(NEW YORK) — More than 75,000 workers at Kaiser Permanente launched a strike Wednesday, with a coalition of unions alleging the health care system is engaging in unfair labor practices.
Employees in Virginia and Washington, D.C., walked off the job at 6 a.m. ET while those in California, Colorado, Washington and Oregon began striking at 9 a.m. ET, beginning the largest health care workers strike in U.S. history, the unions say.
Those in mid-Atlantic states will be striking for one day while those in western states will be striking for three days.
The strike includes hundreds of positions, including nurses, emergency department technicians, pharmacists, optometrists, home health aides, medical assistants, dental assistants and more.
The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, which represents more than 85,000 workers, said Kaiser is experiencing a short-staffing crisis and that unsafe levels of staffing can result in long wait times, patient neglect and missed diagnoses.
Additionally, the Coalition said it’s advocating for better medical plans for retirees as well as protections against work that is outsourced and subcontracted.
The Coalition and the nonprofit organization have been bargaining since April but were unable to reach an agreement before contracts expired on Sept. 30.
In a statement to ABC News on Wednesday, Kaiser said bargaining was ongoing and some agreements had been reached.
“Both Kaiser Permanente management and Coalition union representatives are still at the bargaining table, having worked through the night in an effort to reach an agreement,” the statement read. “There has been a lot of progress, with agreements reached on several specific proposals late Tuesday.”
The statement continued, “We remain committed to reaching a new agreement that continues to provide our employees with market-leading wages, excellent benefits, generous retirement income plans, and valuable professional development opportunities.”
Kaiser had said throughout the strike, all of its hospitals and emergency departments will remain open and contract workers have been hired to backfill striking employees.
The Kaiser strike comes amid several major labor actions in other sectors of the workforce. The United Auto Workers launched a strike on Sept. 15 against General Motors, Ford and Stellantis after failing to reach a contract agreement with the automakers.
Additionally, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) is continuing its strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) which began on July 14.
The Writers Guild of America ended its strike against AMPTP last week after almost 150 days, securing better pay and regulations for the use of artificial intelligence in certain projects.
(NEW YORK) — More than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers across the country are planning to strike Wednesday morning over what a coalition of unions allege are unfair labor practices.
The strike — which will last for three days in most locations and include employees in California, Colorado, Maryland, Oregon, Virginia, Washington and Washington, D.C. — would be the largest among health care workers in U.S. history, according to the unions.
The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, which represents more than 85,000 workers, and the health care system have been negotiating since April but were unable to come to an agreement before their contract expired on Sept. 30, officials said.
Workers allege in a release that the COVID-19 pandemic led to working conditions deteriorating and exacerbated a staffing crisis plaguing several health care systems.
The employees alleged Kaiser’s bargaining in bad faith led to unsafe levels of staffing that resulted in long wait times, patient neglect and missed diagnoses. Additionally, the Coalition said it’s advocating for better medical plans for retirees as well as protections against work that is outsourced and subcontracted.
Debru Carthan, lead radiologic technologist at Kaiser Permanente Modesto, told ABC News she and her colleagues are often doing the work of two to three individuals and it is affecting the quality of care, such as when she performs mammograms.
“We generally do mammograms every 15 minutes but with the Kaiser short staffing crisis, we are cut down to sometimes seven and a half minutes,” she said. “So our workload is double; where I might have a regular schedule of 20, but now I have anywhere from 40 to 45 patients that were supposed to do an eight-hour period.”
Carthan added, “As a frontline health care worker, we are listening to our patients and Kaiser executives are not listening to us about how mentally and physically and emotionally drained we are. Our patients feel it; they’re not getting the quality care that they should be getting and it’s not safe.”
The Coalition also argues that despite being a nonprofit organization, Kaiser has reported more than $24 billion in profit over the last five years and $3 billion in profits in just the first six months of this year.
The strike will include hundreds of positions, including nurses, emergency department technicians, pharmacists, home health aides, dental assistants and more.
Kaiser Permanente said the strike is “not inevitable” but also “certainly not justified” and claims that it leads in total compensation in every market it operates in and that it offers “great benefits,” including special benefits during the pandemic including for child care, housing and sick benefits.
“We need to keep working together to get through this. Because the reality is that we are still in a health care crisis in this country,” the nonprofit said in a statement. “Access to care is stretched thin and it will take time to recover as an industry and stabilize the US health care system. We can only do that if we work together, management and labor, side-by-side, for one another, our patients, and our communities.”
Carthan disagreed and said a strike is necessary due to the mental and physical exhaustion she said she and her colleagues are experiencing.
“As a 27-year-employee, I am disheartened by the bad faith bargaining that Kaiser is doing” she said. “It hurts to see that our patients can’t get in for months. It hurts to know that our patients especially my mammogram patients with lumps and things of that nature have to sit at home and worry because of the Kaiser short staffing crisis. This is not okay.”
Kaiser said its current offer is across-the-board wage over four years, including a proposed $21 minimum wage in Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, Oregon, Virginia, Washington and Washington, D.C. and a $23 minimum wage in California.
In an email to ABC News, Kaiser addressed the accusations of understaffing, saying that it’s hired more than 50,000 frontline employees this year and last year and said it would reach its goal of 10,000 new hires represented by the Coalition by the end of October.
The nonprofit said it has plans to take care of patients should a strike occur and that its hospitals and emergency departments remain open. Kaiser employs more than 212,000 people throughout the U.S.
However, Kaiser said it may reschedule non-emergency and elective procedures in some locations and will send some prescriptions to outpatient pharmacies to meet any demand.
(NEW YORK) — Mathias Uribe was a healthy 14-year-old kid looking forward to his freshman year of high school, during which he planned to join the cross-country team and continue to play piano, according to his parents Edgar and Catalina Uribe.
That all changed in late June, when Mathias developed flu-like symptoms, including a high fever.
“His body was red and he was also showing some rashes, which [doctors] told us was due to the high fever,” Edgar Uribe told ABC News’ Good Morning America, noting they took Mathias to the doctor twice. “And that was for about four to five days.”
At the end of June, Mathias’ condition quickly worsened, which prompted his parents to take him to a local emergency room.
There, they were told that his case of flu had worsened to pneumonia and he became hypoxic, meaning his body was not getting enough oxygen. Shortly after, Mathias, who had no preexisting health conditions, went into cardiac arrest.
“He just all of a sudden went into cardiac arrest, and he went into cardiac arrest for about six minutes,” Edgar Uribe recalled. “We were asked to step out of the room. The doctors all rushed into the room try to get his vital signs.”
Once doctors were able to revive Mathias, he was airlifted from their local hospital in a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee, to a larger hospital. From there, he had to be transferred again, this time to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, where he could receive the most critical care.
For the next two weeks, Mathias was intubated and put on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine — known as an ECMO machine — which removes carbon dioxide from the blood and sends back blood with oxygen to the body, pumping that blood through the body and allowing the heart and lungs time to rest and heal.
Edgar Uribe recalled being told by doctors that they weren’t sure if Mathias would survive, and if he did, what brain function he would have, if any.
He and his wife, also the parents of a 9-year-old son named Nicholas, described it as a “second by second” waiting game to see what would happen to their eldest son.
“Every single day, you just don’t know what you’re going to wake up to. You don’t know what’s going to happen,” Edgar Uribe said. “It’s been really tough, especially having Nicholas. He’s 9 years old and that’s his best friend.”
Dr. Katie Boyle, a pediatrician and co-leader of Mathias’ medical team at the Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, said that while Mathias started out with a flu diagnosis, his health deteriorated rapidly when he developed bacterial pneumonia with an invasive streptococcal infection as a complication of the flu.
From there, according to Boyle, Mathias developed streptococcal toxic shock syndrome and septic shock.
Streptococcal toxic shock syndrome is a disease where a person develops a severe immune response to toxins released from the bacteria and, as a result, their tissues and organs do not get enough oxygenated blood. Sepsis is the body’s response to an infection that can lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Boyle, also an assistant professor of pediatrics in the division of pediatric care at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, said both conditions are rare, especially in an otherwise healthy teenager like Mathias.
“Most of [the cases] are in patients who have problems with their immune system or are on medications that cause immune system problems,” Boyle said.
Referring to Mathias, she added, “Having the flu kind of set him up for potentially having a bacterial infection, but even then it’s pretty rare to get something so severe. In his case, it’s like he had an immune response to the bacteria that was overwhelming.”
Despite the odds, within one week of being in the intensive care unit on life support, Mathias’ parents noticed his first movements.
“I noticed that he started to move his shoulders, and I said that to the doctors,” said Catalina Uribe, noting that doctors began doing tests on him to see if he would respond. “They tried to say to him, ‘Mathias, do you hear us?,’ and I started to scream to him and to say to him, ‘Mathias, show that you are here. Show them that you are here, Mathias.'”
She continued, “And he started to move all his body. That was a beautiful moment for us.”
Mathias’ parents and his doctors would go on to find that he had not lost any brain function, despite being in cardiac arrest for six minutes, a discovery that they all described as a miracle.
Finding a new normal in life as an amputee
More obstacles were to come, however, when it became clear that the disruption of blood flow to Mathias’ hands and legs had resulted in irreversible damage.
“When he woke up and they removed the ventilator and they removed the ECMO machine after 14 days, they [told] us about the first amputation, and that maybe he was going to lose a leg,” said Catalina Uribe. “After that procedure [to amputate his left leg] they said to us in a big meeting with a lot of doctors, they say the other leg doesn’t look good too, and also the hands.”
The Uribes said they struggled greatly thinking about what their son’s future might look like without his own legs and hands.
“He runs cross country. He runs track and field in school. He plays the piano. He’s a very, very, very smart kid,” said Edgar Uribe. “He was going to be a freshman in high school. His dream was to go to [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] and be an engineer.”
Catalina Uribe recalled crying alongside Mathias as he was told by doctors that he would need further amputations.
The teenager has undergone 14 surgeries so far in order to preserve as much function as possible while still amputating his forearms below the elbow on both arms, as well as one leg below the knee and one leg above the knee, according to Boyle.
The Uribes said they have been amazed by Mathias’ strength, both physically in what his body has overcome and emotionally.
“He’s really resilient. He’s like, ‘OK, this is what I need to get better, OK,'” said Catalina Uribe. “We don’t have words to describe how strong he is. I mean, he’s amazing.”
Edgar Uribe said he and his wife have told Mathias how critically ill he was in order to give him perspective on how far he has come. He said they as a family are moving forward with what they call their “new life.”
“We’ve said [to Mathias], ‘You have to be grateful you are alive. Mathias Uribe, you are all here. Your heart. Your mind. You are here,'” Edgar Uribe said, continuing. “‘We’re going to figure this out. At the beginning, we’re going to be your arms and legs. We’re going to help you out … Then you’re going to have prosthetics … You’ll be able to be an engineer and fulfill all your goals.'”
The Uribes said that as Mathias continues to recover, they are hopeful he can be home in time for Christmas.
He is still in the intensive care unit while he continues to recover from surgery, but he should soon be discharged to a rehabilitation center, according to Boyle. He’ll then be fitted for prosthetics to help him regain his independence.
“He’s really reliant on nurses and his family for everything right now, whereas [before], he was a teenage boy who could just do everything and be more independent,” Boyle said, adding, “I think for everyone caring for him, it’s really hard emotionally to imagine what he’s going through and to think of a young person dealing with this, and then it’s also inspiring because you realize not only is he dealing with this, but he’s just very determined and very strong.”
The Uribes said they have been supported through Mathias’ health care by not only Boyle and the team of doctors and nurses at the Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt but also by Mathias’ friends and classmates, his school, their friends and family and their local community. Family friends started a GoFundMe that has raised over $300,000 to help cover the costs of upcoming and likely lifelong expenses like Mathias’ prosthetics, his rehab care and renovations to make their home wheelchair-accessible.
They said they’ve found hope in their faith and in the belief that while the past three months have been “exhausting,” that there is a purpose to what happened and that Mathias will go on to live a “beautiful life.”
“We focus on what we gained in the situation,” said Catalina Uribe. “Yes, we lost a lot, but Mathias is here.”
“The simple fact that we could sit next to him and laugh together and tell him, ‘I love you,’ and just hear, ‘I love you, dad. You’re the best dad,’ or, ‘You’re the best mom in the world,’ that means everything to us,” said Edgar Uribe.
He added, “We are certain that Mathias is going to get up from here. He’s going to go to rehab. He’s going to get his prosthetics, and he’s going to do something really beautiful with his life.”
(NEW YORK) — A Pennsylvania woman in her 80s has died after contracting West Nile virus, health officials said this week.
The woman lived in Pittsburgh and is the first human case reported in Allegheny County this year, according to the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD).
Officials said the woman experienced fever and weakness and was eventually hospitalized before she passed away in late September. No other information about the patient will be released, the department said.
Earlier this summer, the ACHD said it had detected West Nile virus in Pittsburgh-area mosquitoes.
ACHD officials said in this week’s announcement that they are setting up additional traps, including in the neighborhood where the patient lived, and are targeting other areas with a mosquito pesticide.
West Nile virus is the leading cause of mosquito-borne disease in the continental United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It was first introduced in the Western Hemisphere during the summer of 1999, after people were diagnosed in New York City.
Mosquitoes typically become infected with the virus after feeding on infected birds, and then spread it to humans and other animals when biting them, the federal health agency said. West Nile virus is not spread through coughing, sneezing, interpersonal contact, or eating infected animals, such as birds.
Most people with West Nile virus do not experience symptoms, but about one in five will experience fever along with headaches, body aches, joint pain, diarrhea, vomiting or a rash. Most symptoms soon disappear, though weakness and fatigue may last for weeks or months.
About one in 150 people infected with West Nile virus will develop severe disease leading to encephalitis, which is inflammation of the brain, or meningitis, which is inflammation of the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord. Both conditions can be fatal.
There are currently no vaccines for West Nile virus, nor disease-specific treatments. The CDC recommends rest, fluids, and over-the-counter medications to treat the infection. Those with severe illness may need to be hospitalized and receive additional support treatments, such as intravenous fluids.
This year, Pennsylvania has reported 10 cases of West Nile virus to the CDC, according to the Allegheny County Health Department. There were two cases of West Nile virus in Allegheny County last year and three cases in 2021.
To best protect yourself from infection, or from mosquito bites in general, the CDC suggests using insect repellent, wearing long-sleeved shirts and pants, treating clothing and gear with insecticide, and taking broader steps to control mosquitoes. This last step includes putting screens on windows and doors, using air conditioning, and regularly emptying containers filled with still or stagnant water.
The Allegheny County Health Department said residents who see mosquito breeding sites can report them online, or by calling (412) 350-4046.
(NEW YORK) — The best time to take an at-home COVID-19 test is on the fourth day of having symptoms, according to a study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.
Researchers looked at nearly 350 people and found that viral load peaked a few days after symptoms started.
“Viral load just refers to the amount of virus that is replicating in your body, So the more virus that is replicating, the more chance of a test turning positive,” said John Brownstein, Ph.D., chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News Contributor.
“Right at the beginning point of an infection, there’s limited viral copies. But as the infection progresses, you’ll have an increasing amount of virus replicating in your body,” he added.
The study found that at-home tests were most accurate on the fourth day of symptoms. They could still pick up some infections in the first three days but were more likely to be negative. The findings show that people should not be able to rule out COVID-19 just based on a negative test early on after symptoms start, the study authors said.
Most of the people in the study had either been vaccinated or had a previous COVID infection.
Current guidelines recommend testing immediately if you have symptoms and if it’s negative, following up at least 48 hours later with another antigen test or opting to take a PCR test as soon as possible, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“New variants may cause differences in [the] timing of viral load. It may affect the timing of when tests may be the most optimal to detect the virus,” Brownstein said.
“This study highlights the challenges of optimizing test performance and timing for the most effective action,” he added.
The federal government recently re-launched a program that allows Americans to order free COVID tests straight to their home. Tests can be ordered at CovidTests.Gov.
Some “expired” COVID tests have also had their expiration dates extended by the Food and Drug Administration. At-home tests typically have a shelf life of around 4-6 months from the day they were manufactured.
Federal health authorities continue to encourage everyone to anonymously report their at-home COVID tests to MakeMyTestCount.org.
COVID hospitalizations have declined for two consecutive weeks, following a steady uptick for about two months.
Updated COVID vaccines were recently greenlit by federal health authorities but had a rocky distribution start following reports of supply issues and insurance snags, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The issues appear to have been resolved.
“At this time, we understand that systemic technical issues have been largely, if not completely, resolved and are not limiting patient access to vaccines. Should further issues arise, we stand ready to swiftly implement system improvements,” the insurance companies said in a letter to the secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, obtained by ABC News.
Retailers also confirmed that updated COVID vaccines were now available in greater supply.
“All stores now have the supply needed to meet demand in their communities. Additional appointments have been added to our scheduler and will continue to be made available at our sites based on supply. We are updating Walgreens.com and our app with real-time appointment availability so patients have accurate information,” Walgreens told ABC News in a statement.
“I think we’re through the sort of crunch of the initial rollout where you had that sort of massive demand immediately. That has now stabilized, demand has stabilized, supply has stabilized, meaning that there’s a lot of options for people out there to get access to the booster right now,” Brownstein said.
ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett and Dr. Genevieve Jing contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Kate Korson was living out her dream of caring for rescue horses in Colorado and preparing to celebrate her 34th birthday when she said she received a surprising diagnosis.
Just one week shy of her birthday, Korson said she was diagnosed with stage 3, triple-negative breast cancer, an aggressive and invasive form of the disease.
“How am I 34 with stage 3 breast cancer,” Korson told Good Morning America, describing her thoughts at the time of her diagnosis last January. “Why is this happening to me? How is this possible?”
Triple-negative breast cancer is one of the smallest categories of breast cancer groups, only accounting for about 10-15% of all breast cancers, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Triple-negative disease is a unique class of breast cancer because it lacks receptors that drug therapies can target for treatment, making it harder to treat than other types of breast cancers. With a diagnosis of stage 3 breast cancer, that meant the disease had spread beyond Korson’s breast to nearby lymph nodes or muscles.
Facing such a serious diagnosis, Korson said she chose to return to her home state of Pennsylvania to undergo treatment at the Penn Medicine Abramson Cancer Center. It is the same center where Korson said her mother was treated for colon cancer 17 years ago.
And just like her mom did in her own cancer battle, Korson told her doctors she wanted to participate in a clinical trial to give her the best shot of beating the disease and to also help other breast cancer patients.
“I want to help people in the future who are faced with this. I want things to be easier for them,” she said. “The benefits of a clinical trial are that you get the most cutting-edge treatment. You get the treatment that will be available in a few years, and for me, that was overwhelmingly successful.”
At the Penn Medicine Abramson Cancer Center, Korson enrolled in the I-SPY2 clinical trial, during which she received four infusions of a new type of therapy.
The treatment is faster and less toxic than the current standard of care for her type of cancer, according to Dr. Hayley Knollman, an oncologist who treated Korson.
“The standard of care for treatment of triple negative breast cancer would involve six months of intense chemotherapy, along with immunotherapy,” Knollman told GMA. “And with her participating in this clinical trial, we were able to treat her very effectively for this breast cancer in half of the time and spare her a lot of toxicity.”
In just a few months, Korson’s tumor shrank so substantially that doctors where able to stop the treatment early and send her to surgery to remove the rest of the tumor.
“She had a great response on pathology,” Dr. Lola Faynaju, the breast surgeon who treated Korson, told GMA. “When we finally got the results of her surgery back and looked at under the microscope, we were really excited to see that basically all that tumor was gone.”
After undergoing a successful surgery, Korson began radiation therapy, which she will continue to undergo for several weeks.
Then, she’ll take a chemotherapy pill to help keep the cancer from returning.
Although not every patient who undergoes clinical trials will have the same outcome, Korson said she hopes her story helps to both destigmatize clinical trials and raise awareness of breast cancer treatment opportunities.
Her doctors, Faynaju and Knollman, said they hope that Korson sharing her story will also raise awareness of breast cancer and remind women to prioritize their health.
“You actually can’t be too young to get breast cancer,” Faynaju said. “Listen to your body if you’re a woman, and also know if you’re high or average risk.”
In the United States, mammogram screenings are recommended once every two years for women age 50 to 74 years who have an average risk of breast cancer, according to U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines.
Women ages 40 to 49 may choose to begin screening once every two years if they “place a higher value on the potential benefit than the potential harms” of the mammogram, according to the guidelines.
Knollman noted the prevalence of breast cancer, which is diagnosed in around 240,000 women each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“It’s very likely that most people have someone in their life that they know, a friend, a colleague, a family member impacted by breast cancer,” she said. “It’s important for women to get to know their bodies and to raise any concerns with their doctors.”
For more information about breast cancer clinical trials at Penn Medicine, visit Pennmedicine.org/cancer.
(WASHINGTON) — For one military family, the consequences of a partial government shutdown would be dire: It could mean not affording treatments and medications for their child who is fighting for her life.
Austin Carrigg and her husband, Master Sgt. Joshua Carrigg, are parents of three — their youngest, 11-year-old Melanie, has Down syndrome, a congenital heart defect and a metabolic disorder. Melanie recently had a catastrophic stroke.
Carrigg spoke with ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott and said her family pays around $300 out of pocket for medication each month. With the government on the brink of a shutdown as soon as Sunday, she said she’s had sleepless nights worrying about how they’ll be able to afford medications that Melanie needs.
“That’s been the conversation — how will we be able to pay for the medications? Because they’re not a choice,” she said.
The Alexandria, Virginia, residents are one of many military families whose household budgets could take a hit in a government shutdown. As many as 4 million workers could lose pay as a result of a shutdown — about half of whom are military troops and personnel.
Congress is just days away from triggering a shutdown. They have until the end of the day on Saturday to reach a deal on funding. If they don’t, parts of the government will shut down and members of the military will likely have to work without a paycheck.
While the military would see back pay, that may not lessen the blow to many families living paycheck to paycheck.
Melanie sees a litany of specialists including ones for brain injury and spinal rehabilitation, four eye doctors and three urologists, Carrigg said. Concern about how they can give Melanie the care she needs has her family “stuck in this loop of worry and anxiety,” Carrigg said.
“The question has really become, what can we get rid of? Who can we borrow money from in order to do what we need to do in order to keep her alive?”
Carrigg said her husband has been in active duty for 21 years, and this looming government shutdown feels like a slap in the face to the many military families who support the country yet live paycheck to paycheck.
“We’re a pawn in a game,” she said. “If they supported us, they would make sure we knew where our next meal was coming from.”
Now Carrigg is pleading with Congress to act.
“They are literally playing games with our lives. We mean nothing to them … but they expect my husband to go fight their wars. That’s not fair.”
Scott asked Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., what he would say to military families like the Carriggs.
“First of all, they do get a paycheck — it’s back pay,” he said.
Other lawmakers have dismissed the impact of a shutdown.
“Most of what people will see is not a shutdown. What they will experience is the slowdown,” Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., told Scott.
Carrigg said she wants Congress to know there are “human lives on the line” and that her daughter is one of them.
“She’s amazing. She’s the bravest, strongest child you will ever meet,” Carrigg said. “If she’s willing to fight to stay alive … then, as the people who pay my husband to do his job, you have a responsibility to make sure her life is the best that it can be.”
(NEW YORK) — Amid the high cost and rising popularity of drugs used for weight loss like Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy, pharmacists and medical doctors are warning consumers about some websites that sell discounted versions of the drugs.
When a consumer orders a drug online, they have no way of knowing what is in the medication, among other things, according to Dr. Konstantinos Spaniolas, director of the metabolic weight loss center at Stony Brook Medicine.
“Even if you assume that the medication is the correct substance, if this is not processed correctly and it’s not sterile, there are infectious concerns,” Spaniolas told ABC News’ Becky Worley. “People really have to be careful because this leap of faith of ordering something that you are self-injecting at home is a big problem.”
He added, “I personally, would not expose myself to that risk.”
Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy each require a prescription, and are not sold over the counter.
Ozempic and Mounjaro are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat Type 2 diabetes, but some doctors prescribe the medication “off-label” for weight loss, as is permissible by the FDA. Wegovy, which contains the same main ingredient as Ozempic, is FDA-approved for weight loss.
Insurance coverage for Ozempic and Wegovy varies, depending on everything from a person’s medical diagnosis to where they live and their insurance plan.
Without health insurance coverage, the medications can cost over $1,000 per month.
Because of the high demand and high price for the drugs, some websites have started offering the drugs to consumers online.
“There’s a huge percent of the population who is looking for these medications with limited access, whether … it’s from insurance or availability,” Spaniolas said. “Patients are trying to get the medications ordered online, but people have to be very careful.”
Dr. Al Carter, executive director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, told ABC News that many of the websites selling drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro appear to be doing so illegally by operating without a license and by not requiring a prescription for the medications.
“There are around 30 to 35,000 pharmacies that are acting illegally,” Carter said. “Our Digital Health team finds, on any given day, around 20 pharmacies, new pharmacies that are operating illegally.”
Other unlicensed websites may promise a compounded version of a drug like Ozempic, which the FDA has warned against. Compound versions of drugs are made for individual patients using raw ingredients.
In June, the FDA warned consumers it had received reports of adverse events after people took semaglutide — the active ingredient in both Ozempic and Wegovy — that came from a compounding pharmacy. It did not specify the number of reports or what the adverse events were.
The FDA also said in the same warning that some compounding pharmacies claiming to sell semaglutide might instead be selling other formulations of the chemical, like semaglutide sodium and semaglutide acetate. Those haven’t been shown to be safe or effective, according to the FDA.
Also in June, Novo Nordisk, the pharmaceutical company that makes Ozempic and Wegovy, filed multiple lawsuits against certain medical spas, weight loss and wellness clinics, and compounding pharmacies for “the unlawful marketing and sales of non-FDA approved counterfeit and compounded semaglutide products claiming to contain semaglutide,” including allegations of false advertising, trademark infringement and unlawful sales of non FDA-approved compounded products.
Red flags for consumers
Justin Macy, who leads the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy’s Digital Health team, said one red flag for consumers to look for is websites that show photos of the drugs with unique United States-drug identification numbers, but then claim to ship out of Canada, which is illegal.
In other instances, websites posing as pharmacies may promote brand name versions of the drugs.
“The reason … that this looks so legitimate is because this is the actual Wegovy website,” Macy said of one example. “They totally just ripped off the manufacturer’s website.”
More red flags, according to both Carter and Macy, are websites that do not require a prescription in order to obtain the drugs, and websites that offer the drugs for well below the market price.
The FDA has resources on its website for consumers to use to determine whether an online pharmacy is safe, as well as a tool to search for state-licensed online pharmacies.
The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy also has a website, Safe.Pharmacy/a>, where consumers can verify online websites.
(NEW YORK) — Over-the-counter agents to treat upper respiratory symptoms like nasal congestion make up a multi-billion-dollar business. But recently, a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee ruled that oral phenylephrine, commonly found in some over-the-counter, or OTC, products like Dayquil, Mucinex, and Sudafed PE, does not work as a decongestant.
The decision has left many consumers confused when searching for relief among all the available products on store shelves.
“It really is stressful for a lot of consumers,” board-certified pulmonary critical care and sleep medicine physician Dr. Raj Dasgupta, MD, chief medical advisor at Sleep Advisor, told ABC News.
The Food and Drug Administration said in a public statement that the product will stay on the market while they review the available evidence.
The Consumer Healthcare Products Association, which represents manufacturers of over-the-counter-drugs, called the decision “disappointing” and offered to work with the FDA on the matter.
“We encourage FDA, before making any regulatory determination, to be mindful of the totality of the evidence supporting this long-standing OTC ingredient, as well as the significantly negative unintended consequences associated with any potential change in oral PE’s regulatory status,” CHPA president and CEO Scott Melville said in the statement.
Dasgupta says that taking oral phenylephrine isn’t dangerous and some people may believe it works for them, so those products don’t necessarily need to be thrown out due to a safety concern, but better options may be available.
For consumers buying new products, ABC News spoke to two experts to provide four tips to help find the right solution for sinus and cold symptoms this season:
Read the label, be intentional about purchase
Dasgupta explained that many people don’t actually know what products they are buying and that many products contain different medications that each treat different symptoms.
“If you are going to the store to pick up over the counter medications, you have to ask the question, ‘Why? Why are you going there,'” Dasgupta said.
Cold symptoms may include nasal congestion, but people may also have muscle and body aches or a cough they want to treat and there are specific medications that target these other symptoms like acetaminophen, ibuprofen, or dextromethorphan.
Greg Castelli, Pharm.D., director of academic and clinical pharmacy in the department of family medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, says that sometimes less is more and recommends that people buying new products should consider only buying the one indicated for their symptom.
“When you’re walking down those aisles, you’ll see that there are products that have three and four medications in combination with each other. And you just may not need to have all those individual medications,” Castelli said.
Castelli says that oral pseudoephedrine can be found behind the pharmacy counter without a prescription and nasal sprays that contain phenylephrine are both effective agents for nasal congestion.
Certain medications that can be used to treat common cold symptoms such as diphenhydramine or Benadryl, a type of antihistamine, may also provide an added benefit of helping people fall asleep in addition to treating nasal inflammation, but should not be abused or overused.
Experts warn that all of these medications do have risks and side effects so people who have underlying medical problems should talk to their doctor about which one is right for them, or which ones should be avoided.
Some remedies don’t require medication to help
Experts say that rest, relaxation and hydration are undervalued when combating colds, but they do help.
“I think that when you’re feeling sick, it’s always a good time to re-address some of those sleep hygiene things,” Dasgupta said.
Dasgupta recommends putting technology away before bed and making sure the room is cool and dark where you sleep at night, and if congestion is a problem, sleeping with the head of the bed elevated or on pillows can help.
Soup is good for the soul and sinuses
Experts say steam can help the sinuses, which can come from a hot shower or even from some comfort foods like chicken-noodle soup.
“If you’re gonna smell something, why not some nice noodles and some chicken? … The steam going up your nose is gonna be wonderful,” Dasgupta said. “That’s one you could do like just really briefly like maybe in the morning or when you get home from work.”
Antibiotics are almost never the answer for the common cold
“We know that a lot almost 90% of these infections are caused by a virus and so antibiotics just aren’t what’s going to help you here,” Castelli said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says most colds are self-limiting viruses that do not require treatment.
“I cannot emphasize enough that we don’t take antibiotics for viruses,” Dasgupta said.
Dasgupta says there are circumstances when a cold-like illness does need to be treated with antibiotics if it’s due to a bacterial infection, but antibiotics should only be taken if prescribed by a healthcare provider.
Bonus: A little bit of honey can help a cough
Honey is one household product that can relieve cough symptoms and is safe for anyone above age 1, so this is a good option for some kids when cough suppressants aren’t recommended for them.
“Anyone over the age of one honey can be a really helpful effective way to help treat that cough,” ABC News medical correspondent Dr. Darien Sutton told Good Morning America.
Tim Sheehan/The Fresno Bee/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration this week relaunched the website where Americans can once again order free at-home COVID tests.
The website had been shut down since June but came back online just as updated COVID vaccines rolled out across the country.
Here’s how to order the tests and why you should not throw out old ones.
How to order free COVID test kits through USPS
Visit COVID.gov/tests and you will see instructions directing you to a website run by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to order a kit that comes with four tests.
You don’t have to pay for shipping. Just provide your name and address to place the order.
The Federal Trade Commission sent out an alert that government employees will never call, text or email Americans for information on receiving the tests. Credit card information, bank account information and Social Security number are not required to place an order.
If you live in a building or a multi-unit residence or with roommates, consider putting your apartment number ahead of your street address to avoid receiving an error message that the address has already been used.
How long will it take for the free COVID test kits to arrive?
Tests kits will take about one week from when the order was placed, but could take longer due to shipping delays.
If you would like an email confirmation and USPS delivery updates, you can enter your email address when placing the order.
Why not to throw out if they are past their expiration date
Some of the test boxes may arrive with an expiration date that has passed but the Food and Drug Administration warns against throwing them away.
Earlier in the pandemic, COVID tests kits were rolled out typically with a shelf life of about four to six months due to unknowns about how long they would be effective, experts said.
However, the FDA extended expiration dates based on additional data from manufacturers.
To check for an extended expiration date, visit the FDA webpage for at-home tests, which indicates the brands that have an extended date and provides a PDF for each test with new expiration dates.
You can find the lot number on the package, near the expiration date, and then check the PDF to see if it’s among those dates.
Where else can I get free COVID tests?
Since the public health emergency ended on May 11 of this year, access to free testing has dwindled. There are, however, still some avenues to access no-cost testing.
For those who are uninsured — as long as they are symptomatic or have been exposed to COVID — they can visit the CDC website, which lists sites for free testing at Increasing Community Access to Testing (ICATT) locations.
Free testing may also differ by geographic location. In New York City, for example, free testing is available at NYC Health + Hospitals locations and community care clinics. Free rapid tests are also available at public libraries.
