Short is sweet

News blues

American and wondering who’s paying for all that ivermectin? Well, you are. That is, insurers and taxpayers shelled out more than $130 million for a drug that doesn’t work.

Last August, author Kao-Ping Chua, an assistant professor of health management and policy at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, noticed an alert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that noted a dramatic increase in ivermectin prescriptions during the pandemic. Before 2020, ivermectin prescription rates from US doctors were low—just a few thousand a week for parasitic diseases like scabies. Yet by the week ending August 13, 2021, as the Delta variant began to sweep the United States and ivermectin advocates proliferated, that number had skyrocketed to 88,000 prescriptions.
Chua recalls, “I thought to myself, I really hope insurance is not paying for that.”
No such luck. Chua’s team looked at an insurance database of 5 million patients with private insurance and 1.2 million with Medicare Advantage from December 1, 2020, through March 31, 2021. They identified about 5600 ivermectin prescriptions and found that private insurers paid 61 percent of the claims and Medicare Advantage paid 74 percent—roughly $36 and $39 respectively.

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The Lincoln Project: Gutless  (0:30 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Terrific photos of South Africa >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Walked later than usual yesterday, that time of day when people get off work and exercise their dogs. While not a dog owner, I was struck with how many people are. Indeed, at least half of the dog walkers walked two dogs – all on leash of course.

 Spectacular sunset...

(c) S. Galleymore