Obviously the big pharma story that we can’t ignore

Turns out it’s not just a couple of generic drugs that have had some questionable pricing.

Investigators now say that more than 300 generic drugs were covered in a wide-ranging anti-trust scheme involving at least 16 drug makers. This collusion, they say, explains the rapid rise in the prices of generics over the past several years, as well as sudden, coordinated price hikes in “competing” drugs.

One example they cite for how it worked:

During the transatlantic phone call, [Mylan CEO Rajiv] Malik and the Heritage [Pharmaceuticals] executive, Jeff Glazer, agreed to divide up the sandbox, the U.S. market for sales of Doxy DR, according to the lawsuit by states and similar complaints by independent pharmacies and grocery-store chains.

During subsequent conversations, according to the complaints, Mylan agreed not to sell Doxy DR to CVS and the wholesaler McKesson — sales volume worth about 30 percent of the U.S. market for the drug. As part of the alleged deal, Heritage agreed not to set a low price.

Mylan said it investigated itself and found no evidence of wrongdoing. Plaintiffs in the ongoing case include chain pharmacies, independent pharmacies, and 47 states.

Georgia has more cases of AFM

The Georgia Department of Public Health says there’s been a fourth case of acute flaccid myelitis in the state, and there are two more possible cases. The ‘rare polio-like illness’ has been cropping up in children across the country, leaving health officials stumped.

Granny got her bud

Who’s turning to medical marijuana? Seniors. In states that have legalized it (recreationally or medicinally), Baby Boomers are flocking to it.

The most useful quote from the story:

“You might not like it,” Dr. David Casarett, chief of palliative care at Duke University Medical Center, tells fellow physicians. “You might not believe in it. But your patients are using this stuff.”

The most fun quote from the story:

In fact, so many Laguna Woods seniors use medical cannabis — for ailments ranging from arthritis and diabetes nerve pain to back injuries and insomnia — that the local dispensary, Bud and Bloom, charters a free bus to bring residents to its Santa Ana location to stock up on supplies. Along with a catered lunch, the bus riders get a seniors discount.

Fear not the statin

Statins have risks, yes, but the American Heart Association says — in patients who have conditions
or characteristics that increase their risk [of cardiovascular events] — the benefits well outweigh them.

ICYMI

Walgreens is partnering with FedEx to offer next-day prescription delivery. That is all.

AMA joins suit to block minimalist health plans

The American Medical Association is joining with other healthcare organizations* — and at least a dozen state attorneys general — to block the Trump administration’s approval of association health plans — low-coverage, low-price plans that skirt the Affordable Care Act’s rules for what health insurance must cover.

The AMA points out that “AHPs could eliminate things like essential health benefits or pre-existing condition coverage, which would be particularly harmful to women.”

The major concern about AHPs is that they would provide much less coverage than patients expect, leading to nasty surprises at the pharmacy counter or doctor’s office — not to mention that 200,000 people have already been victim of AHP’s “fraudulent or abusive insurance practices.”

*The American College of Physicians, American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Epilepsy Foundation, Global Healthy Living Foundation, Hemophilia Federation of America, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, March of Dimes, National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, and National Multiple Sclerosis Society

The long read: In the new Congress, the pharma industry loses some clout

The industry’s lobbying group, PhRMA…

“…hasn’t yet landed on a legislative strategy that can win over Democrats who’ve grown frustrated at the group’s negotiating tactics. Democratic staffers aren’t as interested in the group’s job offers anymore, a setback for the group’s efforts to recruit savvy lobbyists to their cause. And it’s hamstrung, too, in its attempts to exert influence through donations, now that some prominent Democrats have made high-profile pledges not to accept money from corporate PACs or the drug industry.”

Read the whole story from Stat News.

Get ’em while they’re young

Oral surgeons may be overprescribing opioids to teens who have wisdom teeth removed — getting them addicted to the painkillers.

The Austin Buyers Club

Americans who can’t afford U.S. prices for medication are joining buyers’ clubs based overseas — and getting their drugs at a tiny fraction of the domestic price.

Take one Florida truck driver with Hep C, Jim Higgins, who couldn’t afford the drugs he needed:

Higgins, 59, found Freeman [who runs an Australia-based club] online. After sending the Australian his lab results, Higgins paid $650 though the website and soon a box of pills from India arrived on his doorstep. Within two months of starting the treatment in February, Higgins was relieved when tests showed hepatitis C was no longer detected in his blood.

Those are some nice patents you’ve got there…

…it’d be a shame if something happened to them, wouldn’t it? Democrats — and some Republicans — are looking taking away pharmaceutical companies’ monopolies as pressure to lower prices.

Healthcare spending growing, but not as fast

As gains in health coverage have been reversed over the past two years, that means that overall healthcare spending in the U.S. rose at a slower rate, according to CMS.

Growth in U.S. health-care spending slowed in 2017 to rates not seen since just after the 2007-09 recession, a deceleration tied to softer demand for medical services and weakness in health-care coverage gains after years of expansion.

Another EpiPen rival emerges

This one is coming from Novartis, which is set to launch its Symjepi syringes for $250 for a two-pack. The auto-epinephrine market has grown since Mylan jacked up its EpiPen prices by 600 percent over less than a decade, making the life-saving medication unaffordable for many people. Mylan’s manufacturing issues have also caused a shortage of its injectors, leading people to other brands. The drug of course is the same; the only difference is the injector.

Compounders: There’s a new certifier in town

The Pharmacy Compounding Accreditation Board looks like it’s gonna have competition from HFAP (the Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program).

Plague find may rewrite history

A 4,900-year-old Swedish skeleton had the plague. That finding does a number of the entire history of Europe — and may explain a prehistoric population collapse.

Around 6,000 years ago, mega-settlements as big as 10,000 to 20,000 people sprang up in what is now Moldova, Romania, and Ukraine. The settlements were regularly abandoned and then burned. Perhaps, the new study argues, plague spread through these sites.

We thought you were going to help

The big tax cut that pharmaceutical companies got last year was supposed to help lower drug prices and encourage investment in the U.S. So some congressfolks would really like to know why much of that money went to pay raises and stock buybacks … and the companies are raising prices.

The long read: The new face of independent pharmacy

Independent pharmacies are looking to provide more healthcare as they reimagine themselves in a world with CVS/Aetna, Amazon, and the new pharma dynamic.

One down

It seems that this pharmacists in one corner of Georgia have a little less to worry about: “Man arrested and charged in string of pharmacy burglaries.”

This Sunday: AEP wine tasting, schmoozing, and fun

Don’t miss the big almost-year-end networking event for pharmacists!

It’s the Academy of Employee Pharmacists big event, including wine tasting, food, drink, and really cool people* from across the state.

It’s December 9 from 6:00 to 9:00 pm at the Baraonda Ristorante & Bar in Atlanta.

Tix are only $35 (which includes four wine tastings and plenty of appetizers) — but only if you buy them by tomorrow, December 7. (After that or at the door it’s $40.)

RSVP right now at GPhA.org/aepnetworking.

AEP members: Be sure to bring along a non-AEP pharmacist! They are welcome!

Important: You do NOT need to log in! Just hit Esc to skip the login form!

*Your coolness may vary. Some settling of contents may occur.

China says it’ll crack down on fentanyl

That’s good news, but not quite a game changer. True, fentanyl and its analogs kill about 28,000 Americans a year, but while “Beijing’s newly stated intention to punish its illegal fentanyl dealers
to the maximum penalty under the law was well-received by many who follow the issue,” experts say “it probably won’t have an immediate effect on overdose deaths.”

But even long journeys need those first few steps.

Carry naloxone? Read this

Here’s a scary problem: Life insurers are apparently denying coverage to people who have a naloxone prescription because the carriers don’t know if the meds are for them or for them to use on someone.

Generics: Price determines shortages

The higher the price, the less likely a shortage. (Interesting note: “competition and market size were not associated with the likelihood of a shortage.”)

The headline says it all

“Is America Ready For Prescription Heroin?”

Patients typically get a regular, measured dose of pharmaceutical-grade heroin — also known as diacetylmorphine or diamorphine — and inject it under close medical supervision inside a designated clinic.

The idea is if people have a legal source of heroin, they’ll be less likely to overdose on tainted street drugs, spend less time and energy trying to get their next fix, and instead be able to focus on the underlying drivers of their addiction.

(The answer, at least for RAND researchers, is “Yes.”)

Today’s medical shocker

Most people lie to their clinicians.

The long read: cannabis and diabetes

From Forbes: There’s some indication that, through its anti-inflammatory and anti-pain properties, both THC and CBD can help alleviate — and potentially prevent — diabetes.

Caremark says it will refund rebates

CVS Health said it’s Caremark PBM will switch to a new pricing model: “Under new model, 100 percent of rebates are passed through to plan sponsors while PBM takes accountability for impact of drug price inflation and shifts in drug mix.”

Then again, it also said it’s completed its acquisition of Aetna, which isn’t true.

Speaking of CVS and Aetna….

The Columbus Dispatch has a piece about the merger — specifically, the “one-of-a-kind” concessions we in Georgia got from CVS before the insurance commissioner would approve it.

ICYMI: Valsartan recall

Mylan is recalling every lot of its valsartan blood pressure medicine because of potential contamination.

The finished products, which were manufactured by Mylan Pharmaceuticals and Mylan Laboratories were distributed in the United States between March 2017 and November 2018.

Shout-out!

The incomparable Jennifer Shannon — GPhA member and owner of Lily’s Pharmacy in Johns Creek — might be getting more than her 15 minutes of fame: Now she’s got an article published in the latest issue of NCPA’s America’s Pharmacist magazine, “Independent pharmacies: Sewing community health care together.”

Most Georgia nursing homes penalized by Medicare

Three of four nursing homes in the state have to pay penalties because too many of their patients end up readmitted to the hospital. Georgia Health News reports.

They need a new law for this?

A bill introduced in the Senate would make it illegal for drugmakers to misclassify brand-name drugs as generics in order to trick Medicare into paying more. (With generics, they have to give Medicare plans a smaller rebate.) In other words, this wasn’t already illegal.

Unfortunately, nothing funny about this study

This is a scary thought: “Women who were victims of domestic violence were more than twice as likely to have a medical consultation for emergency contraception, British researchers found.”

It’s safe to drink the water in Atlanta again

The government says so, so it must be true.

The long read: “Genetically Modified People Are Walking Among Us”

No, it’s not a teaser for Avengers 4.

Number of uninsured kids in Georgia grows

Mirroring the rest of the country, in 2017 the number of uninsured kids in Georgia rose for the first time since 2008. As Georgia Health News reported, “An estimated 200,000 children in Georgia under the age of 19 do not have health insurance.”

Georgia isn’t alone:

Three-quarters of the children who lost coverage between 2016 and 2017 live in states that have not expanded Medicaid coverage to parents and other low-income adults, the report said. The uninsured rates for children increased at almost triple the rate in non-expansion states than in states that have expanded Medicaid.

An innovative way to test for diabetes

Normally, shoulder ultrasounds are needed after someone is diagnosed with diabetes, but now researchers have flipped the model and tried using ultrasounds as predictors instead.

The ultrasound images were 89% predictive of definite diabetes […] In addition, of the 13 participants with prediabetes in the cohort, all had an appearance in the deltoid muscle that correlated to definite or suspected diabetes.

Forget the weed, remember the rest

Marijuana smokers who stop are likely to improve their memories. (Well, maybe. It was a pretty small study.)

Fun note: The study group that had to abstain “were incentivized with monetary rewards at the end of each week.”

An Oliver twist

The FDA’s orphan drug program is being abused, with companies reaping rewards for treating “orphans” that aren’t really orphans at all. So says a new government report.

The program waives fees, provides tax incentives, and gives seven years of marketing exclusivity for drugs that treat a condition suffered by fewer than about 200,000 people — “orphan drugs.” But it turns out the government didn’t do a great job of making sure the drugs in the program really were for rare conditions. It’s looking into that now.

Oddly, “Hide in the attic” isn’t on the list

The WaPo reports: “How to avoid migraines during the holidays“. (Hint: Drink.)

I wasn’t sure whether this belongs in the Captain Obvious Files or not

“Limiting social media decreases loneliness and depression.” (That’s the paper. Here’s a shorter news article.)

The long read: Supply chain troubles

“Drug Recalls Put Spotlight on Drug Supply Chains” is the headline. The gist: Globalization of the supply chain brings down prices, but has been leading to quality issues. Why, it’s almost as if the workers who are paid less don’t do as good a job!

He’s not rubber (you’re not glue)

The federal judge expected to sign off on the CVS/Aetna merger says he doesn’t like being treated as a “rubber stamp,” nor like a fungus.

“I was reviewing your motion, which, of course is not opposed. And I kind of got this uneasy feeling that I was being kept in the dark, kind of like a mushroom,” Leon told lawyers for the Justice Department and the two companies.

When an old med gets a new approval

What happens when the FDA approves a brand-name drug that is identical to a compounded one? Patients who were paying little for treatment might be looking at a huge price hike.

With an FDA approval in hand, however, Florida-based Catalyst Pharmaceuticals now has the ability to charge what could be hundreds of thousands of dollars — for a medicine that costs almost nothing to make. What’s more: Catalyst could block older forms of the drugs from being given to patients, even though they didn’t invent the formulation in the first place.

World AIDS Day: December 1

What a difference a few decades makes. (But we still have a ways to go.)

U.S. life expectancy continues to decline

…for the third straight year, unlike the rest of the world. What’s happening? Suicide and overdoses. Yikes.

340B rules go into effect

After eight years, HHS was finally sued into implementing 340B price ceilings for hospitals that treat low-income people.

FDA moving to Amsterdam

Its European office, that is. It’s currently in London, but with Brexit on the horizon it made more sense to be in Holland* with its friends at the European Medicines Agency. Besides, the food’s better there.

* Technically North Holland† , which is part of the Netherlands, which is one of the Low Countries… yeah, yeah, we know .
† There is no such place as “Holland” just like there’s no such state as “Dakota” — just North Holland and South Holland.

Shocking medical revelations

French fries “are no substitute for green leafy vegetables, nutritionists say.”

“Eating unhealthy food, or not having enough food … contribute to widespread malnutrition.”

“Measles cases spiked 30 percent in 2017, due entirely to poor vaccination rates.”

More uninsured kids

For the first time in 10 years, the number of uninsured kids in America rose. In 2017 there were 3.9 million American kids who had no health coverage — that’s about one in 20.

Roughly 276,000 more children were uninsured in 2017 than the year before, bringing the total to more than 3.9 million, according to a report released Thursday by Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families. Some 5% of those 18 and under had no health insurance, up from 4.7% a year earlier.

“The nation is going backwards on insuring kids and it is likely to get worse,” said Joan Alker, co-author of the study.

MS drug warning

If you have patients with MS taking Lemtrada (alemtuzumab), the FDA “warned that serious cases of stroke and tears in the lining of arteries in the head and neck have occurred.”

NCPA ♥ drug pricing proposal

Our friends at NCPA give a big thumbs-up to the pricing rule CMS is proposing — the one that would revamp the current DIR fee system.

“We wholeheartedly support moving pharmacy price concessions to point-of-sale to benefit patients in the form of lower cost shares,” said [NCPA CEO Doug] Hoey. “Such a move would also eliminate retroactive claw-backs charged by PBMs and allow pharmacies a more accurate accounting of drug costs and reimbursements.

UGA welcomes Duke

Welcome Ken Duke, RPh, as the new interim assistant dean for professional affairs at UGA’s College of Pharmacy’s Savannah Campus. He takes over on December 1. He’s been with the college since 1985; right now he’s an assistant professor in Savannah.

Dementia breakthroughs are happening, but slowly

Headline: “Antibiotic may slow or prevent Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s.”

Reality: Minocycline appears to decrease the build-up of α-synuclein and amyloid-β, two
proteins associated with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. And the exact role those two proteins play isn’t entirely clear.

Related and interesting: MRIs might be able to detect a risk of dementia two and a half years before it begins to manifest. In a study, “MRI brain scans predicted with 89 percent accuracy who would go on to develop dementia within three years.”

Yes, sweat

Lie back and relax why doncha? Turns out that spending more time in a sauna reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke.

The drug-price moratorium is over

Merck raised the U.S. prices of five of its drugs in November — including cancer drug Keytruda — by between 1.5 percent and 6 percent.

Notably, it raised the price of it’s HPV vaccine Gardasil by six percent, after pledging it would keep increases less than the rate of inflation (about 2.2 percent).

“Merck remains committed to responsibly pricing our medicines,” said Merck spokeswoman Pamela Eisele.

Eat your veggies (and drink that OJ)

A study finds that, after 15 years of eating lots of fruits and vegetables, men showed better “late-life subjective cognitive function” — i.e., better memories. Ditto for drinking at least one glass of orange juice. Those who were required to eat Brussel sprouts, however, reported “life really isn’t worth living.”

Squirrel!

Kids born in August (like your humble editor) are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than kids born other months. Not that they’re more likely to have it, but because of the September 1 school cut-off, August kids are usually the youngest in a class.

The finding bolsters concerns that the common neurodevelopmental disorder may be overdiagnosed. “We think … it’s the relative age and the relative immaturity of the August-born children in any given class that increases the likelihood that they’re diagnosed as having ADHD,” says Anupam Jena, a physician and economist at Harvard Medical School.

Elsewhere: Philly considers licensing pharma reps

In Philadelphia — the city that had a jail and courthouse in its football stadium* — officials are considering requiring licenses for pharmaceutical reps to keep them from bribing physicians to write more scripts for their products.

*We kid you not

A crack in the door of Medicare negotiation

The Trump Administration has a proposal for lowering drug prices: Let Medicare create formularies for certain classes of drugs (as opposed to covering every drug).

This is potentially a Very Big Deal. Why? Right now, Medicare cannot by law negotiate drug prices. But even if it could, it has little bargaining power because Part D plans have to cover so many drugs.

To give it that bargaining power, it needs to be able to say “No.” And that’s what this proposal would allow (to some extent) by letting Part D sponsors remove some drugs from the formulary in six “protected” classes of meds*.

From CMS:

The proposal would make three exceptions that would allow Part D sponsors to: 1) implement broader use of prior authorization and step therapy for protected class drugs, including to determine use for protected class indications; 2) exclude a protected class drug from a formulary if the drug represents only a new formulation of an existing single-source drug or biological product, regardless of whether the older formulation remains on the market; and 3) exclude a protected class drug from a formulary if the price of the drug increased beyond a certain threshold over a specified look-back period.

(Emphasis ours.)

Obviously it’s not simple, but again, this is only a proposal at the moment. Yet it represents an interesting foot — or at least toe — in the Medicare-negotiation door.

* Antidepressants; antipsychotics; anticonvulsants; immunosuppressants for treatment of transplant rejection; antiretrovirals; and antineoplastics.

Something’s rotten, but it ain’t in Denmark

When the latest surveys find that a third of Americans skip buying their prescriptions because of cost;

…while new data show out-of-pocket healthcare spending continues to rise, and “low-income families experienced the highest growth in healthcare spending burden“;

…and 30 percent of Americans now says they “Have difficulty paying for basic necessities, like food, heat, and housing” because of healthcare spending;

…and a study has to suggest that we help older Americans get enough to eat so they can afford diabetes treatment;

… we’re doing something wrong.

Give yourself a gift

A gift of immunization certification from APhA! It’s your last chance this year: Sunday, December 2, from 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m at the GPhA Education Headquarters in Sandy Springs.

GPhA members get a huge discount — it’s only $349 for the course, which gets you not only the APhA certification, but (if you complete both the self-study and classroom work) a whopping 20 hours of CPE credit.

Check out GPhA.org/2018immunization for the details and sign up today!

Aye, there’s the rub

The National Institutes of Health is sponsoring a clinical trial of a contraceptive gel for men. The combination segesterone acetate (aka Nestorone) and testosterone would be rubbed on the back and shoulders and is expected to “[reduce] sperm production to low or nonexistent levels.”

The robot will second-guess you now

Amazon is going to start selling software that will comb through patients’ medical records and recommend treatments based on what it finds.

Drinks are on you

“Pharmacist Salaries Keep Rising.” Side note: The biggest growth is in hospitals.

Thanks for nothin’

Teva had promised a lower-cost alternative to the Epi-Pen. Instead, it priced its epinephrine injector exactly the same.

Longer than you, if you keep asking me

Next time you’re tempted to ask an older patient, “So, how long you think you’ve got left?” … maybe reconsider. It turns out — per the Annals of Family Medicine Research — that older people prefer not to talk about life expectancy.

CVS/Aetna merger: A big win for Georgia

GPhA — with our friends at the Medical Association of Georgia, Georgia Society of Clinical Oncologists, and Georgia Watch — fought hard against the CVS/Aetna merger. In the end we couldn’t stop it, but we did convince Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens to demand some significant, one-of-a-kind concessions from the companies before the state signed off on the deal.

He got them. We got them. Those concessions are a major win for patients and community healthcare providers.

GPhA had argued that without proper protections, a single company controlling health insurance, medication access (via the CVS Health PBM), and acting as a pharmacy could be hazardous to patients’ health by restricting their choice of healthcare providers and access to care.

So Commissioner Hudgens demanded protections before approving the merger. Of note and, to date, unique to Georgia:

• CVS/Aetna must invite non-CVS healthcare providers (pharmacies, physicians, clinics, etc.) to join its networks, and must set the same criteria for all those providers.
• CVS/Aetna must allow Georgia patients to use any healthcare provider — in or out of network — if that provider accepts the same conditions as those within the network.
• CVS/Aetna cannot require patients to use CVS-owned pharmacies, period — not for regular prescriptions, refills, or specialty drugs. These concessions reduce the chance that a combined CVS/Aetna can limit patients’ choice of healthcare providers.
• CVS Health must disclose the amount of rebates it receives from drug makers and how much of those it passed on to insurers.

We cannot applaud Commissioner Hudgens enough for standing up to these companies and imposing these critical protections before approving the merger. No other state we know of has required these kinds of protections for patients and providers before approving the merger.

A special thank-you has to go to pharmacists Jennifer Shannon and Daryl Reynolds, who came and testified for the commissioner on the dangers this merger posed for their practices and their patients.

Immunization certification!

It’s not just a cross between a rhyme and a tongue-twister — APhA’s hot certification class is coming for the last time this year: Sunday, December 2, from 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m at the GPhA Education Headquarters in Sandy Springs.

GPhA members get a huge discount — it’s only $349 for the course, which gets you not only the APhA certification, but (if you complete both the self-study and classroom work) a whopping 20 hours of CPE credit.

Check out GPhA.org/2018immunization for the details and sign up today!

You gotta believe

It’s only the Romaine lettuce from central and northern California that’ll kill you, according to the FDA. Go ahead, have some!

“Federal health officials believe it’s safe to eat the lettuce if it’s grown in greenhouses or other regions — and is labeled as such.”

Your cat wants meds

Petco and Express Scripts are teaming up to deliver prescription pet meds. (That links to the press release, but honestly all it says is ‘Petco is delivering prescription pet meds with the help of Express Scripts.’)

Georgia claims right to regulate PBMs

Georgia Attorney General Christopher Carr is among 33 state attorneys general who filed an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court supporting states’ rights to regulate PBMs.

What’s the deal? Arkansas passed a law in 2015 that regulated PBMs and set standards for generic drug prices — essentially requiring PBMs to reimburse pharmacies for at least the wholesale cost of the drugs.

But the PBMs argued that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) prohibits states from implementing such laws. And now the Supreme Court is on the case.

Employee pharmacists: Don’t miss the next big AEP event!

Join GPhA’s Academy of Employee Pharmacists for a fall wine-tasting and networking event!

December 9 from 6:00 to 9:00 pm at the Baraonda Ristorante & Bar in Atlanta

Get your tix by December 5: Only $35 (After that or at the door: $40)

Each ticket includes four wine tastings and appetizers! (Plenty more food and drink will be available for purchase.)

Get your tickets at GPhA.org/aepnetworking.

Important: You do NOT need to log in! Just hit Esc to skip the login form!

Walgreens and Humana share a bite

In a meeting outside math class, Walgreens and Humana are planning to trade rings, maybe go steady.

Opioids and broken hips

The stronger the opioid, the greater the risk of hip fracture: study.

Alexa, what’s wrong with me?

Nearly two-thirds of young people in Britain would be AOK being diagnosed by a chatbot rather than a human. And 56 percent would rather receive advice from their pharmacists or physician via an app or website than face-to-face.

“If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying ‘End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH’, the paint wouldn’t even have time to dry.” —Terry Pratchett

Scientists worldwide: We should not use CRISPR/Cas9 to change human genes until we know more.

Chinese researchers: I’m sorry, we missed that. What did you say again?

Chinese authorities: Wait, what?

White House report: Climate change will be bad for Georgia health

The Trump Administration released a major report that says climate change is likely to have major negative impacts for the U.S. across the spectrum (agriculture, health, infrastructure, tourism, etc.).

The Fourth National Climate Change Assessment * says the economy could lose hundreds of billions of dollars — more than 10% of its GDP — by the end of the century. But our concern is the healthcare aspect. As the report explains, it ain’t good:

Impacts from climate change on extreme weather and climate-related events, air quality, and the transmission of disease through insects and pests, food, and water increasingly threaten the health and well-being of the American people, particularly populations that are already vulnerable.

Forgetting the direct effects of cold and heat spells, the changing climate will lead to more mosquito- and tick-borne diseases (as we’re already seeing), as well as “The frequency and severity of allergic illnesses, including asthma and hay fever.”

And Georgia? Sayeth the report: “Communities in the Southeast, for example, are particularly vulnerable to the combined health impacts from vector-borne disease, heat, and flooding.”

The full report is at nca2018.globalchange.gov. If you’re just interested in Georgia and the southeast, click here to choose specific regions.

*Written by hundreds of scientists, engineers, analysts, and others from the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, Interior, State, and Transportation, plus the Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation, NASA, the Smithsonian, and the U.S. Agency for International Development

We love caffeine, but…

Pregnant women should probably stay away, even if they have less than the max recommended 200 milligrams per day. They’re risking premature delivery or a low-birthweight baby.