| Big news for progressives: Schumer backs Sanders push on drug prices, lowering Medicare age Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in an interview published Friday that he supports measures to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, as well as lowering the Medicare eligibility age and creating a public health insurance option. Schumer specifically pointed to conversations he has had with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). “Bernie Sanders and I agree on this,” Schumer told The.Ink. “I believe we should be negotiating — we just talked about this at some length; he and I must talk almost every single day — Medicare negotiating with the drug companies and using that money to expand Medicare.” Asked about reducing the Medicare eligibility age or a public option to compete alongside private health insurers for people of all ages, Schumer replied, “Yeah, I'd be for either of those, both of those.” Details on the legislative pathway not fully clear, though: He left some wiggle room, however, on how exactly the measures would move through Congress or whether they would receive a vote in the Senate. “Well, we're going to push it,” he said. “It's too early. I want to pass the biggest, boldest bill that, of course, we can pass. And we’ve got to figure all that out. We're going to try to fight hard to try to get these in the bill.” Read more here. White House: 100 million Americans now fully vaccinated The White House announced Friday that 100 million Americans are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, hailing it as a major achievement in the ongoing vaccination campaign. "Today we reached a major milestone in the number of Americans who are fully vaccinated," White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said at a briefing. "Today, 100 million Americans are fully vaccinated, nearly double the 55 million who were fully vaccinated at the end of March." He said over 300 million doses have been shipped, and 220 million shots are in arms. "This represents significant progress and cause for hope," he said. It could get harder, though: The next phase of the vaccination campaign will be challenging, as it moves toward trying to reach people who are less eager for the vaccine. Zients emphasized that officials will be working to make it even easier to get a shot, and building confidence in the vaccine. For example, officials in many places are allowing people to get a shot without an appointment as supply increases. Read more here. CDC: Dozens of adverse reactions caused by anxiety, not Johnson & Johnson vaccine The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has concluded that dozens of Johnson & Johnson vaccine recipients experienced adverse physical reactions because of anxiety and not the vaccine itself, according to a report published Friday. The agency investigated clusters of anxiety-related events, with a total 64 incidents out of 8,624 doses administered, reported to the CDC by five mass vaccination sites across five different states. Researchers said that these anxiety-related cases “can occur after any vaccination” if a person has a physical reaction within 15 minutes of inoculation due to their worries about getting the shot. The incidents were reported between April 7 and 9, about five weeks after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued its emergency authorization approval for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. These anxiety-related reactions are not related to the rare cases of blood clots that led the CDC and FDA to recommend pausing administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine across the country. The anxiety-related cases occurred before the pause, which ended last week. Read more here. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment