The doctor is out. Way, way, way out

The NPC Healthbiz Weekly is back to inform you through 2021. It's your weekly briefing on topics pertinent to healthcare marketers and executives published in cooperation with Peak Pharma Solutions. From Chronicle Companies, organizers of the National Pharmaceutical Congress Winter Webinar Feb. 10, 2021. More info at pharmacongress.info 

⇒ Issue #158 (In numerology, 158 stands for victory, triumph, and success.)
⇒ Confirmed Covid cases in Canada as of 01/28: 765,865*
⇒ Confirmed Covid fatalities in Canada as of 01/28: 19,060*
⇒ Number of Canadians vaccinated as of 01/28: 765,865*
⇒ Worldwide Covid cases as of 01/28: 100,971,306*
⇒ Worldwide Covid fatalities as of 01/28: 2,177,281*

January 28, 2021—Good Thursday morning, CurveFlatteners. It's Mitch Shannon of Chronicle Companies, back putting this precision-manufactured keyboard through its paces, stress-testing the limits of the Acer Corporation's advanced data-entry technology. If the ghost of Scotty the Engineer happened to be looking over my shoulder at this moment, he would certainly yelp, "I dannae if she can take any more, Cap'n!" Be that as it may. It’s way too late to stop now.

Back around 460 BC, there was this Greek cat named Hippocrates of Kos, who had a few things to do with medicine instruction, and he liked to tell his students four short words, "First, do no harm." You'd think that would be an easy enough lesson to keep straight. But here we are, 25 centuries later, and it seems we've devolved from Hippocrates of Kos all the way down to Dr. Simone Gold of Beverly Hills, Calif., U.S.A.

Dr. Gold is an out-of-work emergency physician and the founder of "America’s Frontline Doctors," a medical association that could go by the alternate identity of "Hardly The AMA." She has been actively propagating wrong and misleading medical advice concerning Covid and its vaccine treatments to the lay public. In that sense, she is a Bizarro-World counterpart of Hippocrates, and some believe she will do oodles of harm. 

A few weeks ago, the doctor deployed a bullhorn -- not typically a standard part of the medical armamentarium -- and during festivities that led to what became an assault on the U.S. capital, she advised the soon-to-become rioters to avoid FDA-approved vaccines. She conveyed her medical view that they are “an experimental biological agent deceptively named a vaccine” and prescribed followers not to be “coerced.” It gets worse. Dr. Gold was charged last week with allegedly participating in the insurrection, during which five people died. (She is pictured below promenading through the legislature with recreant confrères.)  

Many of her professional colleagues, as healers, are bound to look askance at such behaviours. And certainly, the courts have not yet ruled on the matter. However, several may feel the doctor seems to have an outside shot at cracking the shortlist of the foulest physicians of all time. At 55 years of age, the clock is on her side; she does not lack for energy or pluck, and, inspired by the 45th U.S. President, she seems determined to go all the way. 

The NPC Podcast is back for another season. The National Pharmaceutical Congress organizers are proud to release our new weekly podcast series, hosted by Peter Brenders. Next Wednesday, Feb. 3, Peter's guest will be James Shea, GM of the Council for Continuing Pharmaceutical Education. Listen here now, or download the episode and play it at your convenience. The NPC Podcast is presented in cooperation with Impres Pharma

COVID CHRONICLE 01/28/2021

• The love affair between the European Union and Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca ended promptly this week after AZ said it would cut planned deliveries of its Covid-19 vaccine to the EU in Q1 by around, oh, 60 per cent. The vaccine was developed with Oxford University in the U.K., and production and distribution have seemingly become enmeshed in Brexit politics' realities.  AZ's Iskra Reic, exec vee-pee for the EU and Canada, has been called on the carpet by European politicians and will do some 'splainin' to the steering board overseeing the deal.
• While Quebec City's Medicago is concluding Phase II trials of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate, fuelled by a $173 million contract with Canada's federal government, a lesser-known contender began human trials on its mRNA vaccine candidate this week. Toronto-based Providence Therapeutics hopes to have approvals for its product next year. CEO Brad Sorenson tells CTV News: “If everything goes well with their plans, we’ll be able to roll out hundreds of millions of doses in 2022." He adds, "We don't believe that this is going to be resolved by a single vaccine."

• Dr. Paul Roumeliotis, a pediatrician and writer who is also the medical officer of health for eastern Ontario, may soon add one more designation to his CV: The Grinch Who Stole March Break. Dr. R. says keeping kids in social isolation during the traditional school hiatus might avoid the spike in Covid cases that followed the Christmas holiday. Says he: "Unless kids stay home and parents keep them home during spring break and don't mix with others, then that's not going to be a problem but what we saw during Christmas break was really the opposite. The numbers really went up fourfold in terms of positivity for the age group between 11 and 13, for example."

TODAY CHRONICLE IS WORKING ON

We're just 13 days from the National Pharmaceutical Congress Winter Webinar, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 11:00 am to noon. Speakers include Paul Petrelli of Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Carol Stiff of Santen Canada, Jim Shea of the Council for Continuing Pharmaceutical Education, and moderated by Peter Brenders of the NBHRF. Ben Parry and I will both try to get a word in somewhere. Sponsors are EMREACH Inc., Impres Inc., Healthing.ca, The Pangaea Group, Pharma Consultants, Peak Pharma Solutions Inc. Organized by Chronicle Companies. Learn more at http://pharmacongress.info. Register here.

RIGHT NOW I'M READING... 

Pierre-Henry Gomont is a 42-year-old Paris cartoonist who studied sociology and has a certain flair for illustrative storytelling. His recent work of comic-book high literature, published in English last month, is really something. "Brain Drain (Part I)" begins with the historical fact of Albert Einstein's 1955 autopsy, which was punctuated by the theft of the professor's brain by pathologist Dr. Thomas Stoltz Harvey. Gomont imagines what followed, including the refusal of Prof. Einstein to shuffle off this mortal coil without his intact noggin. In Gomont's telling, he strikes up a friendship of necessity with his pathologist. Together, they elude the pursuit of U.S. spy agencies and other malign forces who would seek to possess such collateral as may be contained in the (detached) mind of the incomparable Albert. Gomont creates the tale and ends on a cliffhanger, to be continued, which is a perfect literary device. Amazing stuff, depicted by a master artist. I acknowledge Netgalley for making this review copy available to me pre-publication. It's highly recommended, and I hope it achieves deserved North American success.

COUNTDOWN TO FRIDAY

Well, tomorrow's the gateway to the weekend, and I hope you have a good one. Kylie Rebernik will here to assemble the CurveFlattener first thing tomorrow. Until then, stay safe, you lot.