Pain Patients Angry and Fearful about Govt. Interference

Charges against pain doctor reveal undercurrent of anger, angst among patients at federal government – cleveland.com – By John Caniglia, The Plain Dealer – Jul 2020

For more than 25 years, patients suffering in pain sought out Dr. William Bauer. They had crippling injuries from car crashes and work accidents, chronic headaches and debilitating spine issues. At 83, Bauer had a practice in Sandusky that cared for many of the same patients for 10 to 20 years.

Federal prosecutors have accused the neurologist of illegally prescribing thousands of opioid pills between 2015 and 2018. 

But realistically, “prescribing thousands of opioid pills” for pain patients is medically appropriate. These drug-warriors should do the math before they toss around meaningless phrases like this just to create drama.

Indoor transmission of COVID NOT likely

Indoor transmission of SARS-CoV-2 – from medRxiv preprint server – Apr 2020

Finally, they’ve studied and validated what has always seemed obvious and logical to me: of course, a disease will spread more easily in a confined indoor area than out in the open!

Yet, our officials cooped us up in crowded indoor spaces even though that’s where you’re most likely to get infected from the prolonged close contact. This practically guaranteed that everyone would get sick if any single household member got sick.

Still, I was in favor of the lockdown as a desperate measure to buy us time to start research, craft policies to mitigate harm, and prepare our healthcare infrastructure for the predicted surge of patients needing intensive care.

But that didn’t happen… 

Unfit for Work: The startling rise of disability

Unfit for Work: The startling rise of disability in America | Planet Money – By Chana Joffe-Walt – March 2013

This may seem like a strange article to post for someone who’s on disability themselves. However, I know there are many, many people out there scamming our disability system, sometimes for eye-popping amounts.

• Scammers are the ones that give the impression that helping supposedly disabled people is a pointless waste of money.
• Scammers are the ones that will cause the system to go bankrupt.
• Scammer are the ones who cause our own painful conditions to be doubted and denied (for both disability and opioid treatment).

Yet we are the ones who have to shoulder the blame because we’re accused of being such scammers, both in disability claims and in getting opioids for our chronic pain. 

Doctor Fights State Over Opioid Tapering Ethics

Doctor Declines State’s Offer In Battle Over Opioid Tapering Ethics – Redheaded Blackbelt

Here’s another courageous doctor fighting back for us, staring down the medical board, refusing to taper her patients faster than medically appropriate, no matter what the medical board or the DEA says.

In an update with Humboldt Last Week, Arcata doctor Connie Basch said she’s declined an offer from the Medical Board of California to receive probation in exchange for an admittance of guilt in her case involving the overprescription of opioids.

The complaint against Basch surrounds what she would call five “legacy” patients that came to her several years ago on high doses of opioids and anti-anxiety meds.  

Doctors fired for pointing out out problems

Medical Societies Issue Bold Statement of Physician Support – Medscape – by Sheila Mulrooney Eldred – April 05, 2020

At least one physician has been fired for speaking out about the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) in his hospital.

I thought this only happened in China.

Another was informed he couldn’t wear a mask brought from home for fear of scaring the patients.

Again, this is exactly what they did in China, punish anyone who showed evidence of concern. 

Critique of government response to coronavirus

Doctors fume at government response to coronavirus pandemic – STAT – By Meghana Keshavan @megkesh – April 9, 2020

STAT interviewed more than a dozen physicians and scientists around the country, and one after another, they leveled strikingly similar critiques at both the federal and local levels:

Eric Topol, a cardiologist and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in San Diego, said, “The American public doesn’t know that a large portion of this catastrophe was preventable, if not for the sinful incompetence of our leaders.”

Most physicians would agree to speak to STAT only on the condition of anonymity, citing fears that they’d face retaliation from their health systems — who are chastising, or even firing, desperately needed health workers for speaking out.  

This is the outcome of the corporate takeover of our medical system.  Physicians ceded control of health care, and it’s time to take it back.

More Veteran Suicides Than Combat Deaths

Time to Bring the Troops Home: More Veterans Committed Suicide Last Decade Than Died in Vietnam – by Matt Agorist – Mar 2020

I knew there was a high rate of suicide among veterans since pain medications have been restricted, but I had no idea that those on active duty are also dying from suicide (though I’m not terribly surprised).

It is no secret that the leading cause of death among active duty troops deployed to the Middle East is not combat or accidents, or IEDs — it’s themselves.

The Pentagon’s own statistics show that this is a crisis but it is being ignored.  

This crisis is also happening in the civilian population. No one is making the logical connection between forcing so many Americans to give up effective pain relief and the increasing numbers of suicides. 

‘Opioid Epidemic’? Misperceptions Versus Facts

Misperceptions about the ‘Opioid Epidemic:’ Exploring the Facts – July 2019 – Pain Management Nursing

Thank goodness for nurses! In this lengthy document, they meticulously prove that the ‘Opioid Epidemic’ is a complete fabrication, hyped by anti-opioid activists and spread into our society and even our medical system despite reams of evidence to the contrary from science and government data.

This thoroughly referenced article itemizes and thoroughly debunks the anti-opioid misperceptions (if not outright lies) that have swept through the medical profession and corrupted clear, logical thinking about the rising rate of illicit drug overdoses (not from prescribed opioids).

This is the most sensible document I’ve ever read about the so-called “opioid crisis”. Supported by numerous scientific references, it makes all the arguments we pain patient advocates have been making for years. 

Nurses Defend Doctor Charged in Hospital Deaths

Nurses Defend Ohio Doctor Charged in Deaths at Hospital – The New York Times – Dec. 20, 2019

After I’d annotated this article back in December, I went back to look at it and got the error” Page No Longer Available” from the NY Times. This has never happened before, so I’m left to wonder why this particular article would be disappeared.

I suspect it’s because it points out that the “leaders” of healthcare industries are utterly ignorant about opioid doses, while the people spending time with the real patients, like doctors and nurses, are doing their best to ease the pain and suffering of their most sick and dying patients.

Ten former colleagues of an Ohio hospital doctor who pleaded not guilty to murder in 25 patients’ deaths are coming to his defense in a new lawsuit.  

Opioid Distributer Concealed Diverted Shipments

McKesson hid security flaws that fueled opioid epidemic, the lawsuit alleges – by ALEX KACIK  – Dec 2019

McKesson Corp. allegedly concealed security flaws in its supply chain, which fueled the opioid epidemic, according to a recently unsealed whistleblower case.

Former employees at the wholesale drug distribution giant claim that McKesson would hide the extent of its security issues from the federal government and falsely represented that it would comply with two settlement agreements. Millions of the addictive pain pills were diverted to the black market as a result, according to the lawsuit.

This is the source of all the opioid medications that flooded the black market. (I’ve been pointing this out for years.)