Sometimes They Really ARE Out To Get You: Allergies, EpiPens, Playgrounds & Price Gouging

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Back in my teens (late 60s-mid 70s), a popular poster displayed the following statement: “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they AREN’T out to get you”. I think it’s still fairly popular – not to mention relevant – today.

First, as most people already know, the EpiPen, a portable injector absolutely essential to people with life endangering allergies, has undergone an astronomical price increase, making it unaffordable to many uninsured or underinsured families. Here’s info from one of the many articles dealing with this health crisis:

Doctors and patients are blasting the Mylan pharmaceutical corporation for hiking up the price of their signature EpiPen product from around $100 in 2008 to a staggering $500 and up today — a 400% increase.

“I see it firsthand that a lot people call me and tell me they can’t afford the medicine,” Dr. Douglas McMahon, an allergist based in Maplewood, Minnesota, told the Daily News. “This is the only life-saving medicine they can use for this and it puts a lot of restraint on them. People will have to make lifestyle changes if they can’t afford this.”

The portable device can prevent allergic reactions from potentially fatal incidents like bee stings or peanut ingestions.

Make no mistake: People will die because of this price increase and some of them will be children. When that happens, coroner should put “Coporate Greed” as cause of death. Corporate greed isn’t just targeting people with life-endangering allergies; it’s also impacting insulin-dependent people with diabetes:

From 2011 to 2013 the wholesale price of insulin went up by as much as 62 percent. From 2013 to 2015 the price jumped again, from a low of 33 percent to as much as 107 percent, said Dr. Mayer Davidson, professor of medicine at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles, who has carefully tracked the rapid and repeated increases.

“This borders on the unbelievable,” Davidson said, citing an extremely concentrated insulin which “in 2001 had the wholesale price of $45. By last year, the cost had skyrocketed to $1,447” for the same monthly supply.

Susan Pierce, a diabetes educator at Philadelphia’s Chestnut Hill Hospital, said she’s seeing similar increases, with her patients reporting that the cost of their insulin is doubling, tripling or worse.

I have a lot of friends on the front lines of fighting for survival in this greed-dominated system of healthcare who embrace the slogan “Capitalism Kills.” I do know that greed kills and it seems that the current climate in Washington is to let greed run free – no matter who dies.

And while greed may not be a factor, news from Toronto indicates that kids with peanut allergies may be being targeted there:

Police are investigating another report of peanut butter smeared across playground equipment in a Toronto park — the fifth such recent incident.

Toronto Police said the latest incident occurred at Wadsworth Park, near Davenport Road and Laughton Avenue, on Wednesday. It was the first case that was formally reported to police.

“It is the only report of any peanut butter, anywhere in the city, at any park, on file at the Toronto Police,” said Jenifferjit Sidhu, a Toronto Police media relations officer. “When we got there, it was already cleaned up.”

The article includes statements from parents and others expressing concern over the possibility of kids with peanut allergies having deadly allergic reactions to skin contact with peanut butter smeared on playground equipment.

Corporate greed, potentially deadly vandalism. It’s a new world that makes some of my posters from the late 1960s more relevant than ever.

In Case You Missed It: John Kelly Video Interview On “Me Before You” & Assisted Suicide

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[Editor’s Note: Mea Culpa, we meant to post a blog on this as soon as we got the video captioned, and it’s been posted in our “In the News” section, but catching up belatedly here in the blog. . .]

In this in-depth interview, Not Dead Yet’s New England regional director John Kelly critiques the pro-assisted suicide message of the film “Me Before You.” The film is part of an ongoing trend of Hollywood movies, John tells host Chris Lovett of Boston Neighborhood Network News, produced “to confirm people’s beliefs that our lives are not worth living.” The segment includes the suicide prevention public service announcement targeting disabled people created by the Center for Disability Rights in Rochester New York. John also comments on the assisted suicide bill recently defeated in the Massachusetts legislature.

Chris asks John about Will’s suicide, that isn’t “this is a case where somebody makes a certain choice and I guess, you know, couldn’t people make a choice like that and just do a film about it?” John redirects the question to the “choice” made by author Jojo Moyes to construct a fictional character in order to promote suicide for disabled people:

Well, the choice is the author’s choice, Jojo Moyes, who both wrote the book and wrote the screenplay for the movie. And she said that when she wrote the book, “quality of life was very high in my mind, I had two relatives who required 24-hour care just to stay alive. I think if you deal with that situation on any kind of lengthy basis, you can’t help but ask yourself questions about how somebody lives and what kind of quality of life you can offer someone.  At what point does the quality become meaningless and at what point do you give someone the right to decide for themselves?” So she’s a bigot and she wanted to write a book, and unfortunately for us, millions of people bought the book and are now seeing the movie. We never see the opposite side of the picture, and she admitted that she didn’t speak to any quadriplegics before writing the movie. It’s a cartoon caricature in which a wealthy man who has everything going for him – including a woman who is beautiful, with whom he’s mutually in love – and yet he still decides to kill himself.

Colorado NDY and ADAPT Engage in Funeral March to Protest Assisted Suicide Ballot Measure

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[Press Release issued the morning of August 8, 2016 below, and coverage here: Disability rights activists protest against aid-in-dying measure.]

Not Dead Yet, the Resistance

Disability Activists from Not Dead Yet and ADAPT Engage in Funeral March to Protest Assisted Suicide Ballot Measure

Denver – Disability rights activists from ADAPT and Not Dead Yet will hold a funeral march from the Atlantis Community (201 S Cherokee St, Denver, CO 80223) to the Secretary of State Office (1700 Broadway #200, Denver, CO 80290) on Monday, August 8, 2016 to protest the assisted suicide measure being considered for the Colorado ballot. The group plans to step off from the Atlantis Community at 10:15 a.m. and march north to the Secretary of State’s office where they will have a wreath laying ceremony shortly after the noon hour.

“We are engaging in this street theater to educate the community about how legalization of assisted suicide will cause people to needlessly lose their lives through mistakes, coercion and abuse,” said Dawn Russell, ADAPT advocate and Atlantis Community board member.

“Elder abuse, and abuse of people with disabilities, are a rising problem,” said Anita Cameron, an ADAPT advocate, and Not Dead Yet board member. “With legalized physician-assisted suicide, an heir or abusive caregiver may steer someone towards assisted suicide, witness the request, pick up the lethal dose, and even give the drug — no witnesses are required at the death, so who would know?” she said.

“Colorado’s suicide rate is among the highest in the nation,” said Cameron.  “This bill will promote suicide to one class of disabled citizens, rather than provide suicide prevention.  That is discrimination.”

These bills simply do not have any effective safeguards to prevent abuse,” said Robin Stephens, a longtime disability rights activist and Not Dead Yet board member. “Death certificates are required to be falsified, no witness is required at the death, and a greedy heir can witness the request for a lethal prescription. Colorado does not need this initiative.”

ADAPT is a grassroots disability rights organization with chapters in 30 states. It uses nonviolent direct action in order to bring attention and awareness to the lack of civil rights the disability community experiences.

Not Dead Yet is a national, grassroots disability rights group that opposes legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia as deadly forms of discrimination against old, ill and disabled people. Not Dead Yet helps organize and articulate opposition to these practices based on secular social justice arguments. Not Dead Yet demands the equal protection of the law for the targets of so called “mercy killing” whose lives are seen as worth-less.

 

AUGUST 4: ONLINE VIGIL FOR THE MURDERED DISABLED PEOPLE OF SAGAMIHARA

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A few days ago, we reported the news of the massacre of 19 disabled people in Sagamihara, Japan. There’s been a lot of writing within the disability community about this horrific hate crime, but very little in the mainstream press. There have been a few vigils for the victims of the attack, but it’s hard to impossible for all those who want to join in talking, grieving and learning to get together physically.

On Thursday, August 4th, the Disability Visibility Project will be hosting an online vigil and chat starting at 8 PM ET.  Here’s the info from the site:

Online Vigil and Chat

Disabled People of Tsukui Yamayuri En

Sagamihara, Japan

Thursday, August 4, 2016

8 pm Eastern

9 am Japan (Aug. 5)

 

The Disability Visibility Project will be partnering with disabled filmmaker and activist Dominick Evans in an online vigil and chat remembering the 19 disabled people of the Tsukui Yamayuri En residential care facility in Sagamihara, Japan who were murdered and the 26 people that survived on July 26, 2016.

Joining us as a guest host is Dr. Michael Gillan Peckitt, an academic who lives in Nada-Ku, Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. He runs a disability related website ‘The Limping Philosopher’ and you can find him on Twitter: @Peckitt.

Lots more about how to participate on this page. Go read all of it here.

NDY Release: “Me Before You” Protesters Call For PSA To Prevent Copycat Suicides

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Not Dead Yet, the Resistance

Contacts:
Diane Coleman 708-420-0539
John Kelly 617-536-5140

For Immediate Release:

“Me Before You” Protesters Call For PSA To Prevent Copycat Suicides

Disability rights advocates who protested the film “Me Before You” in cities across the United States are calling on Warner Brothers to add a public service announcement to further releases of the film to help prevent copycat suicides.

In a letter sent today to Kevin Tsujihara, CEO of Warner Brothers, 19 national and 25 state, local and regional disability organizations stated:

“The public’s primary frame of reference can be shaped by what people see in movies and television. Storylines like this perpetuate stigma and discrimination based on disability. We are especially concerned that audiences will believe the desire to kill oneself is normal for those who need a high level of care. This inaccurate belief has been perpetuated by Warner Brothers track record of distributing other films, such as Million Dollar Baby and The Sea Inside, both of which emphasized the same dangerous message.

“. . . Therefore, to reduce the risk of a “copycat” suicide effect, as well as negative impacts on individuals and families in the midst of critical health care decisions, the responsible thing to do is add a public service announcement to online and home entertainment releases at the beginning of the film.”

The public service announcement recommended by the disability organizations is Live On. Disabled Lives Are Worth Living, produced by the Center for Disability Rights in Rochester, New York.

Disability protests of Me Before You received substantial press coverage in late May and June. Members of Not Dead Yet UK protested at the London premier on May 24th, which garnered significant coverage (Guardian, Buzzfeed) during the protest and in the days following.

“The last big example of this tired theme was Million Dollar Baby, which came out before the major growth of social media but still resulted in protests covered in the New York Times,” said Stephen Drake, research analyst for Not Dead Yet (USA).

Disability rights writers and bloggers also blasted the film for its oppressive portrayal of living with significant disabilities like quadriplegia. Examples include articles by disability studies scholar Bill Peace and activist and filmmaker Dominick Evans. Some have been featured in mainstream outlets like Emily Ladau’s article in Salon, Lauren West’s in Huffington Post and Ben Mattlin’s in the Chicago Tribune.

Not Dead Yet’s New England regional director John Kelly has the same level of spinal cord injury as Will Traynor, the lead male character in Me Before You. “Book and screenplay author JoJo Moyes admits she knows nothing about quadriplegics,” said Kelly, “yet her ignorance is allowed to promote the idea that people like me are better off dead. No one’s suicide should be treated noble and inspirational. Our suicides should be viewed as tragedies like anyone else’s.”