Are you kidding me?

The world: Did Covid-19 escape from the Wuhan Institute of Virology?

China: We are not making Covid viruses in our lab — that would be crazy!

Boston University: (coughs politely, looks down at shoes)

“Boston University researchers’ testing of lab-made version of Covid virus draws government scrutiny”

(Despite what you may have heard (sorry, Fox News), they actually made a slightly less deadly version of the virus. Oddly, though, that’s not terribly comforting.)

We ❤️ technicians!

Argh! We missed our annual big thank you to pharmacy technicians! Yesterday was Pharmacy Technician Day, and we missed it!

GPhA and GPhA Buzz know the vital role pharmacist technicians play in the treatment of Georgia patients. Thank you to all the pharmacy technicians in Georgia — heck, around the world, too! — but especially the almost 600 who have chosen to be GPhA members. Happy (belated) Pharmacy Technician Day to you all!

(And yes, it’s part of National Pharmacy Week, so even if you’re not a technician, get yourself an extra treat before Saturday!)

Ask for forgiveness

If you’re still paying off student loans, you can now apply for forgiveness for up to $20,000* in debt relief, “No Login or Documents Required.”

The big caveat for pharmacy grads is that your income must be less than $125,000 a year for individuals. And it only applies to loans taken out before July 1, 2022. (Crime writers take note: Widows or widowers can earn up to $250,000 and still be eligible.)

You have till the end of 2023 to apply. More info and the five-minute form are at studentaid.gov.

* $20K for Pell Grants, $10K for other loans

Covid notes

How to track it now

As states cut back on Covid tracking and reporting, it’ll be harder to know how bad the fall/winter surge is. The best way to track, now, is wastewater surveillance — plus reading Yankee Candle reviews and tracking Google ‘symptom searches’ for people who lose their sense of smell or taste.

New variants a-rising

Out with BA.5 and in with the BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 variants — which may be less susceptible to current treatments. Yay!

Booster shots cut long Covid

Those shifty Danes have found that, at least when it comes to Omicron, people who had received a booster vaccine had “fewer post-acute symptoms and new-onset health problems, four months after infection, compared to two doses of COVID-19 vaccine.”

Insulin affordability woes

The latest survey data show that more than 1.3 million American adults with diabetes had to ration their insulin because they couldn’t afford it. As we all know, people with type 1 diabetes simply can’t produce enough insulin — lifestyle changes (e.g., eatin’ right) can’t help; they need it to survive, and pharma companies continue to raise the price of the century-old drug.

More than 1 in 10 seniors had to ration it, and 1 in 5 younger adults. (Those seniors will see their price capped at $35 per month starting in 2023. Not so much everyone else.)

More about the rainbow fentanyl silliness

The other day we told you about the latest Halloween-season scare, courtesy of the DEA: rainbow fentanyl that’s supposedly targeting kids. (Spoiler: It’s not.)

The good folks at Northeastern dove deeper into the nonsense claims, and even point out that there’s a benefit to colored pills:

Colorful fentanyl tablets, however, are clearly marked and distinguishable from other products like oxycontin. […] “The rainbow fentanyl could be actually a positive signal that this is a fake counterfeit material.”

So why would the DEA stoke unnecessary fear? As one researcher put it, “‘[I]t’s in [the DEA’s] interest to create these kinds of panics’ to stay funded. ‘I think they do it for clout’.”

Unexpected pregnancy signal

When it comes to smoking while pregnant, the female body has a way to try to shut that whole thing down. Even cooler, it can happen before she knows she’s pregnant.

A study out of Northwestern found that “pregnancy could curb smokers’ desire to smoke before they are even aware of having conceived.” Their current hypothesis: Higher levels of the hCG hormone produced by the placenta in early pregnancy (the same hormone that can cause morning sickness) reduce the cravings.

“Strikingly, we observed the steepest declines in smoking precisely when hCG levels typically peak— between five and 10 weeks of pregnancy.”

But wait, there’s more

Even one cigarette is bad for women. The amount of nicotine in a single cigarette can noticeably block estrogen production in the brain. That’s bad enough (say Swedish researchers), but making it worse it that when estrogen is blocked it can be even harder to quit.

Eeeeeeeeeeew

Monkeypox can infect the eye; the CDC has documented at least five cases.