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Stuff

Here are the Tests

I don’t want this to sound like a complaint, but people could not stop telling us about their stuff. Every lab tech and pharmacist. Every community and social worker. I am not a medical professional and half of these things were just words that I didn’t understand, but my goodness were they happy about the stuff they’ve got. 

One way to look at that is to assume it’s because people wanted to let me know that donor money is well spent. There are probably donors out there who need and want that reassurance, perhaps because they’ve had bad experiences in the past or their unconscious bias is telling them they need to check up on any resources shared with poor people.

There is however one form of stuff that I was and remain interested in and that’s the multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDRTB) tests and the machine that uses them. Some readers of this will be well aware of the #TimeFor5 campaign to get the cost of these tests reduced to $5 per test from $15 per test, which is, depending on whom you ask, somewhere between a 300%-500% profit . 

These tests are the difference between following a treatment plan that will cure your TB and one that can ravage your body while the TB you have is still killing you. Over a million and half people needlessly die from TB every year solely because of lack of access to the right tests and medication. By ‘access’ I don’t mean transportation or the ability of a medical facility to handle the tests nor do I mean that not enough tests exist. The resources physically exist. They simply aren’t available to everyone who needs them because a pharmaceutical company decided that the poor people of the world were the right folks to squeeze knowing they don't have many voices to fight for them.

If you don’t know about it, it’s because most of your exposure, no pun intended, to TB as an illness probably comes from historical fiction and you, like many, think of TB as a disease of the past and/or something that affects only a small handful of people in tiny, isolated places. Let me point out that a ‘population’ of 1.6 million dead is far from small and that the vast majority of cases occur within a day’s transport of an international airport. 

The most recent successes in getting test and drug prices reduced have come from social pressure in the form of tweets, letters to representatives, and direct contact with the companies themselves to let them know that gross profiteering off the lives of vulnerable people is unacceptable. See the TBFighters for more information or look to Doctors without Borders or PIH .

Your Choice Danaher

the memes about this whole situation are glorious

I haven't seen this one yet.

As recently seen with mole interest, one viral Tumblr post can make a tag trend, and I'm hoping to bring that energy to the current Time for Five campaign. So first, an explanation of what exactly that is.

So if reading all that fills you with as much rage as it did for me you're hopefully asking yourself how you can help.

Currently bringing awareness to the issue is the main priority of the campaign, Danaher is not a well known company outside of the medical profession. We want them to be well known for all the wrong reasons, and pressure them into doing the right thing.

Here are some links with information about how you can help, and please reblog this post, and others in the #time for five and #people over profits tags, to spread the word!

i love them all dearly btw

John the fight. Find out what you can do at tbfighters.org

Swifties, are you Ready For It? Speak Now and tell Danaher that their inflated prices are Treacherous to the global health system!

To tell a Long Story Short, there's a Gold Rush on Danaher's GeneXpert tests. These tests are used to quickly and accurately diagnose a range of diseases, including HIV, TB, Ebola and more. The technology is a Superstar but it Hits Different when you learn they're sold at a 300% markup. Are you seeing Red yet?

Visit TB fighters to learn more!

in fics where luke gets plopped into the prequels i want every jedi within ten metres of him to think hes the weirdest jedi theyve ever seen. he has negative lightsaber form. he doesnt know what a kata is. he handstands when he meditates. his solution to sith is to try and have a chat. hes a political radical who keeps suggesting revolution. you ask him what the jedi code is and he says "kindness and compassion and helping those in need :) ". you ask how he used the force like that and he says some shit about how you are a luminous being limited only by your mind. the councils authority is just a suggestion. he is somehow the new favourite of both qui gon and yoda

William Afton into the FNAF-verse

the curse of adhd:

i will remember with absolute clarity, when the thought strikes me that i have a text to send someone, that this is the fourth time in three days i've attempted to send this specific text

i will forget, in the time it takes me to pick up my phone, that i picked it up intending to send a text

dungeon meshi is my favorite road-trip comedy film

get you a man (me) who can do both ig hur hur hur hurhur

FNAF fanart in 2023? more likely than you think. 13 year old me would be very pleased with this development.

(I need him)