Over-the-counter contraception, proxy decluttering & polyester libido obstruction 👖
Coming in hot, one more healthcare newsletter you never asked for. But I promise, we’re cooler.
Think about it 💡
💊 Over-the-counter contraceptives do not necessarily mean equal access and affordability. Americans may soon be able to access birth control pills without a prescription. An FDA Joint Advisory Committee meeting is scheduled for Nov. 18 to examine Perrigo's application for Opill, an over-the-counter daily oral contraceptive. Should it be approved, it would be the first prescription-free contraceptive in the United States. This matters all the more now that abortion is banned in many states. However, OTC birth control will not solve issues of access and affordability if people need to pay out-of-pocket when they cannot afford it: the yearly cost can amount to as much as $600, according to the National Women's Health Network. So far, the Affordable Care Act has mandated that insurers cover contraception with no cost sharing. But that has typically been construed as applicable when patients have a prescription. Advocates are urging the administration to issue new guidance documents stating the requirement for health plans to cover OTC contraceptives without cost sharing and, most importantly, without a prescription.
💉 Monkeypox vaccines and treatments are not available everywhere, at all. When the United States and Europe were hit by monkeypox, they scrambled to secure vaccines and treatments for the disease. In the process, they left scarce supplies to lower-income nations, including the ones that have been dealing with the virus for years. This sadly resonates with the history of vaccine access inequality we are starting to see being repeated.
Report finds TikTok to be stupid sometimes 😮
ℹ️ Dangerous might be a better choice of words. As young people increasingly turn to the platform to replace traditional search engines like Google, a new study has found that TikTok's search algorithm provides a considerable amount of false information. The NewsGuard report actually finds misinformation in nearly 20 percent of the videos surfaced as search results. What may be harmless when searching for pancake recipes or cute cat videos can become really damaging when health comes into play. The study notes that TikTok itself often makes controversial suggestions: for example, if one types in "COVID vaccine," it may prompt the app to add "exposed" at the end. The report identified several videos touting fake COVID cures and abortion-inducing home remedies, which, in a world where the pandemic is still very real and abortion rights can be taken away at any time, leaves young people even more vulnerable.
Neat News 🗞️
💸 Redesign Health, a company powering innovation in healthcare, secures $65 million to develop and launch more healthcare startups. Neat.
🤝 Oma Fertility, a clinic specializing in using AI-based technologies to improve IVF outcomes, is now kicking off its national expansion in the U.S. with the acquisition of New York Reproductive Wellness. Very neat.
⛅ Virtual reality could help address the shortage of mental health professionals. Ultra neat.
What the hellth? 🔬
🧺 Have you ever found yourself sitting in the middle of your room, contemplating the chaos of your life? And by that, I mean the literal mayhem that is your overflowing closet. You don’t know where to start but you know you have to start somewhere. So you brace yourself, take a few deep breaths, crack your knuckles and decide to get to it. Next thing you know you’re binging sped up decluttering videos on Youtube over an EDM soundtrack. And you’ve never felt so good. Of course, your room is still a mess, and your life is still chaos. But you’re at peace.
🧠 Turns out, there’s a very scientific explanation to that. Because your brain finds uncertainty aversive, the emotional realm will respond to unpredictability with a signal that causes the brain to become more alert. Watching these videos diverts this heightened cognitive control. By viewing images of tidiness and predictability, you actually suspend your brain's uncertainty reaction and turn your attention away from the stress you are experiencing.
Clean Content 🧼
✍️ Why you should stop pitching your healthcare startup as the “sTrIpE fOr HeAlTh”.
🏩 People don’t make whoopee as much anymore, and and the broader impact on public health is now being taken into account.
🧮 Need to brush up on your counting skills? FierceBiotech has released its 2022 Fierce 15.
This is what you came for 🍑
🗑️ You know those ugly sweatpants that you let your boyfriend keep because he promised and swore on his entire family - including you - that he would only wear them in the safe, demarcated 3-meter perimeter around the TV? The same sweatpants he now wears to take out the trash or jam-shop on Sundays because it's "the weekend" and there's "no chance we'll run into people we know." Of course you now know that Brittany from high school and her very neatly dressed husband also jam-shop on Sundays. Those pants not only are a crime against humanity, but turns out they’re also the reason you haven’t been getting any. Researchers found that wearing polyester pants could indeed induce electrostatic fields in the intrapenile structures, which could explain a decrease in sexual activity. Aka, this could have a negative impact on libido. Next time he takes out the trash, maybe he could throw them in while he's at it.
Bye, 🍟 guy.