The NPC Healthbiz Weekly is here to keep on informing you through Q2 of 2021. It's your weekly briefing on topics pertinent to healthcare marketers and executives published in cooperation with Peak Pharma Solutions.
⇒ Confirmed Covid fatalities in Canada as of 04/09: 23,196*
But dipping into Proust’s big oeuvre would demand a lot of focus and concentration—besides which, we’re already bombarded hourly during our confinement by too many remembrances of things past; thank you very much, indeed. For example, watching the Ontario Premier during his televised news conference yesterday, it struck me how much he’s beginning to resemble Karl Malden from the American Express advertisements of a few decades back. The difference being, Karl Malden used to caution, in reference to the Amex card, “Don’t leave home without it.” Whereas Doug Ford just instructs, “Don’t leave home.”
In a similar remembrance, a recent CBC news item about pharmacists chafing in their subservient role as dispensers of prescriptions, rather than diagnosticians, brought to mind the fictional character of Mrs. Tishell, the Cornish druggist unhealthily obsessed with the village GP in the long-running “Doc Martin” series.
Our own Mrs. Tishell, University of Waterloo pharmacy prof Wasem Alsabbagh, just issued a proposal claiming the Ontario government could pocket $42 million annually by allowing druggists to initiate prescriptions for what the CBC calls “certain common, minor conditions.” He cites contact dermatitis, upper respiratory tract infections, and conjunctivitis as three disorders best assigned to the corner druggist.
Haven’t we heard this before? And didn’t we conclude previously that if pharmacists really want to be doctors, they can and should go enroll in a medical program? I’d gladly trust that nice person in the white coat at the neighbourhood IDA or SDM or Jean Coutu to inject my annual flu vaccine or, far more importantly, point me toward the aisle where the Cheetos are this week’s sale item. However, there is no way on earth that I’m going to let that same nice person assess little Jessica's dermatitis and then determine, from a less-than-comprehensive knowledge base, whether it’s the contact or atopic form. If our year-long virus-avoidance experience has taught us anything, it’s that health conditions can be assumed to be “common” and “minor,” long past the point where they are no longer that. My advice to Prof. Alsabbagh and his learned colleagues would be to please stick to what you have been trained to do, and this time remember to give me my Optimum Points.
COVID CHRONICLE 04/09/2021
- The cliche has been invoked regularly during the past year, but might there actually be a silver lining in the Covid cloud? More than two out of five U.S. military veterans surveyed in a recent study said they’ve experienced positive psychological benefits during the pandemic. They reported greater appreciation of life, closer interpersonal relationships, and “an increased sense of personal strength.” The National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study of more than 3,000 respondents found 43.3 per cent had positive benefits, but 12.8 per cent reported post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and 8 per cent said they had contemplated suicide during the pandemic. The study was published yesterday in JAMA Network Open.
- With Covid vaccines finally making their way into the arms of seniors, attitudes among older Canadians appear to represent two solitudes: Quebecers are happy with their government's efforts to procure and administer vaccines, and Ontarians much less so. A poll conducted by Leger Research and the Association for Canadian Studies reveals 61 per cent of respondents in Quebec are satisfied with the number of jabs delivered daily, compared to only 41 per cent in Ontario.
- Canadian business leaders appear to be split on whether they support or oppose immunization certificates for fully vaccinated groups. The attitudes apply to both the workplace and in general. These findings are based on a survey of more than 800 managers, and executives conducted last month by Modus Research. The researchers conclude governments will face strong resistance from businesses to attempts at introducing immunization certificates for workplaces.
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