I don't watch evening news shows very often, but tonight I did. One of the big stories on the CBS Evening News was about how supply chain issues were causing shortages of 109 lifesaving drugs, and I was nodding along until correspondent Mark Strassmann blamed the shortages partly on "complicated market issues." That sounded sort of dodgy, so I spent 30 seconds googling drug shortages. Via the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, here's the data from 2001 through 2020:¹
Hmmm. It doesn't look as if 109 shortages is any kind of crisis. Let's zoom in:
Not only is there no crisis, drug shortages have been dropping ever since the start of the year.
I am so sick of this shit. Nora O'Donnell introduced the segment by telling us that the AMA calls drug shortages an "urgent public health crisis," and it's true that they've said that. 12 months ago. As far as the AMA is concerned, drug shortages are always an urgent crisis and they've been pushing their "framework" to address drug shortages forever. That's what lobbying groups do.
Apparently CBS News is so desperate to invent breathless supply chain stories that they randomly chose drug shortages even though the data is crystal clear that there's absolutely nothing unusual about drug shortages at the moment. In fact, we're doing better than usual. Precisely none of that context was included in Strassmann's report.
¹Contrary to the title on the chart, I believe it's showing new and ongoing drug shortages by year.
Destroy all media.
Not everything is a quantitative problem. Critical medicines that can only be replaced with suboptimal alternatives can be an issue, even if the number of shortages are small. So there's no fucking way to tell based on totals number of drugs. Sorry, Kevin. I don't buy your reasoning.
gvahut, you make a good point. Unless we have information on the specific drugs there is no way to know if they have available substitutions. The information provided is meaningless.
It wasn’t Kevin who based the severity of the situation on the raw count, it was CBS News.
That's not true.
Their report not only included the number of shortages but also gave examples of the type of drugs that are in shortage (Three of the top five drugs with shortages are drugs needed for chemo, heart conditions, and antibiotics). The type of dugs not available is the real problem, not just the number of them.
The specific example they focused on in more detail was a drug given to both Chemo patients and COVID patients, but now due to the shortage, Chemo patients were being prioritized over those with COVID, who as a result were instead given what the Drs considered worse alternatives.
This was Kevin's pathetic attempt at faux outrage by either intentionally or incompetently leaving out all the context from the CBS report.
Give me a break. They lied. It's obvious.
Not sufficient to establish that this is any more of an ‘urgent crisis’ than it was five or ten years ago. How many of the drugs in short supply in earlier periods were ‘lifesaving’?
Looks like the number of drugs shortages went up during the Trump administration.
Color me shocked, really shocked.
There is actually a drug shortage, but is has nothing to do with supply lines. People that suffer from chronic debilitating pain have for several months seen a disruption to their supply of opioids like fentanyl patches bc the CDC has sought to limit Drs ability to prescribe and the DEA has sought to limit production. This is a response to the rise in opiate related deaths due to adulterated street drugs. Meaning. China shit fentanyl gets into everybody's coke and meth, people die, and the response is that the government cracks down on the systems it can control - real medicine that people need.
I can count on one finger the stories and opinions I've read that seriously understand the crackdown, furiously pursued by the press, on the medications some truly need to live a decent life.
In the last few years meth has made a resurgence thanks to not needing ephedrine and instead using industrial chemicals that instantly fry the brain and make people paranoid conspiracists. Yes you read that last right.
But, but, but, what about ivermectin?
Our news media is pathetic. The written word is only slightly better than the TV-yappers who are beyond repair. I cannot watch them and recommend to anyone that cares to never watch the news, no matter what the venue (but, of course, Fox News is the absolute worse).
I thought they were talking about "The Panic in Needle Park."
My mistake- or theirs?
Many issues with "shortages". How long do they usually last? From the charts, I'd guess the "new shortages" is really new, and the "continual" shortages are ca. twice the new ones. What I can't say, are which ones are chronically short?
Then there is the question, why are there shortages. Some seem to be manufactured shortages (not manufacturing...). EpiPens where an issue, maybe still are, and I was just reading about narcan. For the latter, there is shortage in low cost supplies to first responders.
I'm sure there are some pandemic related issues, and even though that's a serious problem for those affected, you're right in saying it's not a crises that is blowing up.
And sadly for Democrats, persuadable normies (unlike the folks who watch MSNBC and Fox News) tend to watch the big three news networks.
Not really. I would attack CBS and outright on the tv, go in front of the people and torture said journalist who lied. I would then say "see, they admitted they lied". Media lies. Giving the sheep what they want to hear.
A truism turned from a lie. I guarantee the rest of the journalists will be subdued in the future.
CBS News and Nora O'Donnell are guilty of over hyping on a daily basis. EVERYTHING is BREAKING NEWS!!!!!! no matter how many hours (days) ago it happened.
I disagree with you footnote. It looks to me like the first chart is just new cases and the second chart is new and continuing cases. Otherwise, how can the quarterly numbers be higher than the yearly numbers?
Fortunately, there's no shortage of cannabis products.
What the hell happened to you Kevin? You used to be a media person I admired but it is sad to see how you have turned into the polite version of a Fox News host (ironic for someone so against Fox News). Regularly showing faux outrage, looking at things superficially or without context, and regularly going after the left with arguments that essentially amount to stop whining and be more understanding of the right's feelings.
If the report had only focused on the numbers of drugs in shortage perhaps you'd have a point, except that the report not only mentioned the number of drugs, but the type of drugs, which is what really shows the severity of the problem. When three of the top five drugs in shortage are drugs needed to treat Cancer patients, people with heart problems, and antibiotics, you have a more serious problem than if you have a greater quantity of shortages in drugs used less frequently, or needed for less serious conditions.
Same with the reason for the shortages. You conveniently said:
"blamed the shortages partly on "complicated market issues." That sounded sort of dodgy"
But why focus on the catch all reason, when before that they also mentioned COVID and trade restrictions, and even highlighted that only 1/3 of the drugs the US consumes are manufactured in the US (thus why disruptions caused by COVID and trade restrictions have a greater impact). I guess it wouldn't sound as "dodgy" if you mention the rest, so better focus on the more abstract one.
That's the type of tactic Fox News hosts use regularly when they want to complain about something.
"Precisely none of that context was included in Strassmann's report."
This is just sad because you did the same thing with everything else they mentioned. Again like a Fox News host complaining that MSM doesn't tell them the whole story while they conveniently leave a lot in order to give shape to their outrage.
But if there aren't more shortages now, how does COVID impact it? And those trade restrictions have been around for a few years, but no real spike in shortages. Also, in previous years have there been shortages of things like chemo medicines or heart medicine or antibiotics? Are the shortages sited by CBS unique or just the random luck of the draw for 2021?