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Jeoffry Gordon, MD, MPH's avatar

Yes, because of the absolutely convoluted and bizarre structure of Medicare Part D (designed to hide excess profits by commercial companies all through the supply chain at taxpayer and patient expense), the actual impact of the drug price negotiations (if they occur) in 18 months will be far less than the theoretical total. Big Pharma has fought this tooth and nail because this is the first crack in their iron wall, protecting their profits and fleecing us all. Hopefully more extensive changes will be forthcoming.

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Jeremy Faust, MD's avatar

I am far from an expert on this but I gather that the prospect of this could alter behavior of the companies? I’m not sure what difference it makes, but I guess it’s a start?

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Christina Fernandez's avatar

Love the cause of death graph-easy to read and understand. Thanks for this.

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Jeremy Faust, MD's avatar

I was impressed with the CDC on this one. (I added the Covid #s because I thought that was relevant).

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Thea's avatar

Yes, I’ve told you before I like 5 on Friday. It’s a fun way to bookend the week.

I’m also struck that deaths from organ failure (lungs, liver, kidney, pancreas-diabetes) & blood clots-strokes/heart attacks/kidney failure are all up. We know the SARS-CoV-2 attacks these systems. I suggest that while fewer people are dying of initial infection, the virus is a contributing factor to other cause mortality.

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DrCrystal's avatar

On MPOX: I've seen some folks speculate that the reason the majority of the cases are in children for this clade is because it is airborne. Thoughts?

On COVID death ranking: I would be interested to see if the magnitude/numbers of deaths due to other causes that are also associated with COVID have increased since COVID (e.g., heart disease, stroke, diabetes, kidney disease, etc.).

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Jeremy Faust, MD's avatar

If it were airborne, it ought to be balanced equally across age groups, rather than just increased in kids.

The answer to your 2nd question is really tough to know but it seems like the effects are pretty close to the infection. More on this another time.

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DrCrystal's avatar

Thanks for the response! This clade definitely doesn’t seem to be primarily sexually transmitted considering most cases and deaths are children. Perhaps it has evolved to be more transmissible via other routes, similar to Hand, Foot and Mouth disease?

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jmoore's avatar

Thank you- love the five on Friday. Will we see the Dr. Fauci interview soon?

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Jeremy Faust, MD's avatar

I am asking! Thank you!

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