#5SmartReads - June 6, 2023

Hitha on opioids, allergies, and a look inside the Disney Channel

June 06, 2023

Just because something is legal doesn’t make it right.

This ruling from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is an example of that. The Sackler family (who directly worked for and served on the board of Purdue Pharma) would pay up to $6B and give up control of the company, and in turn be shielded from current and future civil claims.

This case is an exception in so many ways, which the book Empire of Lies outlines brilliantly. The Sackler family’s impact on American healthcare goes beyond the opioids - the current Sacklers’ predecessors were the brains behind pharmaceutical advertising that we get bombarded with today, and which made a commercial launch and scaling of OxyContin possible.

I understand the desire for the patients and families and communities who have been harmed by the opioid epidemic to get as much of a settlement as possible, and as quickly as possible. I also believe that the immunity the Sacklers are getting - for a paltry price, given the context - is wrong when their decisions have destroyed millions of families, entire communities, and trust in our healthcare system.

“There is no one answer to the question ‘Who needs gay bars?’ because there is no one ‘who,’ no one set of ‘needs,’ and no one kind of ‘gay bar.”

This is such an important framing of what gay bars are, versus what they’re portrayed to be in films and television and in books. And they’re far from what polarized media will report them to be.

“For some members of the queer community, drinking and dancing and hooking up can be done just about anywhere, without fear of violence. Queerness no longer has to be the primary axis on which they choose their evening activities. But for others, the need for queer spaces remains paramount. The wave of Republican-led anti-trans and anti-drag legislation has threatened small business owners and community members. Mattson writes that 50 percent of the country’s gay bars closed between 2012 and 2021, and that the difficulties have not been evenly felt. Bars that cater to people of color, lesbian bars, and bars that center certain kinks are closing at a faster rate, he notes.”

This is a really thoughtful interview about the important role gay bars have played in American history, and how their role in communities have changed as times have changed. If there’s one article you read today, make it this one. There’s so much more than I could possibly summarize or quote from.

Disclaimer - the expert interviewed in this piece is a medical anthropologist, not an allergist. Always consult with a physician (especially a specialist) for medical advice instead of the Internet.

It has to do with some things you’d expect - changes in diet, exposure to more endocrine disrupters, less time outside.

But my favorite contributor was male trees.

“Female trees tend to be messier. So they have seeds falling and things like that, so they're harder to clean up after. And so for years it was thought, oh, well, let's just have the trees that don't have that problem except that they're pumping out pollen to pollinate the female trees. And so you accidentally got this imbalance of pollen-producing trees.”

This interview has a lot of great information about why allergies are getting worse, and what we can do about them. The written interview is a great introduction, but you can also listen to the entire 40+ minute interview.

I hate this headline because I’ve read the article, and it diminishes Christy Carlson Romano’s own story and her rapidly growing new business, PodCo.

Christy will be the first to tell you that she’s utilized the addictive strategies from breaking news to attract viewers to her YouTube channel, but she did so to educate watchers of the realities and exploitation of child stars in the 90s and early 2000s. She also is bravely open about her own challenges in her post-Disney career, and how she’s built a life beyond the ubiquitous Mickey outline and residual checks.

Get that coin, Christy. And keep doing what you’re doing - I, for one, am loving this trip down memory lane (and introducing my kids to Kim Possible).

I wish we saw more of this, but I’ll take it.

It’s rare to see a leader cross party lines to codify necessary reproductive health care access and rights, and I’m glad that Governor Joe Lombardo of Nevada did just that.

Nevada’s legislature passed a law that codified an EO from the previous governor (endures medical boards and commissions do not discipline or disqualify doctors who provide abortions, bars state agencies from assisting in out-of-state investigations of abortion patients traveling to Nevada). And unlike many of his counterparts in other states, Governor Lombardo signed it into law.

I also appreciate that two Republican state senators in Nevada joined their Democrat colleagues in voting for this bill.

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