Free Republic

A 27-year-old father of two from the UK died of cancer — months after he had to beg for an MRI scan amid a slowdown during the coronavirus crisis. Sherwin Hall, of Leeds, West Yorkshire, died on Dec. 3, following an illness that began more than a year earlier. Hall first began experiencing groin pain in September 2019 that subsided and re-emerged in January — and was given antibiotics both times, he wrote on a GoFundMe page back in May. He thought he was feeling better, but then the pain returned “with a vengeance” in March, when he experienced pain...

The number of people waiting more than a year to start hospital treatment in England in October was higher than any month since 2008, figures show. There were 162,888 patients still yet to start treatment in October 2020, the highest number since 2008. A year earlier, the number having to wait more than 52 weeks to start treatment stood at just 1,321. The latest figures from NHS England also show A&E admissions down 31% on the previous year. A total of 1.5 million people went to A&E in November this year - down from 2.1 million in November 2019. NHS...

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), a thorn in the side of President Trump for much of the last four years, has reportedly been asked by Joe Biden to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. “He is currently discussing the nomination with his family and is expected to accept the appointment,” The Buffalo Chronicle reported Saturday. “Biden advisors expect that Romney — a former management consultant by training and a former CEO of Bain Capital — will be tasked with making the national healthcare system more affordable without legislation that modifies the Affordable Care Act,” the Chronicle reported. “It’s unclear...

During Prescription Opioid and Heroin Epidemic Awareness Week, we reaffirm our unwavering commitment to ending the opioid crisis in our country, and we pledge to help our friends, family, and colleagues with addiction as they work toward a drug-free life. Addiction undercuts human personal potential, damages families, and disrupts relationships. This month, and every month, we must continue to raise awareness about the dangers of opioid misuse and resolve to build a healthier and happier Nation. Since my first day in office, my Administration has taken aggressive action to confront and dismantle the driving forces behind the opioid crisis. In...

The types of financial shocks hospitals currently face illustrate the problems inherent in Democrats’ proposed expansions of government-run health care. The coronavirus pandemic has inflicted such vast damage on the American economy that one damaged sector has gone relatively unnoticed. Despite incurring a massive influx of new patients, the hospital industry faces what one executive called a “seismic financial shock” from the virus. The types of shocks hospitals currently face also illustrate the problems inherent in Democrats’ proposed expansions of government-run health care. Likewise, the pay and benefit cuts and furloughs that some hospitals have enacted in response to these...

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman has rejected President Donald Trump's offer to help with Johnson's COVID-19 treatment. Trump on Monday offered to put Johnson's doctors in touch with unnamed companies working on coronavirus treatments. The prime minister's spokesman rejected the offer on Tuesday. "We're confident the prime minister is receiving the best possible care from the National Health Service," he said. "Any treatment he receives is a matter for his doctors."

Coronavirus patients may have life-saving treatment withdrawn if others with the virus are more likely to survive, according to new guidance issued to UK doctors. Health workers could be forced to make "grave decisions" should hospitals become overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, the latest advice from the British Medical Association (BMA) states. The document warns that decisions around rationing scarce resources, such as ventilators, could determine whether large numbers of patients will receive life-saving treatment or not. The deaths of another 563 coronavirus patients in the UK were announced on Wednesday, the country's biggest daily increase since the outbreak began. Prime...

Stable coronavirus patients could be taken off ventilators in favour of those more likely to survive, it emerged on Wednesday, as another sharp rise in deaths left the UK braced for the outbreak to reach up to 1,000 deaths a day by the end of the week. In a stark new document issued by the British Medical Association, doctors set out guidelines to ration care if the NHS becomes overwhelmed with new cases as the outbreak moves towards its peak. A rise in the death toll of 563 brought the overall total to 2,352, an increase of 31% on Tuesday’s...

Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare has created guidelines for the priority of care for Chinese coronavirus patients that could see elderly Swedish citizens left to die in favour of illegal migrants.Sweden’s elderly, along with Swedes with pre-existing health conditions, can be given lower priority than healthy young illegal migrants, according to the new guidelines. Dr Thomas Lindén, of the National Board of Health and Welfare, said that health professionals should prioritise based on medical needs and not on the basis of citizenship, according to Nyheter Idag. “The principles of prioritisation say that we should prioritise on the basis...

The national shortage of N95 respirator masks can be traced back to 2009 after the H1N1 swine flu pandemic, when the Obama administration was advised to replenish a national stockpile but did not, according to reports from Bloomberg News and the Los Angeles Times. The Trump administration is scrambling to replenish a stockpile of protective medical gear for healthcare workers and patients as the coronavirus sweeps across the nation. N95 respirator masks are one of the most needed medical supplies amid the outbreak. The George W. Bush administration published the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza plan in 2005, which called...

Italy, the world’s worst-affect country by the coronavirus pandemic, reported a massive jump in the number of deaths that rose by 793 to 4,825 on Saturday, marking it the largest one-day rise since the contagion spilled over into the European economy. The Civil Protection Agency said that confirmed cases rose to 53,578 from 47,021, There were 2,857 people in intensive care, up from 2,655. Lombardy, the northern Italian region around Milan, remains in a critical situation, with 3,095 deaths and 25,515 cases. In this dire situation, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Sunday, President Putin has ordered the Russian military to...

Daniela De Rosa, a 43-year-old veterinarian in Italy's southwest Campania region, made a video message over the weekend as she was hospitalized with COVID-19. Her video plea has gathered much attention in Italy, which has just surpassed China in the number of reported deaths from the new coronavirus. "I've been in isolation in a hospital room for so many days I've lost count," she says. "I have no contact with anyone other than doctors twice a day." "Very few people understand what's happening. I want people to see I'm suffering," De Rosa continues. "Every single individual must stay home and...

As the impact of the Corona Virus (Covid-19) continues to grow, nowhere in Europe has been more affected than Italy, and in particular northern Italy. With a complete lockdown announced by the Italian Government, everyday life for Italians has ground to a halt as the rise in cases of Wuhan-Flu continues. This has raised the question of why Italy has suffered more than other countries to date? AltNewsMedia has a theory as to what may lie behind this. Many Italians in Northern Italy have sold their leather goods and textiles companies to China. Italy then allowed 100,000 Chinese workers from...

Scientists around the world have worked overtime to get a handle on Covid-19, yet one great unknown remains. We still don’t know for sure whether this is only a medical crisis, or also a medical system crisis. The distinction matters for the novel coronavirus for the same reason it matters for other “natural disasters” that aren’t entirely natural. It is now widely understood that famines arise from local political failures in the trade and distribution of abundant global food supplies, not from local crop failures. Floods devastate communities not because the local rivers are unusually watery but because poor zoning...

There are politicians, media figures, and pop-culture influencers, too, jumping on the coronavirus scare, warning of its dangers, and perhaps, using it to demonstrate their bona fides as caring individuals, dedicated to the protection of human life. Largely due to the western world’s foolish dependence on mainland China as a source for both finished goods and components for manufacturing elsewhere, the coronavirus is currently causing a global short-term economic downturn. There should be no reason for this trouble to be lasting - if we keep our heads -but it is almost certain to be destructive if an economic panic gains...

It may seem counterintuitive, but single-payer health care proposals like Medicare for All could very well destroy Medicare as we know it and jeopardize medical care for seniors. It’s not just because single-payer systems like those in Britain and Canada hold down costs by limiting the availability of doctors and treatments, even for the most serious life-threatening diseases like cancer, brain tumors and heart disease. And it’s not just because single-payer systems restrict access to the newest drugs for cancer and other serious diseases, sometimes for years, compared with the United States system. Or that single-payer systems have shown to...

Ventilators in short supply. Intensive care beds already overflowing. Some health workers buying their own face masks or hoods. And if cases of the deadly coronavirus surge in anything like the numbers some experts have predicted, doctors say they would have to consider denying lifesaving care to the frailest patients to prioritize those with better chances of surviving. “If we haven’t got ventilatory support to offer them, it’s going to end in death,” said Dr. George Priestley, an intensive care doctor and anesthesiologist in Yorkshire in northern England. “I don’t want to be alarmist. I just want someone to pay...

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD — Congressman Steve Scalise introduced a panel discussion called “Prescription for Failure: The Ills of Socialized Medicine" at CPAC on Thursday. He established what was at stake in 2020: “2020 will be a contrast election,” he said, between Trump’s freedom agenda or socialism. “You don’t want socialism, you surely don’t want socialized medicine,” he said. “Tens of thousands of Canadians come to America for life-saving treatment. Do you see Americans going to Canada for life-saving treatment?” he asked rhetorically. “Healthcare is only one example of what’s at stake in this election,” he said, before concluding that individual...

CORONAVIRUS patients in Britain could be turned away from hospitals if medics cannot cope with the amount of cases they have on their hands, a doctor has warned The NHS woud adopt a so-called “three wise men” system if the number of infected Britons reached catastrophic levels. Three senior consultants in each hospital would be forced to ration care such as beds and ventilators if hospitals were unable to cope with the sheer scale of the crisis. The protocol would mean weaker patients who stand less of a chance of fighting off the sickness would be pushed down the pecking...

Americans want health care to be less expensive. We also want our health care to be the most innovative in the world. The key to simultaneously achieving both of these goals is good public policy. Back in September, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) introduced H.R. 3, also known as the Lower Drug Costs Now Act of 2019, into the House of Representatives with 105 co-sponsors, all Democrats. The House is set to vote on the bill this week. H.R. 3 would adopt international reference pricing for the Medicare program in an effort to lower drug costs....