I disagree with one aspect of the Paxlovid issue. I don’t think pharmacists should be prescribing it because we’re already so laden with other tasks, it’s getting too be overwhelming. Leave that with the MD’s.
My issue is that most doctors don’t have a fuqing clue about drug interactions. They take one quarter in school on drugs and interactions. While pharmacists spend 4 years post grad going through and understanding all of that.
We have to call the doctors EVERY. DAMN. DAY when they put a patient on some new medication that interacts with one of their other medications. I’d say 20-25% of the time they don’t even know the correct dosing schedule for certain medications.
So to say MD’s know the interactions more than PharmD’s is patently false.
Do hospital systems control pharmacies like they do doctors now? My dad was a cardiac surgeon. Independent. In the 2000s hospitals started picking off surgeons from his independent practice. Now I doubt there are any cardiac surgery practices that are independent. Is it the same with pharmacology? Is that “integrated” into the health system?
Some hospitals have their own outpatient pharmacies, but for the most part it’s big corp like Rite Aid, CVS, and Walgreens. There are smaller regional chains and even fewer mom and pop places. I would say the big corps have picked off the mom and pop RX’s over time though. Been involved with a few buyouts over the years and seen it first hand. The founder/owner wanted to retire, didn’t have anyone to take over and decided to sell. Big corp comes in and buys the business.
Good point regarding drug interactions. Most pharmacist’s are clueless, unquestioning, and accepting of anything offered by the medical industrial regulatory complex. Fact: pharmacists would not dispense Ivermectin. They embraced Paxlovid. The “active ingredient” as stated is the 3CL nsp5 protease inhibitor. What is Ivermectin?
I’ve lost a tremendous amount of respect for my colleagues over the last few years.
I agree with you on IVM! It’s a travesty what they did to that drug and unfortunately, just like corporate doctors, pharmacists didn’t do their own research and look at IVM. Which they should’ve.
The thing that woke me up, was when Fauci got on TV and said IVM & HCQ had dangerous side effect profiles over long periods of use. I knew he lied and was full of BS. I live in a community with a large population of Mormons. Every year pre Covid, they would do summer missions trips to Africa. They’d be prescribed some combination of HCQ, IVM, Malarone, and/or Doxycycline. They would take them every day while in Africa, sometimes for months on end, and never had any issues or side effects. I wish more pharmacists had that wake up, but their jobs were more important than the truth.
Not true, pharmacists have more knowledge than medical doctors on drug interactions. The problem that you cite and is justifiable and legit, is that the majority of pharmacies are only profitable because they accept Medicare. Medicare is one of the last “safe havens” as far as prescription reimbursements go where the prescriptions are still profitable.
It is because they accept Medicare they had to listen to Big Brother’s dictates around IVM or risk losing their contract with Medicare.
Doctors are the same, as CB posted in a response, hospitals started picking off independent doctors. Those hospitals are a part of a larger corporation, in the PNW there are three, really two, main corporations. Multicare, Franciscan, and Swedish medical groups. Doctors cannot just prescribe any drug or surgery they want. They have to follow the corporation’s guidelines.
I disagree with one aspect of the Paxlovid issue. I don’t think pharmacists should be prescribing it because we’re already so laden with other tasks, it’s getting too be overwhelming. Leave that with the MD’s.
My issue is that most doctors don’t have a fuqing clue about drug interactions. They take one quarter in school on drugs and interactions. While pharmacists spend 4 years post grad going through and understanding all of that.
We have to call the doctors EVERY. DAMN. DAY when they put a patient on some new medication that interacts with one of their other medications. I’d say 20-25% of the time they don’t even know the correct dosing schedule for certain medications.
So to say MD’s know the interactions more than PharmD’s is patently false.
Do hospital systems control pharmacies like they do doctors now? My dad was a cardiac surgeon. Independent. In the 2000s hospitals started picking off surgeons from his independent practice. Now I doubt there are any cardiac surgery practices that are independent. Is it the same with pharmacology? Is that “integrated” into the health system?
Some hospitals have their own outpatient pharmacies, but for the most part it’s big corp like Rite Aid, CVS, and Walgreens. There are smaller regional chains and even fewer mom and pop places. I would say the big corps have picked off the mom and pop RX’s over time though. Been involved with a few buyouts over the years and seen it first hand. The founder/owner wanted to retire, didn’t have anyone to take over and decided to sell. Big corp comes in and buys the business.
And for a follow up, given the data around rebound cases after Pax, I wish they’d pull it off the market.
Good point regarding drug interactions. Most pharmacist’s are clueless, unquestioning, and accepting of anything offered by the medical industrial regulatory complex. Fact: pharmacists would not dispense Ivermectin. They embraced Paxlovid. The “active ingredient” as stated is the 3CL nsp5 protease inhibitor. What is Ivermectin?
I’ve lost a tremendous amount of respect for my colleagues over the last few years.
I agree with you on IVM! It’s a travesty what they did to that drug and unfortunately, just like corporate doctors, pharmacists didn’t do their own research and look at IVM. Which they should’ve.
The thing that woke me up, was when Fauci got on TV and said IVM & HCQ had dangerous side effect profiles over long periods of use. I knew he lied and was full of BS. I live in a community with a large population of Mormons. Every year pre Covid, they would do summer missions trips to Africa. They’d be prescribed some combination of HCQ, IVM, Malarone, and/or Doxycycline. They would take them every day while in Africa, sometimes for months on end, and never had any issues or side effects. I wish more pharmacists had that wake up, but their jobs were more important than the truth.
Not true, pharmacists have more knowledge than medical doctors on drug interactions. The problem that you cite and is justifiable and legit, is that the majority of pharmacies are only profitable because they accept Medicare. Medicare is one of the last “safe havens” as far as prescription reimbursements go where the prescriptions are still profitable.
It is because they accept Medicare they had to listen to Big Brother’s dictates around IVM or risk losing their contract with Medicare.
Doctors are the same, as CB posted in a response, hospitals started picking off independent doctors. Those hospitals are a part of a larger corporation, in the PNW there are three, really two, main corporations. Multicare, Franciscan, and Swedish medical groups. Doctors cannot just prescribe any drug or surgery they want. They have to follow the corporation’s guidelines.