Category: Health Care

Where You Live Determines the Likelihood of a Long Life Expectancy

In an article in the May 8/May 13, 2023 issue of Time magazine this map shows the huge gap in life expectancy across the country. Most of California’s coast and much of New England along with Minnesota appear to be the places to live for the longest life. The South includes the poorest people in the country and are likely to live shorter lives by as much as 20 years. Owsley County, Kentucky has the lowest household income in the South: 1 in 4 live in poverty. Life expectancy there is 68 years.

This should be an issue for all politicians but it is not. They are more concerned about abortions and LGBTQ regulations. For me that is a head scratcher.

Abortions in Canada

Nationally, abortion is legal through all nine months (40 weeks) of pregnancy, nevertheless no providers in Canada offer care beyond 23 weeks and 6 days.

May 5, 2022 — — The Trudeau government wants it known that Canada is open to any Americans who may need to travel north to access an abortion. 

Abortions are a common medical procedure in Canada, yet those living outside of large urban areas have trouble receiving the care they need.

Ontario has this posted on their immigration web site. “Abortion is legal throughout Canada and can be accessed by anyone over the age of 12. Abortion ends a pregnancy by taking medicine or having a surgical procedure. Abortions are available in every province and territory; however not every city has equal access.“

Accessibility by province and territory

RegionGestational limits[7]# of providers[7]Notes
 Alberta20 weeks5The province has abortion services accessible in Edmonton and Calgary.[75] All abortion services are offered.[76]
 British Columbia23 weeks and 6 days24The province is governed by the Access to Abortion Services Act, which limits political demonstrations outside abortion-providing facilities, doctor’s offices, and doctor’s homes to set distances. BC Women’s Hospital & Health Centre can provide late-term abortions in Vancouver up until the 25th week of pregnancy (its CARE Program).[77] There are six abortion clinics throughout the province that can be accessed without a doctor referral and upwards of 30 hospitals that are required to perform abortions with a doctor’s referral.[78][79]
 Manitoba19 weeks and 6 days4The province has limited access for the those in rural communities. Aspiration or surgical procedures are available up to 19 weeks, 6 days. Medical abortions up to 9 weeks.[80]
 New Brunswick16 weeks5New Brunswick does not use public funding to pay for abortion services outside of hospital settings. This means that abortions provided in clinics are not funded by the government.[81]
 Newfoundland and Labrador15 weeks4Planned Parenthood Newfoundland and Labrador is the only sexual health clinic in the province.[82][69] Full spectrum doula services.[68]
 Northwest Territories19 weeks and 6 days1Northern Options for Women (abbreviated as NOW) provides both medical and surgical abortion services in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.[83]
 Nova Scotia16 weeks11In Nova Scotia, there is an abortion clinic in Halifax or someone needing an abortion can call the abortion helpline for other options throughout the province that may be closer to them.[84]
 Nunavut12 weeks2All abortions must be performed in a hospital.[85]
 Ontario23 weeks and 6 days38Intimidation of and interference with patients or providers are illegal in “safe access zones” around abortion-providing clinics and other requesting health care facilities; the offices (on request) of providing doctors, nurses, pharmacists and some other providers; and providers’ homes under the Safe Access to Abortion Services Act, 2017.[86] There are nine regions in Ontario where abortion is available with full spectrum doula services.[68][69]
 Prince Edward Island12 weeks and 6 days1Prince Edward Island offers in province abortions up until 12 weeks and 6 days pregnant. After that limit, an out of province surgical abortion would have to be performed. A referral must be obtained through a PEI physician prior to any surgical procedure.[87]
 Quebec23 weeks and 6 days49The province has a multitude of options for abortion access.[88] Historically, late term abortions (beyond 30 weeks) had to be performed in the US with all expenses paid by the Quebec government. This changed in 2020 because of Covid travel restrictions.[89]
 Saskatchewan18 weeks and 6 days3Few resources available to those in rural areas.[90]
 Yukon12 weeks and 6 days1Whitehorse General Hospital is the only location in the Yukon available for both medical and early aspiration abortions.[68][69]

President Joe Biden’s Malarkey

In his interview with “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley, President Biden said that the COVID-19 pandemic “is over.” 
(Eric Kerchner / 60 Minutes / CBS)

In what world does Joe Biden live in? This president and his administration told us the border is secure, inflation is transitory and the pandemic is over. Sadly, the truth is that more than 400 Americans are dying every day from COVID-19, more than 2 million migrants have been arrested entering the U.S. from its southern border in fiscal year 2022, and inflation is still raging.

You can call it malarkey or baloney or any other word but I call it a stream of lies. Biden is not the first president to feed the Americans a stream of nonsense.

Donald Trump fed Americans a daily dose of COVID baloney that included inhaling bleach and taking anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine. There was also the suggestion that Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic medicine for both humans and animals promoted as a covid treatment despite a lack of evidence.

Big stories like the A-bomb stayed out of the news until after the war ended. The main focus of the media was high morale and support for the war effort.

Malarkey and baloney are not a new thing. George Washington did not cut down a cherry tree.

 

President Biden on Gun Control

The president has emergency powers. It’s time he used them!

I was disappointed in President Biden’s speech on gun control. He had the megaphone to demand congressional action but instead of being loud and demanding action. “My fellow Americans, enough. Enough.” He should have said if congress won’t pass the needed laws I will take action.

What could he do as president? The National Emergencies Act (NEA) enacted September 14, 1976, codified at 50 U.S.C. § 1601–1651) is a United States federal law passed to end all previous national emergencies and to formalize the emergency powers of the President. 

Congress has delegated at least 136 distinct statutory emergency powers to the President, each available upon the declaration of an emergency. An explanation on wikipedia.org also lists the specific situations when the act was implemented. For health reasons asylum seekers have been required to apply from outside the United States.

For health reasons the president could implement requirements pertaining to the use of firearms. The health reason? Savings lives!

Where Abortion Rights will still be protected if Roe v. Wade is overturned

Sixteen states in blue on this map are those where the rights to an abortion have the least limitations. In California the right to obtain an abortion is protected until the fetus is considered viable and in cases where the procedure is necessary to save the patient’s life or health, according to the state’s Health and Safety Code. The other fifteen state have similar laws.

California Abortion Law

This will get the attention of those wanting to stop abortions.

California guarantees the right to abortion in statute and the state constitution. It covers the cost of abortion for lower-income Californians on Medi-Cal, and also requires private insurance to cover it. And the state has rejected the idea of requiring waiting periods or parental consent for abortion.

If the fetus cannot survive outside the womb, a pregnant person can seek an abortion for any reason.

After viability, only if continuing the pregnancy threatens the life or health of the pregnant person.

It’s up to a physician’s “good faith medical judgement” — in practicality, most doctors consider a fetus viable at 24 weeks or once a fetus weighs 500 grams.

My source for this information is Cal Matters. 

Once Roe vs Wade is overturned those seeking an abortion will be coming to California if their state bans abortions.

COVID-19 History

The deaths, spread out across four states in January 2020, had become part of a scattershot collection of clues about the virus’s early spread.

In early March 2020, an elderly man died in In California Placer County of COVID-19.

The death prompted California Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a state of emergency to allow the state to respond faster to health worker needs. Less than two weeks later, schools across the state would shutter and, shortly after that, California entered the first of several stay-at-home orders.

In March 2020, the Trump administration started conducting daily press briefings at the White House. They became a joke after Trump seriously suggested that injections of bleach might kill the virus.

By April 2020 daily cases exceeded 2,000 people nationwide.

By November 2020 cases exceeded 100,000 a day. By December of that year the cases exceeded 200,000 per day. It stared ebbing in January 2021 to less than 100,00 daily cases but resurged in August and September to over 100,000 new daily cases.

December 11, 2021 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first COVID-19 vaccine. It became available in January 2022.Three vaccines developed from different pharmaceutical companies soon became readily available.

Despite the availability of vaccines about one third of Americans refuse to be vaccinated. Daily rate of new cases still exceeds 30,000 people.

 

5 Places You’ll Most Likely Catch COVID, According to Dr. Gupta of CNN

1. Houses of Worship

The Supreme Court blocked state COVID-19 restrictions against houses of worship but use caution if you plan to attend: They are hotspots for the virus. 

2. Hotels

“Staying home is the best way to protect yourself and others from COVID-19,” says the CDC, calling “a house or cabin with people from your household (e.g., vacation rentals)” more risky and “Hotels or multi-unit guest lodgings (e.g., bed and breakfasts)” “even more risky.”

3. Bars

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has said: “We need to really take seriously the issue of wearing masks all the time and not congregating in bars,” calling them “certainly an important mechanism of this spread.”

4. Cafés

“In cities worldwide, coronavirus outbreaks have been linked to restaurants, cafes and gyms. Now, a new model using mobile-phone data to map people’s movements suggests that these venues could account for most COVID-19 infections in US cities,” reports Nature. “The team then used the model to simulate different scenarios, such as reopening some venues while keeping others closed. They found that opening restaurants at full capacity led to the largest increase in infections, followed by gyms, cafes and hotels and motels.”

5. Restaurants

One way you can catch COVID is to be indoors with strangers (or anyone you’re not sheltering with) who have their masks off. Naturally, you must take your mask off to eat. That’s why restaurants are so problematic. “When you have restaurants indoors in a situation where you have a high degree of infection in the community, you’re not wearing masks, that’s a problem,” Dr. Fauci has said. He prefers takeout or delivery.