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Even though we’re a few months in, this year’s flu season is still going strong. In fact, it’s one of the worst we’ve seen in a while, resulting in numerous deaths and thousands of hours of sick leave. Luckily, there’s a way to protect yourself from most of the risk of this contagion: getting a flu shot.

Personal Benefits of the Flu Shot

On a personal level, the flu shot mainly helps you and those around you not get sick. This means you, your coworkers, peers, friends, and family members are less likely to get sick. This is why the CDC recommends everyone over the age of 6 months get a flu shot every year.

How the Flu Shot Helps the Greater Good

As previously mentioned, when you get the flu shot you are helping keep those around you healthier. This is due to herd-immunity: when a disease can’t spread because everyone is immune to it. This protects people who are at greater risk and might not be able to be vaccinated, such as pregnant people, infants, the elderly, and those with immune-system deficiencies. 

Are You Liable if You Don’t Get Vaccinated?

While the idea of lawsuits against those who don’t vaccinate have been floated for years, the actual implementation of such actions has yet to reach fruition. The largest liability facing you if you don’t vaccinate is your personal health. The other liability is the health of your peers, and, if you get your peers sick, probably the respect of your peers.

In summary, stay healthy and get your flu shot.

Women’s health in America is widely known to be mediocre at best, downright dangerous at worst. This is made painfully clear with abortion care, where doctors in certain states are required to tell those undergoing a pharmaceutical-driven abortion that there is an option to reverse it after treatment has begun, a claim that is unfounded and potentially dangerous.

As reported in The Cut, a recent test of the abortion reversal project had to be abruptly ended after three of the twelve participating women were rushed to the hospital. A study done before that among a larger sample of women was also inconclusive, with the results regarding half of the women being unaccounted for. 

The process being tested was implemented between the first and second doses of the abortion medication procedure, between when the fetus is detached from the womb and when it is expelled from the uterus. The procedure is meant to provide an option for women who change their minds halfway through their abortion.

States that have abortion reversal laws have faced numerous lawsuits from the AMA and the Center for Reproductive Rights, stating the laws violate doctor’s first amendment rights as well as their responsibility to deliver accurate and health-based advice. By forcing them to state abortion reversal as a viable option is forcing them to advise untested and potentially dangerous procedures to women.

The number of theories out there on how to fix the American prescription drug system is enough to maybe take a crack at actually fixing it, but whatever we’re doing right now isn’t working.

The Drug Approval Process

The resources required for a drug to be fully developed and approved and enormous. It can take years and millions of dollars to get a single drug to market. Of the drugs that enter development, only a small percentage make it to human trials, let alone make it to market. There’s a very good reason for this: human chemistry is delicate and pharmaceuticals can cause serious damage, even when they’re controlled. 

The FDA exists in America to ensure consumers aren’t exposed to dangerous substances that are marketed as safe to consume. This covers both food and drugs, with serious attention paid to drugs. All pharmaceuticals go through the FDA approval process, whether they’re name-brand or generic, for wide use or orphan drugs. 

The Dangers of More Approvals

Recently, the FDA has been expediting large numbers of drug approvals, largely for generics and Breakthrough Designation (BTD) drugs. This can be seen as a net positive, as increased generic approvals could mean that patients get necessary medications faster and cheaper, and approval for BTDs could provide much-needed relief for those with rare or life-altering illnesses. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case.

Of the many generic drug approvals by the FDA between 2018 and through June 2019, less than two-thirds are not widely available. During that time, brand name manufacturers raised prices by 5%. This is mainly due to legal issues, since brand names hold the patents to their drugs for a set period of time, ensuring exclusivity. This is not necessarily a flaw in the system since that period of exclusivity is what pays for research and development of other medications. The problem arises when expedited approvals lead to missing key risks of a medication. 

BTD drugs are arguably more dangerous, as they can be rapidly approved in a significantly shorter time frame than non-BTD medications. This increases the chances of major risks to be overlooked. 

Innovation should always be encouraged, and the FDA should do what it can to keep the public safe and healthy, but when goals for faster approvals interfere with due process, people’s lives get risked. 

Both manufacturers and the FDA need to be held accountable for the drugs and devices they market and approve that aren’t safe for their consumers.

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) started its journey in 2014 when it was registered as an LLC formed by four different energy companies spanning three states. The project is for a 600-mile natural gas pipeline to cross West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina, and is run by Dominion Energy, Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas, and AGL Resources. Almost six years later and the pipeline is still waiting to be built.

It wasn’t until September 2015 that the ACP officially filed an application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for authorization to build a pipeline, but it wouldn’t be until 2017 that things would really start to ramp up. As the ACP began applying for legislative approval, Virginia continually denied it’s permit requests, finding evidence of alleged unethical actions resulting in the pipeline crossing protected lands. 

The revocation of the permit to cross the Appalachian Trail has halted construction for the foreseeable future, and the appeal of the decision has reached the supreme court. The lower court’s ruling is currently being defended by the Sierra Club and the Southern Environmental Law Center, but the Supreme Court ruling is anything but certain.

The ACP has been under fire since its conception. Its risks are largely environmental, from the dangers of oil spills in protected lands to damaging existing conditions in low-income neighborhoods near the proposed pipeline.

The Sierra Club and the Southern Environmental Law Center are mainly focused on the impacts on the environment as a whole, citing the plateaued demand for natural gas and a fear of the pipeline is the first step towards large scale exports of natural gas to Europe. 

The social-environmental risks of the pipeline get discussed, but they don’t have the environmental lobbying power of the Appalachian Trail. When high-polluting plants get built, they don’t get built-in nice suburban neighborhoods. There are too much wealth and power there to let that happen, so instead, they get moved to lower-income neighborhoods. Air, water, soil, and other environmental pollution increases, lowering life expectancies and real estate values. The residents of these communities, who already didn’t have the power to fight the construction of these plants, find themselves with even less political say.

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline is an issue that will undoubtedly remain relevant in the states it’s planning on crossing, as well as the rest of the nation with environmental and social concerns.