Greetings, settlers and sharecroppers alike! It's time for ye olde fashioned medicine show and discount homeopathic dentist, The Snake Oil Bulletin! This week, we decided to attack a dangerous if well-meaning meme making the inter-rounds that is encouraging people to fight back against the tyranny of Big Pharma by making EpiPens in the comfort of your own home. There's just one problem with this advice: DON'T FUCKING DO IT.
They no longer hold an exclusive patent, but they hold a 98% market share and the competition has been very slow to produce generics, so Mylan will dominate the market for years to come. They've been very effective at getting the government to expand their customer base.
I'm an MD with extensive experience administering medications that are dangerous if used improperly. Epinephrine is certainly such a drug. Even the auto-injectors could cause serious complication or death, for instance, if given to a person with unstable angina (potential for nearly instant, fatal heart attack).
OK, epinephrine is dangerous, but like so many, a potentially life saving drug, in this respect similar to insulin and many, many other important medications.
In the 1980's when I worked in the ER, we did not have auto-injectors, to treat status asthmaticus (acute, severe, life-threatening asthma attack, not terminated by the usual techniques) OR anaphylaxis we would give 1/4th cc (ml) subcutaneously of the standard epinephrine ( which is labeled 1:1000 and has 1mg per ml ) which would raise a small skin wheal (like a mosquito bite). This was very effective.
I don't personally see why people couldn't pre-load insulin syringes with 31 ga 5/16th needle (about the size of an eyelash!) and keep them in the fridge, taking one in a carrying case such as this: https://www.amazon.com/Wrig... whenever you are traveling outside the house.
Please note - I am NOT recommending this because of course, THAT would be providing medical advice. I DO recommend a parent with a child with severe peanut or similar life threatening allergy discuss this as an alternative to the EpiPen with their doctor.
I am an EMT. We can give meds. What we can give is all up to our medical director. So in your area write your medical director and tell them you want your EMTs to have epi on hand.
Apparently the single best thing we all can do to reduce our carbon footprints is reduce the amount of beef we eat. Destruction of rainforest and other arable land for grazing land, amount of water needed to sustain the grazing land and cattle feed, mechanical equipment necessary and transportation all add up to some enormous carbon footprint per hamburger.
My dad was an electrical engineer! And a professor! Same thing, questioning and making sure I understood things, explored, observed, drew conclusions, from the age of three! Taught me how to find something interesting in everything, and how to think about things. It really is wonderful. When I was in college, years ago, he asked me to help him with a research project. It was weird because the questions he needed answers to took me all over campus (Cal Berkeley) to libraries I never even knew were there. (This was way before any kind of internet!). Turned out he invented the whole thing to get me to know every single library on campus.
Full recreational legal in California and the state by state acceptance of cannabis turns into a torrent. Bammy Obama reschedules as one of the last presidential acts.
The Wackjobs start rumors of forced relocation of straights "Cannabis Camps" where the smoke is forced down their throats...
epinephrine itself is cheap in USA also, 20 bucks for a vial that will usually yield 2 doses, it is the convenience of the delivery system of the patented epipen (at 600 a pop) (and perhaps in a place like a school, it is a good idea) but the DIY injections can be prepared in advance, so there is no fumbling and no need of specially trained technicians (lol) to fill the syringes, there is no mixing of medication, it is one liquid medication and sold in vials at pharmacies
I read some NASA rebuttals to some moon landing deniers- they aced one, Why is the flag not hanging down like a dish rag instead of proudly visible at right angles to the mast? UH,,because the guys that like built all this stuff knew there was no atmosphere so they like stuck a thin rod inside the top of the flag so it would stick out. Next.
Anyway I thought they kind of missed the best answer to the whole bit- It is not possible to fake the source of a radio transmission- the waves travel in straight lines. They can be bent/ directed in a small space ( a wave guide as in a micro-wave, the generator is to the right side of the food, the waves are guided over by ducting) but not in the big wide universe. During the moon landings, THOUSANDS of receivers on earth listened in- many of then amateurs. You had to focus to receive like a satellite dish- and for the more sophisticated it was possible to get the range ( distance) by picking up the earth transmission signal first and then listening for its arrival at the moon, where it was repeated in real time, a return trip of 500K miles.
I thought it was to have a one-child policy for the world. Just as likely as lowering the beef consumption, I fear.
They no longer hold an exclusive patent, but they hold a 98% market share and the competition has been very slow to produce generics, so Mylan will dominate the market for years to come. They've been very effective at getting the government to expand their customer base.
For an excellent background: http://gizmodo.com/how-cong...
https://www.youtube.com/wat...
I'll have to go check out Leafly, then!
I'm sorry, but seriously - first responder EMTs cannot give any medication?? What...what is the point then?? They're just glorified taxi drivers??
I'm an MD with extensive experience administering medications that are dangerous if used improperly. Epinephrine is certainly such a drug. Even the auto-injectors could cause serious complication or death, for instance, if given to a person with unstable angina (potential for nearly instant, fatal heart attack).
OK, epinephrine is dangerous, but like so many, a potentially life saving drug, in this respect similar to insulin and many, many other important medications.
In the 1980's when I worked in the ER, we did not have auto-injectors, to treat status asthmaticus (acute, severe, life-threatening asthma attack, not terminated by the usual techniques) OR anaphylaxis we would give 1/4th cc (ml) subcutaneously of the standard epinephrine ( which is labeled 1:1000 and has 1mg per ml ) which would raise a small skin wheal (like a mosquito bite). This was very effective.
I don't personally see why people couldn't pre-load insulin syringes with 31 ga 5/16th needle (about the size of an eyelash!) and keep them in the fridge, taking one in a carrying case such as this: https://www.amazon.com/Wrig... whenever you are traveling outside the house.
Please note - I am NOT recommending this because of course, THAT would be providing medical advice. I DO recommend a parent with a child with severe peanut or similar life threatening allergy discuss this as an alternative to the EpiPen with their doctor.
I am an EMT. We can give meds. What we can give is all up to our medical director. So in your area write your medical director and tell them you want your EMTs to have epi on hand.
Unfortunately (fortunately?!) I don't live in the US...
Apparently the single best thing we all can do to reduce our carbon footprints is reduce the amount of beef we eat. Destruction of rainforest and other arable land for grazing land, amount of water needed to sustain the grazing land and cattle feed, mechanical equipment necessary and transportation all add up to some enormous carbon footprint per hamburger.
"WTF? When did I start shooting dust?"
My dad was an electrical engineer! And a professor! Same thing, questioning and making sure I understood things, explored, observed, drew conclusions, from the age of three! Taught me how to find something interesting in everything, and how to think about things. It really is wonderful. When I was in college, years ago, he asked me to help him with a research project. It was weird because the questions he needed answers to took me all over campus (Cal Berkeley) to libraries I never even knew were there. (This was way before any kind of internet!). Turned out he invented the whole thing to get me to know every single library on campus.
I know nothing about this epipen thing but I can tell you it is available in Canada at the old price ( ish)
Full recreational legal in California and the state by state acceptance of cannabis turns into a torrent. Bammy Obama reschedules as one of the last presidential acts.
The Wackjobs start rumors of forced relocation of straights "Cannabis Camps" where the smoke is forced down their throats...
epinephrine itself is cheap in USA also, 20 bucks for a vial that will usually yield 2 doses, it is the convenience of the delivery system of the patented epipen (at 600 a pop) (and perhaps in a place like a school, it is a good idea) but the DIY injections can be prepared in advance, so there is no fumbling and no need of specially trained technicians (lol) to fill the syringes, there is no mixing of medication, it is one liquid medication and sold in vials at pharmacies
I read some NASA rebuttals to some moon landing deniers- they aced one, Why is the flag not hanging down like a dish rag instead of proudly visible at right angles to the mast? UH,,because the guys that like built all this stuff knew there was no atmosphere so they like stuck a thin rod inside the top of the flag so it would stick out. Next.
Anyway I thought they kind of missed the best answer to the whole bit- It is not possible to fake the source of a radio transmission- the waves travel in straight lines. They can be bent/ directed in a small space ( a wave guide as in a micro-wave, the generator is to the right side of the food, the waves are guided over by ducting) but not in the big wide universe. During the moon landings, THOUSANDS of receivers on earth listened in- many of then amateurs. You had to focus to receive like a satellite dish- and for the more sophisticated it was possible to get the range ( distance) by picking up the earth transmission signal first and then listening for its arrival at the moon, where it was repeated in real time, a return trip of 500K miles.
The source was the moon.
What stops a competitor from loading insulin injectors with this stuff?