What We’re Reading: 10/16/20

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A few highlights from around the web that made it into our feeds this week.

First-of-its-kind examination shows how widely pharma showers campaign cash at the state level

With the election on our doorstep, this is a timely read—Detailed analysis of a study on how pharmaceutical companies pour money into state politics. Data show the ways powerful pharma PACS lobby effectively against drug pricing legislation in most states, fund both Democrat and Republican lawmakers with a near-even split, and gain huge footholds of influence with our elected representatives. On both sides of the aisle, this money thwarts the efforts of patient advocacy groups and labor unions and keeps the cost of medication sky high.  (From statnews.com)

My Patients Can’t Take Trump’s Advice

Covid-19 is reaching rural and isolated communities across the country. Take it from E.R. physician Rob Davidson, who brings us into the walls of his emergency room in Western Michigan and shares powerful testimony on what it means to “be afraid” of the coronavirus. The fear that Dr. Davidson sees is not some abstract notion, it’s his patients being unable to breathe. 

“The coronavirus is indiscriminate. If you’re young, healthy and lucky, you may be fine in the near term, but there’s a lot we still don’t know. We don’t know what kind of carnage the virus could wreak on your lungs, brain and kidney long after you test negative after having been infected, or if an infected patient is immune after recovery. Science takes time.”  (From nytimes.com)

Nine Days in Wuhan, The Ground Zero of the Coronavirus Pandemic

A trip to the earliest days of the pandemic from the region where it first began. While cities across China went under lockdown, no other city was sealed the way Wuhan was. The concentration of spread, the methods to contain it, and the sequencing of the virus’s genome all took place so quickly, under such heightened emergency and scrutiny in this sprawling capital city. From early missteps to eventual policies that proved extremely effective at containing the spread, learn of life then and now in Central Wuhan.  (From newyorker.com)

Now for something different, and tactile:

Learn to Fold the 'Phoenix' Paper Airplane

All you need are your hands and a piece of paper. Go ahead, make a paper airplane, and learn a bit of the science behind how to fold and distribute weight to build one that really flies. (From wired.com)

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