Today, more than 7 million people are using
insulin in America. People with diabetic state are unable to naturally produce
insulin for which they must get the lost hormone through insulin in the form of
injections. According to an American Diabetes Association Study, the average
price of insulin has increased thrice between the years 2002 to 2013 where
other countries pay far less than them. Americans pay even ten times more than
their neighboring state i.e, Canada. There are two main reasons why insulin is
so expensive now – a) (David, Hirsch, & Yudkin, 2018)US laws didn’t
enforce any price limit on pharmaceutical companies hence they set their own
prices, b) no significant competition in the insulin market i.e, there is no
introduction of a generic drug to compete with the branded product. This price
gouging situation is also an outcome of America’s wrecked healthcare system
where systematic reforms are badly needed. Between 2012 and 2016, the already
tripled price range got doubled resulting in numerous deaths of Americans being
unable to afford insulin with the additional medical costs including syringes
and supplies. This situation makes people desperate to buy from other countries
like Canada at affordable rates. Near the end of 2019 legislative session, an
agreement was planned to assess some charge on the pharmaceutical companies to
pay for an emergency insulin plan, by the republicans in the Minnesota Senate.
But the agreement fell away immediately afterward behind closed doors and blame
games. Many of the same people kept ranting for more than a year but all in
vain and during that time, diabetics faced nothing else than disappointment and
all their hopes for the agreement got dashed. The agreement mainly highlighted
the skyrocketed cost of insulin and focused on the need of hour to do something
for people who cannot afford such life-saving medicine. This caused the
emergence of different views by The Republicans and Diabetic advocates saying
they want to entirely sweep out the emergencies for diabetics for which they
proposed the “Minnesota Insulin Patient Assistance Program” which states that
eligible diabetic patients can work with
their doctors to get free insulin for a year, while the advocates say that they
prefer both the plans to be compromised mutually providing long term assistance
from the Republicans plan as well as the emergency option for safe side. The
sole intent of the Minnesota plan is to provide access fund to save lives of
the insulin-dependent diabetics and to protect their health. The inflated
increase in the price of insulin over the last decade literally started killing
diabetics especially those who do not have any insurance or any protection from
social safety nets. Under the DFL plan, the state would be able to determine
the long-term availability of insulin and companies would be needed to fill the
supply as required. Advocates are of the view that companies turn away the
eligible ones and they decide themselves who to help. (D, Laing, & Sharma, 2019)This sparked the
industry observers that insurance companies are reacting to the hype and
rhetoric outcome of the Minnesota Legislature about the un-affordability of
insulin in recent years, as the insurers won’t be able to profit from selling
insulin as per the agreement they are only to get the net price. So far, little
reforms have been made in the work like some politicians introduced legislation
to overcome the cost of insulin, several federal bills have been introduces
including the Elizabeth Warren bill that states to develop a government manufacturing
to lower the insulin cost and large private insurance company has limited the
copayments for insulin to $25.
Q2: RECYCLE HANDOUT
Recycling is an obscuring
system powered by market demand, local regulations, price parameters and the success
of this system is dependent upon everyone, from the designer to the consumer
and from the purchaser to the trash-thrower, waste collector or recycling
factory worker. While the consumers play the most critical role as it all
depends on us how we use and discard the products which determines the post-use
value of the product used. For many, environmental role starts with consuming
the product and throwing it away in the recycling bin and that makes them feel
that they have done their part. (Fermin, 2018) While, we all are
aware that we should recycle but unfortunately, knowing how and where to
recycle it is still under the dark. People need to have awareness where they
can dispose of the right products so that they can be used efficiently for
recycling purposes. Knowing proper ways of getting rid of your belongings
should be run as public awareness. For instance, lithium batteries need special
disposal because they contain dangerous and hazardous chemicals so they shouldn’t
be thrown away simply anywhere rather the companies that work with such
batteries should be reached for recycling purposes. Lithium batteries are
mostly found in cameras so always check for a label “lithium” as they may
resemble the alkaline batteries but lithium ones should be identifies and
recycled properly. Many brands like Nike and H&M offers programs to return
their used clothing articles for recycling purposes and then there are many
charities working that accepts used clothes even the ones you think might be
too damaged to donate as they reuse it further. Electronic devices also need
special recycling treatment and many manufacturing companies like Apple
provides take-back and recycling options. Dell provides a cause where you can
donate your Dell devices for Goodwill and they will resell or recycle your
computer. Same goes for printers, as you just can’t throw them away as they
contain toxic ink substances. There are many options to get rid of your
printers like selling them to retailers who have labeled recycled bins in their
stores or sending it to an e-waste collection centre. You can also donate your
printer if it’s in a working condition as it can be used as a treasure b y
someone else or you can simply sell it on online platform, but just never throw
your old printers. There are also some nonprofit organizations that accept
almost all kinds of technology gadgets for the purpose of reuse. When it comes
to food, composting is the best option to recycle as it makes a good fertilizer
for gardens or simple approach the food waste management authorities in your
areas. And if the food has still not expired, simply donate it to food banks.
Plastic bags are counted to be one of the main reasons behind environmental
crises so they should always be disposed off as a responsibility. Many
supermarkets and grocery stores have (Colleen & Gabriel, 2017) special assigned
recycling bins to collect plastic bags or simple return the plastics bags to
the stores while shopping. Plastic is the main troubling material on planet and
with lowest re-usable life. Even after recycling, it can hardly be used twice or
thrice as it downgrades in quality and becomes more toxic while materials like
glass and metal have eternal recycling life. Toothpaste tubes are another
troubling composite as they not have a mixture of different kind of plastics
but also have a firm aluminum coating. So this makes it difficult while
recycling to process each type individually. Similarly, coffee cups and their
lids are hardly recyclable because of the different material compositions. The
thin plastic coating inside the paper layers makes it difficult to be
processed. So there’s just one real solution; make less plastic and consume
less plastic. In short, recycling is way too important than we think and if we
don’t recycle, many hazardous things like increase in pollution, overflow of
landfills and destruction of natural habitats may occur.
Q3: COVID’19
Covid’19 is a new strain of virus that
as first identified in Wuhan, China and has been named as ‘coronavirus disease’
(COVID), where ‘CO’ stands for corona, ‘VI’ stands for virus and ‘D’ stands for
disease. It is a new disease that is linked to the same family of viruses like
common cold, SARS, influenza or seasonal flu. (Marc & Swerdlow, 2020) Covid’19 has been
declared as a pandemic by WHO not because the virus has become deadlier but of
the geographical spread. UNICEF has identified that the virus can spread to
anyone belonging to any race, ethic, religion, community or country. The
symptoms of the virus start from mild to moderate illness and can be recovered
without requiring any special treatment as well. Buy there are few people who
are more likely to get affected like older people, diabetics, cancer patients
or people with respiratory illnesses and cardiovascular diseases. So far, the
best way to prevent this virus is considered to be staying well informed,
washing hands, using disinfectants as the virus primarily spreads by the
droplets of saliva while sneezing or coughing or the discharge from nose. At
this time, there is no specific vaccine for Covid’19 so the best way is to
incorporate preventive measures. Also, social and physical distancing is the
best option to practice as to prevent becoming exposed to the virus. The incubation
period of the virus is estimated to be 14 days of exposure to the virus while
the symptoms include cough, fever, diarrhea, headache, sore throat and
shortness of breath and even death due to respiratory problems. The virus can
only be diagnosed with a laboratory test so far as the physical examination
only shows mild flu or cold. Since there is no specific treatment as of yet, so
the patients are treated with supportive measures and mainly through isolation.
Coronavirus is considered to be not exact but similar to the previous outbreak
of viruses like Influenza that was identified in 1918 and considered to be the
deadliest flu disease infecting one-third of the world’s population. It was
different from the normal flu and the death rate was really high. Then there’s
seasonal flu that strikes every year but for that we have effective medications
and vaccines that can help reduce the severity of flu. And not just vaccines, a
human’s residual immunity can also simply fight that seasonal flu. Then came,
severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002-2004 which is considered to be
another type of coronavirus and the death rate was also high and it also spread
though respiratory droplets. Then in 2009, came the H1N1 flu pandemic which
also spread quickly (Zhe, Shi, & Wang, 2020) and there was no
vaccine for it as well. Similarly, in 2014-2016, came the extremely deadly
virus named as Ebola but it wasn’t as contagious as Covid’19. The reason of
spread was sweat and blood. R0 is the figure that scientists have used to
quantify the contagiousness of the coronavirus. R0 is pronounced as R-nought
and it refers to how many people can be infected on average through one person
carrying the virus. Covid’19 is expected to have R0 ranging between 2 and 2.5
where R0 of 2 means that one infected person can infect two other persons. It
depends upon the combination of the properties of virus and the way that person
interacts with other people. And R0 varies over time and over context so there
can never a be fixed number for it. Quarantine doesn’t have to be scary thing,
in fact, it is the most effective way to not just protect yourselves but other
as well from the disease and voluntary self-isolation is ever more of a best
option if you don’t have the symptoms of the virus already.
References
of Diabetes and its
effects
Colleen , M., & Gabriel, M. S. (2017). Biology 4920F:
Re-Use, Reduce, Recycle. Sciencediredct.com.
D, B., Laing, K., & Sharma. (2019). A perspective on
global access to insulin: a descriptive study of the market, trade flows and
prices. Diabetic Medicine, 726-733.
David, B., Hirsch, I. B., & Yudkin, J. (2018). Why are we
failing to address the issue of access to insulin? A national and global
perspective. Diabetes Care 41, 1125-1131.
Fermin, G. (2018). Factors Influencing Recycling Behaviors
and Contamination at the University of Arizona. Springer publications.
Marc, L., & Swerdlow, D. (2020). Defining the
epidemiology of Covid-19—studies needed. New England Journal of Medicine .
Zhe, X., Shi, L., & Wang, Y. (2020). Pathological
findings of COVID-19 associated with acute respiratory distress syndrome. The
Lancet respiratory medicine, 420-422.
