Robert Malone reports on long-term Covid

"There are millions of people world-wide who suffer adverse events from these products or worse, they suffered death. People who were not at a huge risk from the virus or who had already had natural immunity. We were all lied to. Repeatedly.

We deserve a government apology.

We deserve our scientific community and our health care professionals admitting the damages done.

We deserve to have our vaccine injuries taken seriously, and those who have damages deserve some sort of compensation.

People need to be held accountable.

The HHS needs a complete overhaul and we need the next president to be discussing how this will be accomplished."

mRNA Pseudo-Vaccines: Current Research (substack.com)

Reproductive rights

The HHS has a Department of Reproductive Rights and so does the Department of Justice. The whole phrase "reproductive rights" may be one of the most misleading euphemisms in government hoodwink speak. And that says a lot. If you reproduce a designer gown you don't grab scissors and cut off the arms; if you reproduce a document, you don't jam a metal instrument in the innards of the photocopy machine and hope you get a good copy.

 
"Reproductive rights" means the right to kill a baby, a helpless human being, whether shortly after conception with a few pills or up to the end of the pregnancy at 9.5 lbs, 22 inches by sucking out the brain as the baby emerges. It's the bed rock foundation of everything the Democrats stand for. If some Democrats had their way, they'd include the 2 years after a live birth to be sure the baby meets the government specs. The blood lust of Joe Biden created these departments after the SCOTUS decision in 2022, Executive Order 14076.

  

Ethics probe stopped by Biden

This week a mumbling, whispering confused Joe Biden referred to the Tuskegee Airmen as the men the federal government experimented on for decades--completely rewriting history. The media just smile. Good old Joe. Well, the government did actually experiment on black men right into the 1970s, and it is still protecting experiments with humans--and Biden is pushing child abuse by shutting down the investigation. This research was stopped by President Trump, but it's baaaaack. The ghouls of the Biden administration have given the “best and brightest” government researchers and agencies "license to use the skin, brains, liver, and eyeballs of aborted children for taxpayer-funded research."

 But Biden doesn't tweet, thank goodness.

Biden To Shut Down Fetal Harvesting Probe After Shocking Revelations About Brutalized Babies (thefederalist.com)

There have been many government commissions and ethics panels. List of former entities found in the Georgetown archives. https://bioethicsarchive.georgetown.edu/pcbe/reports/past_commissions/?  some of which include fetal and stem cell. Good intentions, no results. Looking through them in the index section, I see that most authors are "unknown," and the comments and summaries are gobbledegook of academics and bureaucrats, particularly this 1975 report on Research on the Fetus, Research on the Fetus (georgetown.edu)

Alex Azar vs. Xavier Becerra

Joe Biden's pick for HHS is Xavier Becerra, an anti-life, pro-big government, California bureaucrat with no health experience. The current secretary of HHS is Alex M. Azar II. Azar is also a lawyer who clerked for Scalia, and worked in the Bush administration. In this bio, notice the buzz words you'd never find in a Democrat resume: patient-centric, affordable, personalized, patient in control, treated like a human being not a number, transparent price and quality, regulatory relief, and more options. In the rule guide of forbidden words, these will be on the Democrat list. Azar developed and led President Trump’s vision for healthcare: a patient-centric, affordable, personalized system that puts the patient in control and treats the patient like a human being, not like a number. He has pioneered a patient-centered approach to the value-based transformation of the American healthcare system, including through transparency around price and quality, outcomes-based payments, interoperable health IT, provider collaboration, and unprecedented regulatory relief that places patients over paperwork. Under his tenure, HHS has transformed the pharmaceutical marketplace, driving down drug prices through a comprehensive drug pricing strategy and approval of historic levels of generic, brand, and biosimilar drugs. The Department has also worked to make health insurance more affordable and created more options for Americans who lack employer-based insurance." https://www.hhs.gov/.../secretary/alex-m-azar/index.html

President Trump got rid of the hated and illegal mandate, but Sen. John McCain went against his party and the AZ voters who supported him, to stab him in the back on dissolving an over priced and underused Obamacare, which many couldn't afford but were forced to purchase. Even with 5 government plans about 15% of Americans did not have or chose not to purchase health insurance when Obama took office. That administration destroyed adequate or affordable insurance for millions and they definitely did not get to keep their doctor and they were forced to purchase less desirable, less affordable plans filled with features they didn't need. And still over 8% didn't have insurance when he left office. His legacy--more bureaucracy and more interference in our lives.

Biden chooses anti-life leftist for HHS

Biden's pick for HHS--really bad:

"For starters, Becerra has zero qualifications in public health, and, given his relentless culture war signaling not just against President Trump (Becerra has issued over 100 lawsuits against his administration) and against religious liberty, his nomination seems more like vice signaling from the Biden camp. According to the New York Times, health experts friendly with the Biden team were "unhappily" taken aback by the choice. This alone will provide grounds for even Democrats tepid about religious liberty and abortion issues to oppose him. But Becerra's political weaponization of his office makes this an easy slam dunk, so long as Republicans have the stones to pick their battles and fight like hell to win them. "

Anti-abortion groups call Biden health secretary pick Xavier Becerra 'a pro-abortion extremist' (msn.com)

The current Secretary of HHS is Alex Azar.  From the Department bio: “While at HHS, Secretary Azar has developed and led President Trump’s vision for healthcare: a patient-centric, affordable, personalized system that puts the patient in control and treats the patient like a human being, not like a number. He has pioneered a patient-centered approach to the value-based transformation of the American healthcare system, including through transparency around price and quality, outcomes-based payments, interoperable health IT, provider collaboration, and unprecedented regulatory relief that places patients over paperwork. Under his tenure, HHS has transformed the pharmaceutical marketplace, driving down drug prices through a comprehensive drug pricing strategy and approval of historic levels of generic, brand, and biosimilar drugs. The Department has also worked to make health insurance more affordable and created more options for Americans who lack employer-based insurance.”

Praying for HHS staffers, Marie and Rebekah

HHS Watch publishes opposition research on the Trump administration’s appointees, focusing on work they have done for social conservative groups, especially those smeared by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The campaign further attacks the administration appointees’ efforts to overturn provisions in Obamacare which compel religious dissenters to pay for birth control and abortifacient drugs.

The power of God is greater than the power of Satan, so I went to their page https://equityfwd.org/hhs-watch   looked at the faces/names, picked two, and pray that God’s power will be stronger than their enemies.  There are a few minorities, but most seem to be white, young females. Women need to be in government unless they are Republican and pro-life, it seems.  I am praying for Marie who is a  lawyer, and anti-abortion activist. Description of her is quite hostile using inflammatory words (won’t let me copy)—calls Family Research Council and Focus on the Family extremist groups (that’s the influence of SPLC).  I’m also praying for Rebekah, HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Legislation,  who is maligned by HHS Watch as an “advisor while in college of (very vague) far right-wing representatives (of what it doesn’t say). She was a staffer for the House Republican Study Committee before becoming a domestic policy advisor to VP Mike Pence.”  Obviously a dangerous woman to be watched!  

So I’m going to pray for Marie and Rebekah (good Biblical names)—for God’s leading and direction.  Won’t you join me and select a few for pray for?  I’m going to pray that the dark money and evil forces behind Equity Forward (fighting for “women’s reproductive health”) and funded by Arabella Advisors (Leftist money organization) and Hopewell  Fund, a 501c3 for leftist advocacy, will shrivel and the people who work there will come to know Jesus. 

The horror stories of the past few weeks about New York and Virginia have at least revealed how many states are going down this road of extremism.   

“Unaccompanied Alien Children” (UAC) included admitted murderers, rapists, drug smugglers, prostitutes, and human traffickers in 2014

"Judicial Watch today released 224 pages of documents containing nearly 1,000 summaries of Significant Incident Reports (SIRs) from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) revealing that “Unaccompanied Alien Children” (UAC) processed during the Obama administration included admitted murderers, rapists, drug smugglers, prostitutes, and human traffickers.

The documents, from the HHS Administration for Children and Families reported to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), are for the approximate six-month period May to November 2014. The reports Include 1,000 ‘Significant Incident Reports,’ revealing UAC ‘refugees’ admitting to murder for drug cartels, prostitution, and sexual predation."

I believe 2014 was on Obama's watch and these "children" were separated from their parents and "refugees" detained for crimes. I'm not expecting to see or hear of this on the evening news. Possibly an opinion show like Tucker Carlson might cover it. This is a long document with details and links. If you remain ignorant about what is going on/what went on, it's by choice.

https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-new-hhs-documents-reveal-that-unaccompanied-alien-children-processed-during-obama-years-included-violent-criminals-drug-smugglers-and-human-traffickers/

Finally, a Physician Chosen to Head HHS

By Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D., guest blogger*

Congratulations to President-elect Donald Trump for a common-sense and much needed approach to selecting the new Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS): Instead of a lawyer or another bureaucrat, President-elect Trump selected a competent, knowledgeable physician and surgeon, Dr. Tom Price

HHS is the third largest federal agency, often described as a moribund, over-budget, bloated bureaucracy rife with waste and fraud, that controls Medicare and Medicaid, on which millions of Americans depend. HHS itself is desperately in need of strong medicine.

Dr. Price, a long standing member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), is well known to the medical community as a physician who has been a proponent of sound medical practice, has fought for common-sense reforms and market-based solutions on rising medical costs, and has worked to reduce the escalating government interference in medical decision-making. Dr. Price has also worked to improve access to medical care and specialists for patients in the government-run programs.

As physician himself, Dr. Price understands that patients need care tailored to their individual needs of patients without government bureaucrats dictating what must be done. Secretary Sebelius, a lawyer by profession, imposed thousands of pages of new and onerous regulations during her tenure at HHS, strangling the practice of medicine and causing increased costs and confusion in medical practice across America.

Democrats constantly claim that “Free-markets didn’t work; we can’t go back to what was, even if ObamaCare has problems.” But “free markets” in medical care and health insurance have not been allowed to operate in the U.S. since the 1940s, when employer-owned health insurance arose because of government wage and price controls.

“Free markets” in medical services were further destroyed with the 1965 passage of Medicare and Medicaid. President Johnson caused insurers to cancel the private insurance that millions of senior citizens liked and wanted to keep, wiping out competition. Costs exploded, followed by more and more government controls on doctors and hospitals in a futile effort to contain runaway spending.

State governments piled on with insurance mandates, “certificate-of-need” legislation, and other restrictions on competition.

The political elites have “disconnected” the natural regulatory mechanism of price signals and consumers making voluntary decisions about the use of their own money, so politicians keep compounding the problems they created by creating more and more regulations in an effort to fix them. The key problem is NOT failures of free markets, but rather government control of markets.

Despite the government’s restrictions, the remnants of a free market managed to keep the U.S. at the top in the world for quality, accessibility, innovation, variety of medications, diagnostic and treatment procedures available, and longevity for the major diseases we face. Then came ObamaCare, forced on America by Democrats on a 100% partisan vote, that drove many private insurers out of business, and caused further consolidation of hospitals into megasystems, and destruction of small, independent medical practices. Costs rose exponentially as a result.

There is practically NO true health insurance available, just managed-care plans. Americans prepay their premiums, and someone else (government or insurance company) decides what services they are allowed to have, and which doctors and hospitals they can use.

President-elect Trump has proposed reforms that would pair catastrophic medical insurance with individually owned Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Patients themselves would then control most medical spending. This would provide more medical freedom that we have seen over the course of my whole career. 

To be affordable, health insurance must be like casualty insurance (such as automobile and fire insurance), reimbursing us only for unpredictable expenses that would wipe us out, and leaving the free market to work to determine prices and allocation of resources. True insurance is voluntary, portable throughout the nation, and owned by the subscriber rather than employers. It is only about the contractually agreed amount of payment, not about dictating one’s choice of body shop, mechanic, contractor, type of repair, or medical treatment.

“Reforms” like ObamaCare or many proposed “replacements” are about redistribution of money. Huge premiums are collected from all Americans, placed in the coffers of government-preferred “plans,” and doled out to preferred “providers” according to the “values” of decision-makers working for the plan or the government, regardless of the individual needs and desires of patients. After the huge premium, often as large as a mortgage payment, Americans have little money left, and little choice about how to spend it. They are forced to pay for overpriced care for those preferred by the policymakers, and less and less able to provide for their own needs.

If we “reformed” what is actually “broken” in the medical payment system—the distortions put in place by state and federal governments, then all Americans would pay less and get more value. With a physician who believes in medical freedom and free markets at the head of HHS, perhaps patients will finally be free of government and third-party control.

*Dr. Vliet is an Independent physician with an active US medical practice in Tucson AZ and Dallas TX, specializing in preventive and climacteric medicine with an integrated approach to evaluation and treatment of women and men with complex medical and hormonal problems. Dr. Vliet is also Chief Medical Officer of Med Expert Chile SpA, connecting patients to top tier, lower cost medical care in Latin America, focused on medical freedom, patient-centered, individualized care preserving the Oath of Hippocrates. Dr. Vliet is a past Director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS).

Obama Repeals ObamaCare

I don't recall in my lifetime, any mess worse than Obamacare. He's all but admitted it doesn't work, he's violated his own law more times than we can track, offered cronies and supporters cover until after the next election, and has pulled back on the individual mandate (but is still going after Christians with a conscience). All major social legislation since the 1930s has had at least some support of both parties. The Democrats own this one 100%.

“HHS and the Senators must have coordinated in advance because literally overnight HHS rushed out a bulletin noting that exemptions are available to those who "experienced financial or domestic circumstances, including an unexpected natural or human-caused event, such that he or she had a significant, unexpected increase in essential expenses that prevented him or her from obtaining coverage under a qualified health plan." A tornado destroys the neighborhood or ObamaCare blows up the individual insurance market, what's the difference?

The HHS ruling is that ObamaCare is precisely such a "significant, unexpected increase." In other words, it is an admission that rate shock is real and the mandates drive up costs well into hardship territory. HHS is agreeing with the Senators that exemptions should cover "an individual whose 2013 plan was canceled and considers their new premium unaffordable." In her reply letter, Mrs. Sebelius also observes that some people "are having difficulty finding an acceptable replacement." She means the new plans are overpriced.” WSJ Review and Outlook

How HHS spreads racism myths

Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) are more severely affected by HIV than any other group in the United States. The government infantilizes black men by absolving them of their responsibility 30 years after AIDS was recognized as a problem and how it was spread.   “Social factors such as poverty, discrimination, and lack of access to health care put communities of color at increased risk. Nearly half of all new HIV infections occur in African-Americans, for example, even though they comprise only about 12% of the U.S. population.” OPA fact sheet

Raise your hand if you believe men having sex with men rather than social factors spread HIV/AIDS.  The government’s own research contradicts this statement.

“Young men who have sex with men (YMSM) are at alarming risk for HIV acquisition, demonstrating the highest rates of incident infection of any age-risk group.” Cite.

“Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) are more severely affected by HIV than any other group in the United States.” Cite

“By race/ethnicity, black/African American transgender women [formerly men]  have the highest percentage of new HIV-positive test results. . . A review of studies of HIV infection in countries with data available for transgender people estimated that HIV prevalence for transgender women was nearly 50 times as high as for other adults of reproductive age.” Cite

“. . . there is one population in which the epidemic continues to grow in countries of all incomes: men who have sex with men (MSM) Cite

"The recent rise of HIV/AIDS ... is huge and it's not talked about because 'Gay Inc.' says nothing about it," he says Cite

Don’t blame First Nanny.

Michelle Obama is getting a lot of blame for the unpopular features in some school lunch programs, First Nanny, etc. and maybe that's a popular political stance for the anti-Obama crowd, but this type of government manipulation of food and nutrition goes waaaay back, first for farmers to pay for over production after WWII, then the low-come and poor, and the last two decades for the middle class purchasing processed and food-away-from home. Here's testimony from early in the GW Bush administration (2003). At that time it was thought "educating" people through labeling, media campaigns, health literacy and promotion would reduce obesity. And perhaps it did, because obesity in children slowed down about 10 years ago.

http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/news/testimony/obesity07162003.html

Looking back 40 years to the 1960s, when many of us in this room were children, just over four percent of 6- to 17-year-olds were overweight. Since then, that rate has more than tripled, to over 15 percent. And the problem doesn’t go away when children grow up. Nearly three out of every four overweight teenagers may become overweight adults.

I’m not willing to stand by and let that happen. American children deserve much better than being condemned to a lifetime of serious, costly, and potentially fatal medical complications associated with excess weight.

Richard H. Carmona, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.S.
Surgeon General
U.S. Public Health Service
Acting Assistant Secretary for Health
Department of Health and Human Services

July 16, 2003

Homeless numbers, counting them

"Each year, approximately one percent of the U.S. population, some 2-3 million individuals, experiences a night of homelessness that puts them in contact with a homeless assistance provider, and at least 800,000 people are homeless in the United States on any given night." U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Strategic Action Plan on Homelessness

Let that sink in. One percent. One night. Any given night. The Homeless Assistance Act was enacted in 1987 under Reagan, and it had its roots in a Task Force formed in 1983. The U.S. HHS put a plan in place in 2003 which began with a study in 2001 between HHS and HUD to end homelessness, and revised it in 2007. I've looked through some of the information including The Federal Collaborative Initiative to Help End Chronic Homelessness, and the results look really good. But it appears the Obama Administration sort of dropped the ball. Although he did issue his own plan. The plan sets no specific goals. Uses words like "increase," "improve," and "retool," which are not measurable, and a sink hole for money. There has been a federal agency (now called United States Interagency Council on Homelessness) tasked with ending homelessness for 25 years. It meets and issues newsletters, annual reports and strategic plans. But homelessness has not ended.

Sebilius--Who does she think she is?

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, daughter of an Ohio Democratic Governor, and a former Democratic Governor herself, testified today before the Finance Committee hearing on Capitol Hill (February 15, 2012). The Committee is hearing testimony from Secretary Sebelius on President Obama's FY2013 budget request for the Department of Health and Human Services.

Boy! Talk about top down control.

1) She didn’t consult with the Justice Department about the legality of the mandate.

2) She didn’t consult with Catholic bishops before the Obama administration announced a change in its contraceptive coverage largely meant to appease the bishops.

3) She “assumed” American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood were consulted, but she didn’t know.

4) She didn’t reply to the 28 members of Congress who contacted her last summer and fall about the contraceptive (aka reproductive health) mandate.

Who does this woman serve? President Obama. Not us. Not the American people.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/02/15/sebelius-didnt-consult-bishops-on-contraception-deal/

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/291194/what-we-learned-today-senate-about-hhs-mandate-kathryn-jean-lopez

Why is Obama uniting Catholics?

It’s darn near impossible to unite this country’s 77 million liberal and conservative Catholics, but Obama has done this with his mandate through HHS that Catholic health care institutions and colleges (and other religious groups, mostly Christian) must provide contraception and abortifacients (also Plan B, morning after, etc.) in their insurance plans. We’re not stupid, sir. We know requiring them to perform abortions will be the next step—we’ve been watching how liberals do this inch by inch since by the yard it’s hard. And then it will be no prayers in the hospitals because it might offend their non-Christian patients!

Three years ago the liberal Catholics were all kissy face at Notre Dame with him as he assured his Catholic hosts that he would do nothing but respect their religious beliefs. He used the event to promote embryonic stem cell research, even though adult stem cell was the big news in medicine without a single success for embryonic. He used it as an opportunity to thumb his nose at the pro-life movement. Liberals let it slide—they had his promises about their precious institutional authority. Big Whoop! Then the Supreme Court, even with his liberal appointees decided 9-0 in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, that religious institutions have rights, too. The justices ruled that religious workers may not sue on the basis of job discrimination if it’s in the best interest of that institution that they not be employed. (The end result of going the other way would be Christian churches could be required to hire Muslims, and conservatives and Catholics forced to hire women pastors.) The knives have come out.

President Obama isn’t responsible for the declining membership of the churches—that’s been going on since the 60s—and the church has no one but itself to blame for catering to the culture and ignoring the gospel--but he seems to hope to be the one to make the church as helpless and weak as it is in Europe. Now with the rest of us, the liberal Catholics have had to wise up.

From the beginning of his candidacy, I have defended Obama as a Christian. I said he was a convert, not a Muslim; I read his testimony given at a UCC conference long before he became a candidate. It sounded heart felt and authentic. I said he can’t be held accountable for the sins of Rev. Wright. But as pointed out in the Gospel of Luke, even the demons know Jesus is the Christ—they knew before the general public did--they just don’t worship him. This action of the Obama Administration in an election year is so bizarre, so antagonistic to the largest Christian group in America, that it’s hard to any longer cling to this fragile evidence that he has any intention other than destroying Christianity.

Not only is he uniting Catholics, but conservative fundamentalist Christians are with them who’ve probably never stepped inside a Catholic church, and will be joining them in legal cases. So why would he do this, unite Christians against him, in an election year? Is the cost of law suits going to take money away from conservatives running against him? Will it divert attention, even temporarily, about his reelection? Have you got an explanation?

Health, abortion issues split Obama administration and Catholic groups

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops organization, in line with the church’s teachings, has refused to refer trafficking victims (sex slavery) for contraceptives or abortion. The American Civil Liberties Union sued, and HHS officials said they made a policy decision (ignoring the review board recommendations) to award the grants to agencies that would refer women for those services.

The bishops conference is threatening legal action and accusing the administration of anti-Catholic bias, which HHS officials deny. . .

Under HHS policies, career officials usually oversee grant competitions, and priority consideration is given to the review board’s judgment. The policies do not prohibit political appointees from getting involved. “I think it’s a sad ma­nipu­la­tion of a process to promote a pro-abortion agenda,” said Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the conference. She has written on the organization’s blog that the decision reflects an HHS philosophy of “ABC (Anybody But Catholics)’’. "

Health, abortion issues split Obama administration and Catholic groups - The Washington Post

The Power of Choice

Really? Would you feel good about your own freedom as a parent to make choices if you got this letter from the government, sent home with your kids from school? Would you even read it?

And dig that song! What if the kids decide to use their "power of choice" in an unapproved way? I can really see teens getting into this pyramid stuff.

Maybe big government doesn't know best?

Maybe the USDA and HHS, which revise their guidelines every 5 years, don’t have all the answers?

“. . . ever since the first set of federal guidelines appeared in 1980, Americans heard that they had to reduce their intake of saturated fat by cutting back on meat and dairy products and replacing them with carbohydrates. Americans dutifully complied. Since then, obesity has increased sharply, and the progress that the country has made against heart disease has largely come from medical breakthroughs like statin drugs, which lower cholesterol, and more effective medications to control blood pressure.”

Egg on their faces

Renaming the swine flu

President Obama formally picked Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as his nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services with nary a squawk. She is another tax cheat, now almost obligatory for an Obama cabinet member, and daughter of Ohio's former Governor Gilligan. She is a tax and spend Democrat getting Kansas deeply in debt during the good years, and most recently solved a financial crisis in her state by cutting education funding. The nomination went through easily because of the made-up hysteria by the press and the government (Emmanuel: "never waste a crisis") about the pandemic called "the swine flu." Sibelius as Secretary of Health and Human Services will oversee a massive department with wide-ranging responsibilities, the key to the President’s vision for health care--to nationalize it--or spread limited, low level care, as it were. The 61 year old Sebelius was raised a Catholic in Cincinnati, however, she will have no problem rescinding whatever few rights and protections are left for the unborn American children. Being a Catholic means nothing on this issue (Kennedy, Kerry, Pelosi, et al)--party comes before Pope and Church when you've got a new messiah to follow. President Obama owes the radical, pro-abortion feminists because he squashed their dream of a woman president, just like he owes the unions and ACORN handing them the auto and mortgage/foreclosure bailouts.

Therefore, I propose renaming the swine flu the "Sebelius Flu." For too long, American women have languished in the background with very little named for them--diseases, laws (even Roe v. Wade didn't use a real name), mountains, buildings, etc. With four syllables, eight if you count influenza, the newly named disease will help fill up the time on the 24 hour cable news, broadcast news, and presidential news conferences. Although an awkward space filler on a teleprompter, Sebelius Influenza can be learned by even the least fluent of speakers.

Back to basics in credit and health

There's a parallel in health care to the economic crisis--and you might die of this problem before your pension recovers because there is little attention to the basics of the spread of infection. When I was hospitalized for 2 days upon our return from Italy in June, I was not impressed by the cleanliness and sanitation of the first class hospital paid for by my first class health insurance (the bills aren't all in yet, but it is over $6,000) through Medicare and State Teachers. On the other hand, the staff was pleasant, attentive and caring, and I'm sure they score A+ on that. That I spread whatever I had around the ER waiting area for 8 hours didn't seem to matter.

Our country seems to be collapsing from the clutter and fall out of "the next best thing." In health care it is antibiotics and endless expensive social studies about gaps based on race, gender, and quality of insurance coverage, and in government it is faulty loan practices by the lenders because of social engineering from Congress also sick with gapitis.

There are well established steps to prevent infections in hospitals. And even today with widespread information available on the growth of super bugs, doctors may ignore them. Even in the 1980s when I worked in the Veternary Medicine Library at Ohio State I was seeing a return to interest in infectious diseases--antibiotics having already run out of miracles. We knew in the 1990s that workers in vet hospitals were transmitting bacteria to their sick charges, or taking things home to their own pets, just because of poor disinfection of rooms, equipment, and (!) artificial fingernails, which are terribly difficult to keep clean.

Laura Landro writes on super bugs in today's Wall St. Journal, and it isn't anything new that will save us--it's a return to basics.

[Peter Pronovost, a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine] With no new antibiotics immediately on the horizon for either class, preventing infections "comes down to blocking and tackling," Dr. Pronovost says -- quickly diagnosing infections, using appropriate antibiotics and "going back to basics" such as getting health-care workers to wash hands.

In partnership with the Michigan Hospital Association, Dr. Pronovost developed a program to prevent bloodstream infections, which can be caused by both gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria and often strike patients in ICUs with large catheters inserted into their veins. With five practices -- handwashing, draping patients before inserting the lines, cleaning the skin properly, avoiding catheters in the groin and removing them as soon as possible -- the consortium reported that the rate of infections in Michigan ICUs dropped by 66% over an 18-month period. The process saved more than 1,729 lives and $246 million.

Dr. Pronovost says that while the steps are well-established, his research shows doctors skip steps more than a third of the time. Today, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, part of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, plans to announce that it will provide funding to expand Dr. Pronovost's program to 10 other states.

If you borrowed money for a home before the mid-90s, you can probably come up with five basics that the Congress and lending institutions have been igoring for a decade.

1. good job
2. good credit rating
3. no more than 1/3 of monthly income for housing expenses
4. neighborhood with sound housing stock
5. 20% down so buyer would have something invested

Time to clean up the bugs in hospitals and Congress.

Perhaps the dumbest thing in this article by Ms. Landro is the report that HHS plans to expand funding for Pronovost's program to 10 other states. Haven't we known this for a century? More posters reminding doctors to scrub down (up?) at a million dollars a pop?