but significant period of time. So when an MS patient asked for a hot pack for her spammed neck muscles, I refused. It wasn’t safe.

I’ve had serious “heart to heart” discussions with physicians who ordered “treatment X” in situations where such treatments seemed to be counterproductive. In most cases I learned more than “they taught in school” about the particular issue the patient had and concurred. But there were a few situations where I had information the MD didn’t, and I was able to demonstrate that my judgement was appropriate. These were “wins” for the patient, not me.

Why go to that level of trouble? I have this license that says I’m allowed to perform my professional duties. If I did not take each patient’s case seriously and really think about what was in their best interests from my professional point of view, then if anything bad happened (and it wouldn’t have to be anything related to what I did or didn’t do, or even anything “real”) I could lose my license. Worse, if I did something that harmed a patient, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.

In my practice, I see patients for about 90 minutes at a time - and in my setting, I see them daily. Pharmacists see their customers for a few minutes perhaps once a month. They would have to depend far more on established “best practice” to assess whether a prescription is safe, let alone “effective.”

Pharmacists also dig deeply into medication interactions. I’ve seen the pharmacist at my hospital confront MDs over a prescription because it would interact with the patient’s other meds. Most of our docs defer to her professional judgement without question.

So a pharmacist in a retail pharmacy could refuse to dispense a medication because it would change the way a patient’s other meds worked. Keep in mind that a LOT of things interact with medications - grapefruit and grapefruit juice can either seriously reduce how a drug is absorbed, or seriously increase absorption…. So “I can’t dispense the ivermectin in this prescription because it will adversely interact with Mr. Jones’ Gabapentin.” Or Metformin. Or a whole lot of other things. And it doesn’t necessarily have to chemically interact with anything; just the way some medications are absorbed and metabolized can interact with absorption and metabolization of of other drugs.

This goes for physicians too, but at a much higher level. From my experience, MDs (the good ones) have to have a combination of encyclopedic knowledge, the ability to synthesize patient information with that knowledge to form a picture of the patient’s entire being, and (most importantly) a stunningly sharp ability to recall ALL of that crap at the drop of a hat. “Mr. Jones would be adversely affected by any chloroquine medication because X” is a valid statement, where ‘X’ could be almost any medication or condition.

Here’s a nice list of how chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine meds affect the body. It’s extensive. Taking a quinine-based medication for a REAL purpose, to prevent or treat malaria is non-trivial…I was on a preventative regimen for a year while stationed in Central America, and it worked, but there were potential side effects that were “manageable” in what you’d expect to be a robustly healthy active duty Airman. It wasn’t fun.

[subego]

That’s more or less what I was saying.

A retail pharmacist should pipe-up when there’s an interaction the doctor missed, not when they consider a treatment ineffective. A pharmacist is not a doctor, is not my doctor, and is not a pharmacologist.

[subego]

The county just offered me a $100 bribe to get a jab.

[reader50]

Hmm ... if it were the city, they could offer an annual parking pass. Chicago parking being what it is, that'd probably bring in everyone but the most fervid antivax.

[subego]

Phun phact: in downtown Chicago, 8 hours of street parking a day for 250 days totals… wait for it…

$14,000

[subego]

So, the county has a population of 5 million, and they had 2,500 cards.

[reader50]

Does that make them optimists, or pessimists?

[subego]

Assholes. It makes them assholes.

[ghporter]

That’s a tease, not an offer…

I’m with reader…free parking for a year would be a BIG incentive.

[subego]

I think I may have glossed over the details when I was talking about parking roulette in the other thread, but the city can’t offer free parking by decree. They sold parking rights to a private company, and they’d have to compensate them for any parking a recipient used during the year. That could get really expensive.

[ghporter]

Oopsie….Privatization isn’t always great, but I’ll bet the city saves a bundle on parking monitoring and enforcement.

[subego]

My guess is the city saves a lot less than the revenue they used to generate.

Of course, the company is pretty efficient. It used to be a system where the “meter” would dispense a tag you put on your dash. Then they built a scanner gun, ditched the tags, and now meter maids can just go “bloop” and scan a plate for compliance.

[ghporter]

I've used the "printed tag" meters. When it's clear which parking space they belong to, they're quite efficient to use, too.

[subego]

The system itself isn’t bad. The app makes it even simpler. Parking signs have a 6 digit number. Type it in, pick the duration, job’s done. The only thing which wrecks it is the convenience fee.

[ghporter]

Those fees are a pain for any such "convenience". Particularly if the fee is anywhere from similar to more than the cost of the service you're paying for.

The last time I used such a meter, it was out of service (Zilker Park, Austin, TX in the summer of 2019). Not that it said "OUT OF SERVICE" or anything, it was just locked up. So I took a picture of the display, and a few of me trying to operate it, just in case I got ticketed. No such problem, but I've been burned by meters (and similar enforcement systems) before.

Back on topic, have folks been getting their free COVID tests yet? We got ours last week - about three weeks after we ordered them. They look similar to the ones we paid for, but they don't seem to come with the telemedicine support the paid tests had. Not that it's particularly challenging to swab your own nose, stick the swab into the test card, then wait for a result... But having the video link so that a professional could coach you through it - and verify that you did it right - made the paid test "valid" for travel.

[Laminar]

We got ours last week, too.

[Thorzdad]

Everyone we know has gotten theirs but we haven’t as yet.

[andi*pandi]

arrived yesterday, a valentine from USPS... this batch was a blue box made in korea.

parking meters: the kind with the ticket are a PITA because usually there are only 1-2 ticket machines in a lot, so you have to go get a ticket and then run back to put on the windshield. Who's got time for that? Our lots have changed to numbered spots and we enter them in the machine and choose how long. This still spits out a paper receipt, a waste of paper... but you don't have to schlepp it anywhere. We also have some lots that use the app.

[Thorzdad]

Apparently, Florida’s top public health official in Orlando was put on leave two months ago for urging his staff to get vaccinated. He’s been allowed to come back to work now, so I guess it’s all good.

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by Thorzdad 

Apparently, Florida’s top public health official in Orlando was put on leave two months ago for urging his staff to get vaccinated. He’s been allowed to come back to work now, so I guess it’s all good.

He should have stuck to his field of expertise!!

[subego]

Stuck in the hospital for the last two days.

I didn’t have to wear a mask in my room, which was nice.

[Waragainstsleep]

Originally Posted by subego 

Phun phact: in downtown Chicago, 8 hours of street parking a day for 250 days totals… wait for it…

$14,000

Somene paid £125k to buy a parking spot in a city near me called Bath. Its a tiny city and the space wasn't even that central.

[subego]

Do they still have the Doctor Who museum there?

[Waragainstsleep]

Originally Posted by subego 

Do they still have the Doctor Who museum there?

Don't think so. There used to be a Doctor Who exhibit of some kind at Longleat (stately home with a safari park and other stuff in the grounds). No idea if its still there but thats a few miles from Bath.

[subego]

I visited there when I was 13, which was long enough ago those miles compressed a bit.

Sadly, at that age, much of the appreciation I should have had for that trip was overwhelmed by getting to go to the land of Doctor Who.

As a D&D nerd, the London Dungeon was also a highlight.

It wasn’t pure callow. I couldn’t help but be blown away by the British Museum, and got to see some theater which was so brilliant it easily anchored itself in my young mind.

[reader50]

Iverectim results are in from the largest clinical trial to date. 1,358 patients at high risk for severe disease. The good news - it's been proven just as effective as a quality placebo.

However, I still recommend buying the placebo instead. It's cheaper, and has no side effects. So take the blue pills (or whatever) and enjoy your peace of mind. You're as protected as you are with genuine Ivermectin.

[Thorzdad]

I got a text alert yesterday from the big-box pharmacy where I got my Moderna stabs, urging me to make an appointment to get the latest booster.

[Thorzdad]

Trump-appointed judge strikes-down CDC mask mandate.

[Laminar]

She was appointed to her position in 2020 by former President Donald Trump, despite that the American Bar Association deemed her as "not qualified" to be a district court judge. According to the ABA, nominees to a federal bench should have at least 12 years of experience practicing law before taking the position. But at the time of her nomination, Mizelle had only been a lawyer for eight years, and she hadn't tried a single case as lead or co-counsel. Still, she was confirmed as a district court judge along party lines.

.

[subego]

Boosted again, so 4 total. Only one away from all 5 Gs.

[reader50]

I'm holding off for now on a 2nd booster. Waiting for a revised booster, or a new variant of concern, spike in cases, etc. I like the news Moderna posted on a combo booster in development.

[subego]

That’s okay. Grandma is tired of living anyways.

[reader50]

According to the Texas Lt. Governor, Grandma and Grandpa are happy to die, to support the national economy. Or maybe it was the state economy.

Seems very gracious of them. I also wonder how he polled all the grandparents to find this out.

[subego]

Originally Posted by reader50 

Grandma and Grandpa are happy to die

Whack ‘em, rack ‘em. 2x4 stack ‘em.

[ghporter]

Our LtGov ain't no spring chicken anyway, so maybe he's close to that "granpaw" age... Dan Patrick is 72.

I'm considering booster #2 sometime in the near future, pretty much when my wife gets hers. It's not "if", but "when."

[subego]

Owie. Owie. Owie.

[bstone]

Good to see you all. I've been away for a few years.
I'm a front-line medical worker. I'm a PA in a very busy emergency department. I've directly treated I can't recall how many covid patients this entire time. If you haven't yet been vaccinated it's time to roll up your sleeve and get your shots.

Happy to answer questions about covid or what it has been like on the very front lines.