There is still plenty of time to engage in the annual ritual of spring cleaning! If you have not cleaned out your medicine cabinet, now is the perfect time to do so. The Drug Enforcement Administration’s 22nd National Prescription Drug Take Back Day takes place on Saturday, April 30 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. By disposing of unwanted medications, you can prevent accidental poisoning, overdose or abuse when used by someone to whom they were not prescribed. You can do your part to protect the environment by not flushing medications down the toilet or putting them in your garbage. Find a Take Back Day location near you go to DEA drop off locations .
Unused prescription medication is not the only thing we have too much of in our lives. There is often an array of items that are best defined as household clutter. Besides material things, there are other aspects of our lives where there is just too much, like the stress of work or unpaid bills. The nearly 1 million Covid-19 deaths in the U.S, are also too much; at least 234,000 deaths from COVID-19 between June 2021 and March 2022 could have been prevented with vaccinations. Russia’s horrific acts and genocide that are occurring during their unprovoked invasion of Ukraine makes the “too much” list and is difficult for many to comprehend and unimaginable for those in Ukraine.
Today the young woman in Ukraine with whom I frequently correspond wrote: “The spring we’re all missing. The spring that thousands will never be able to witness. The new hope.” She goes on to add a quote from the poet, Kobayashi Issa, “What a strange thing! to be alive beneath cherry blossoms.”
Like Washington D.C., cherry trees are abundant in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. The cherry blossoms are just starting to appear, marking the beginning of a spring – a spring that is lost beneath the clouds of war.
This Weekend Reading begins with In the News, with current news on a variety of healthcare related topics. In It’s All Too Much, you will find articles on topics such as PTSD, conspiracy theories, and processing large numbers Next explore the articles in Lookup the Number on Medicare Advantage plan denials, growth in labor unions, health insurance coverage and more. Finally, do not miss Days Gone By and my favorite based – ‘Abandoned America’ Photo Series Captures History of Forgotten Places.
I hope you enjoy the following:
1. In the News
- Associated Press: EXPLAINER: COVID-19 pills must be taken within 5 days
- HealthDay: PTSD Often Haunts Family Members of Hospitalized COVID Patients
- AXIOS: FDA proposes ban on menthol cigarettes
- Associated Press: Once dead, twice billed: GAO questions COVID funeral awards
2. It’s All Too Much
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The Conversation: How to protect your family from horrific news images – and still stay informed
- Philadelphia Inquirer: Brains are bad at big numbers, making it impossible to grasp what a million COVID-19 deaths really mean For most people, visualizing what a million of anything looks like is an impossible task.
- NPR: Their mom died of COVID. They say conspiracy theories are what really killed her
- The New York Times: A Private War: Why PTSD Is Still Overlooked Experts say millions of people are affected by trauma, which has become a buzzword and a meme. So why aren’t more of them being treated?
3. Lookup the Number
- The New York Times: The Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class. Since the Great Recession, the college-educated have taken more frontline jobs at companies like Starbucks and Amazon. Now they’re helping to unionize them.
- New York Times: Medicare Advantage Plans Often Deny Needed Care, Federal Report Finds. Investigators urged increased oversight of the program, saying that insurers deny tens of thousands of authorization requests annually.
- HealthPayerIntelligence: Employer Sponsored Health Plan Trends in High Enrollment States
- AHIP: Employer-Provided Health Coverage: State-to-State 2022
- Kaiser Health News: At US Hospitals, a Drug Mix-Up Is Just a Few Keystrokes Away
- Becker’s Hospital Review: A 5-letter fix for medication errors
4. Days Gone By
- The Smithsonian: Digging Up the History of the Nuclear Fallout Shelter. For 75 years, images of bunker life have reflected the shifting optimism, anxieties, and cynicism of the Atomic Age
- JSTOR Daily: Dance Marathons- In the early twentieth century, dance marathons were an entire industry—and a surprisingly hazardous business.
- PetaPixel: ‘Abandoned America’ Photo Series Captures History of Forgotten Places https://petapixel.com/2022/04/26/abandoned-america-photo-series-captures-history-of-forgotten-places/
- TIME: You Never Stop Being a Child of War
Enjoy your weekend!
Best,
Suzanne
Suzanne Daniels, Ph.D.
AEPC President
P.O. Box 1416
Birmingham, MI 48012
Office: (248) 792-2187
Email: [email protected]
