Category Archives: medical news

medical news

ACA survives again; time to let these challenges go

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The Affordable Care Act is alive and likely quite well.

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a remarkably united decision — 7 to 2, to be precise — that keeps the landmark health care program intact.

According to The Hill: The case was decided on fairly technical grounds. The Court ruled that the challengers did not have standing to sue, given that the penalty for not having health insurance at the center of the case had been reduced to zero, so it was not causing any actual harm that could be the basis for a lawsuit. 

Five takeaways on the Supreme Court’s Obamacare decision | TheHill

What does this mean for the future of what has been known colloquially as Obamacare, named after President Obama’s signature domestic victory? It should signal the end of Republicans’ futile attempts to repeal the law. I say “should,” but it likely won’t.

Only two of the court’s conservatives ruled to repeal a portion of the law: Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch. Other right-wing jurists — Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Clarence Thomas and Chief Justice John Roberts — sided with the liberals on the court, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer in determining that the litigants didn’t have standing.

I am delighted to know that the ACA no longer has a president in office who keeps yapping about ending the law while producing not a single idea for how to replace it. For four years, President Biden’s immediate predecessor kept telling us how he would repeal the ACA. It didn’t happen. Indeed, two previous court challenges ended with conservatives coming up short.

I get that the ACA isn’t perfect. So does President Obama. He has said repeatedly that he took no exclusive ownership of the law, insisting that he was open to anything to improve it. Republicans so far have some up with, well … nothing! All they have sought was to remove the ACA from the books, cheered on by POTUS 45, who just could not stomach being shown up by the black guy who preceded him as president.

Here we are. A 7-2 Supreme Court decision should spell the end of these ridiculous challenges. I fear it won’t.

Still, to borrow a phrase muttered into a hot mic by then-VP Joe Biden when the Affordable Care Act became law more than a decade ago, this court ruling is a “big fu**ing deal.”

medical news

Most ridiculous political argument … ever!

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

There isn’t an official scorekeeper of these matters, but I want to offer a nominee for most ridiculous political argument in human history.

It’s the argument over whether wearing a mask in public should be allowed. Or should be discontinued.

I have grown weary of all the news reports we hear about individuals bristling at mandates to wear masks in light of the COVID-19 pandemic that, I hasten to add, is still killing people, albeit at rapidly declining rates.

Commercial air passengers are getting arrested; hospital employees in Houston filed suit against their employer for requiring they wear masks; people are defying government orders; they ignore business signs imploring customers to mask up and maintain social distancing.

This is absurd in the extreme! It’s also dangerous — and deadly!

You know how this argument breaks along partisan lines. Conservatives hate the mask mandates; progressives are more tolerant of them. What’s more, they’re fighting with each other, sometimes actually coming to blows.

Holy crap, man!

President Biden took office in January and said mask wearing was an act of “patriotism.” I thought in the moment that he was perhaps overstating a bit the importance of masking up. Now I believe that he was correct in seeking to appeal to our collective love of country.

As for the political disagreements, I will continue to stand with those who believe we haven’t yet crossed the finish line in this battle against the killer virus. It’s getting closer, but we aren’t there.

Not yet.

local news, medical news

Masks still visible

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Gov. Greg Abbott is just so doggone proud that “Texas is 100 percent back” from COVID-19 precautions.

Good for you, governor. Keep crowing. I just want to report that not everyone is buying the happy talk, at least not just yet.

My wife and I returned from a month on the road in our pickup and RV. We put just shy of 5,500 miles on our vehicles, visiting many states of various political persuasions between North Texas and the Pacific Ocean.

We came home Monday to Princeton. Do you know what I discovered upon my return to the neighborhood supermarket down the street and around the corner? I found a lot more exposed faces inside, but also a lot of masks still covering other faces.

If I had to take a wild guess I would say roughly 60 percent of the customers in the store were masked up. Store employees remain virtually fully masked.

To which I say: Good for them and good for us!

Look, Texas has done well in vaccinating residents as the medicine has become available. Most of my family here is vaccinated. We’re still waiting for our 8-year-old granddaughter to get the green light. She is behaving herself, understanding the concept of social distancing and the importance of mask-wearing.

I am a good bit away from ditching the masks we have in our truck. I want to resume what we used to call “normal life” as much as the next guy. I am willing and able to exercise some additional patience, though, awaiting for the all clear sign.

medical news

We need more like her

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This photo sums up what I believe is lacking in today’s troubled and topsy-turvy world.

That would be grit, coupled with determination. Throw in some raw courage and unbounded optimism.

The photo you see is of my late cousin Becky Olson. She died in late April of cancer. She had five recurrences of the disease.

I have spoken already on this blog about her. I left a couple of things unsaid. So, here goes.

Mourning a painful loss while honoring a glorious legacy | High Plains Blogger

Becky chose not to wallow in self-pity when she received her diagnosis. Yes, she surely was saddened and frightened. However, she powered through her treatments. She lived on.

Instead of feeling remorse and sorrow over her condition, she chose instead to co-found an organization called Breast Friends. She used the foundation as a platform to reveal to the world an immense wellspring of courage. She imparted that courage to others suffering from cancer. She became a motivational speaker, parlaying her singing talent and remarkable stage presence into a presentation that she gave all across the country. She wrote a book, “The Hat That Saved My Life,” which tells of her struggle.

What is lacking today? Much more of that kind of boundless energy. Becky presented an optimistic view of this world and of life. Did she have her moments of angst, anxiety and fear? Of course she did! However, none of that deterred Becky from the mission she was dedicated to completing until the very end of her journey on this good Earth.

She was the voice of hope. How in the world does one go through this life without it?

medical news

Fauci fires back

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The Republican congressional caucus believes it smells Dr. Anthony Fauci’s blood in the water.

The GOP believes it has discovered a potentially mortal self-inflicted wound on the nation’s top infectious disease expert. It wants Fauci fired from his post as President Biden’s chief medical officer.

Why? Because of emails that have revealed that Fauci has changed his mind on the impact of the COVID virus and the effect of mask-wearing, which Fauci once dismissed as ineffective.

He has changed his mind about how to combat the killer virus. As if that’s a firing offense! You must be joking. Sadly, many among the GOP congressional caucus aren’t offering laugh lines. They want Fauci fired.

Again, I ask: For what?

Fauci is firing back at his critics. He says he is “following the science” as it relates to the pandemic that swept into this country at the end of 2019. It has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and sickened millions more. Did the good doctor know all there was no to know about the virus when Donald Trump brought him on board to help craft a White House response to the pandemic? No, he didn’t.

Nor did anyone else.

Fauci took up his own defense while visiting on NBC News with Chuck Todd. As Newsweek reported: “It wasn’t only me,” Fauci told Todd of the advice not to wear a mask. “I’m picked out as the villain. It was the surgeon general of the United States and the entire CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) was saying the same thing.”

Fauci Calls Push for Firing ‘Preposterous,’ Says He’s Being Attacked for ‘Following the Science’ (msn.com)

However, Fauci has been singled out by the likes of the QAnon queen, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, as a candidate for imprisonment. Ridiculous! Then again, Rep. Greene’s idiocy is known throughout the country.

When one “follows the science,” as Fauci has done, the journey might take one down a dead-end alley or two. So it well might have happened with the good doctor. This email kerfuffle is being hyped by demagogues.

medical news

Fauci not allowed to learn?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Congressional Republicans and a smattering of congressional Democrats are climbing all over Dr. Anthony Fauci over some emails he transmitted during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fauci reportedly dismissed the preventative value of masks. He said masks don’t do the job. Many of Fauci’s critics among the GOP caucus have said, “See? We told you so! Fauci is a liar!” — or words to that effect.

Hold on here!

Donald Trump brought Fauci on board as he sought to craft a White House response team to combat the spread of the virus. Fauci happens to be the nation’s — if not the world’s — premier infectious disease expert.

Isn’t he allowed to learn about the pandemic along with the rest of us? I don’t quite grasp the significance of the emails. He has changed his mind about masks. He is all-in on mask-wearing.

That hasn’t stemmed the criticism coming from many in Congress who contend that Dr. Fauci is talking out both sides of his mouth.

Actually, I am willing to give the good doc the benefit of the doubt and presume he knows a whole lot more about this disease today than he did when it broke loose.

medical news

Back to hugging, kissing

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

LOS GATOS, Calif. — I must have heard it a half-dozen times while visiting a friend in this high-end Bay Area community.

We went to a gathering of fellow Rotary Club members, where my friend once served as club president and later as governor of the Rotary district.

Several folks were hobnobbing, chatting and laughing at each other’s jokes. When they embraced, they would say to each other, “Oh, it’s so nice to be able to hug again.”

Yes, this is the sound of the post-pandemic age setting in slowly. “Hey, don’t worry,” one of them told me. “We’ve all been vaccinated” against the COVID-19 virus, they said.

So, there you go. So have my wife and me.

I had no issue at all with the way folks were interacting. I am intrigued, though, at the response to federal medical experts’ changing guidelines regarding masks and social distancing in this region that takes safeguard measures quite seriously. They, too, are relieved at the relaxed guidelines and are as anxious as those of us in Texas are to get back to living the way we used to live before the pandemic began killing Americans.

I am not going to jump with both feet into the life we once led prior to the pandemic hitting us where it hurts. We still wore masks when we entered public places. We will continue to do so until someone down the road delivers the all-clear signal. Who should deliver that message when the time arrives? I guess when Dr. Anthony Fauci says it, then it must be true.

Even in this time when politics infects everything, it is striking to my ears to hear folks who live in a deeply blue/Democratic-leaning part of the nation express a strong interest in returning quickly to the life we all led before disease and death changed everything.

medical news

Vaccine arguments: idiocy

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The debate in this country over whether to get vaccinated against a disease that can kill you simply is astonishing in the extreme.

I cannot get past this utterly irrefutable fact: vaccines save lives and prevent misery, agony and heartache.

Polio struck millions of Americans. Then in the 1950s, they discovered a vaccine. What happened to polio in this country? It vanished. The same can be said of tuberculosis and smallpox. Same for diseases such as scarlet fever, the bubonic plague. We vaccinate our children against measles, mumps, chicken pox, you name it.

But now we have a disease that has killed nearly 600,000 Americans and the debate rages over whether we should get vaccinated. I even have members of my family who suggest — and this just blows my mind — that the Food and Drug Administration didn’t actually approve the vaccines that are being given to Americans and that these family members simply refuse to get vaccinated because, um, it’s all political.

We need to get past the politics that has poisoned the national discussion about the pandemic and how the government has responded to it. If we do not, then I am confident in projecting many more unnecessary deaths … and heartbreak.

medical news

Delighted with ruling, however …

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By John Kanelis / johnkanelils_92@hotmail.com

As delighted as I am with the new masking and social distance guidelines from the federal government, I want to offer a word of caution.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says we no longer need to wear masks if we are fully vaccinated. OK, we qualify for that; we are vaccinated and we have the documentation to prove it.

I do not know what the guy next to me at the grocery store has done. Nor do I know what so-and-so waiting in line to buy a burrito at the convenience store has done.

My hope today is that we do not see a dramatic reduction in mask wearing as we go about our day.

We’ve been following the rules in our North Texas community and for that I am glad and delighted that my neighbors haven’t flouted the advice given to us by CDC, President Biden and his senior medical team.

The COVID pandemic is still out there. It’s lurking. I intend to wear masks for until we get the all clear signal from those in the know.

Join me, eh?

medical news

Mask mandate lifted? OK, but …

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President Biden has sort of spiked a proverbial football on the basis of a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ruling related to the killer pandemic that has put the entire planet on edge.

The CDC says fully vaccinated Americans need not wear masks.

Hoo-ray! Now does that mean we’re back to normal life? That all that worry and angst is a thing of the past? That we should toss all caution into the crapper?

Nope. Not going to go there.

Biden calls new mask guidance a ‘great milestone’ | TheHill

It means that fully vaccinated Americans — such as my immediate family (except for my younger than 12-year-old granddaughter) — would be wise to exercise some restraint and good judgment when mingling with crowds of people they do not know. Our granddaughter’s vaccination is approaching rapidly and for that I will be grateful beyond all measure.

That will continue to be our mantra as we regain our footing en route to life as we once knew it.

President Biden calls it a milestone. He is taking a victory lap of sorts, although he has been discreet in his outward behavior as we have cleared various mile posts along the way — much to his great credit.

“I think it’s a great milestone, a great day. It’s been made possible by the extraordinary success we have had in vaccinating so many Americans, so quickly,” Biden added.

OK. I’m all in with the new guidelines. I wish I could be totally serene about our collective future and our national health. I am not yet there, given all the “variants” and the crises that are erupting in places like India, Brazil and parts of Europe.

However, I am heartened by the progress the nation is making in eradicating this hideous killer.