FFS Friday- FDA, blink twice if you are in trouble

Actually, don’t bother blinking.

We in healthcare KNOW that you are in trouble. As you have a bad case of the know nothings in charge of you and your vaccines and your medications.

Some of the Senators could have helped you out but they were too busy bending the knee to a wannabe fascist who is hell bent on wringing all the money they can out of their shitty decisions and actions.

You see, they are in their villain phase.

Where the only thing that matters is the green.

Of course, I write of money, moola, dough, loot, and bucks.

They are too busy stealing from us that they think that making us sick by not extending Affordable Care Act credits for those who need help with the astronomically skyrocketing costs of insurance, shields what they are doing by providing cover fire.

Forget bread and circuses, this administration is about social media lies and villainy.

Why? Because to be the lowest level they can be feels GOOD. To them at least. I would have sent myself to bed without dinner if I acted like they do. Lives are not their playthings. Did no one teach them manners as children? Or even ever told them no?

Today’s latest bullshit is a waving of a “possible” black box warning on the covid vaccine.

Yeah, that one.

The one that has saved millions and millions and millions of lives.

Worldwide.

This black box warning will be slapped on the life saving, lung saving, world saving vaccine by the end of the year, according to reports from CNBC and Reuters and CNN and other news sites.

I think this is a distraction. Of course all the news is covering it.

Of course all the healthcare workers, MDs, RNs, LPNs, CNAs, PAs, and the like are decrying it.

If true, this is big black coal letters the size of Mt. Everest BAD.

This kind of bullshit pulls the wool over the eyes of the people who don’t know any better.

And makes them doubt ALL the vaccines.

Makes them doubt healthcare.

Makes them doubt medicine.

Takes us back to when we were smashing rocks against other rocks and against each other.

I am not sure of their endgame, besides confusion, and lining their own pockets and those of their billionaire handlers.

Or are they spoiled brats who are gleefully pulling the stuffing out of America?

After all, weakening us makes us prey.

Well, I don’t feel like acting like prey. Wanna see my teeth?

We tried to warn you but you didn’t listen.

FFS Friday 12/5/25- Fox in the henhouse

Could you hear me screaming at the radio on the way to pick up my friend from the airport when I heard the vaccine shenanigans.

I write, of course, of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) who voted today to recommend NOT giving newborn babies a hepatitis B vaccine. Routine hep B immunization for newborns has been on the vaccination schedule for THIRTY years.

Instead they recommend that only babies born to women who test positive for hep B get the vaccination. But what about the women who are so newly infected with hep B that it doesn’t show up on a blood test, a la HIV. What about their babies?

This is not the final vote, this is just a recommendation.

This recommended change was strongly objected to by the actual medical experts in the room, many of whom were not allowed to speak or give evidence. The medical community points out that this 30 year recommendation has VASTLY decreased hep B rates in children. Hepatitis B can lead to chronic liver problems, liver cancer, and even premature death.

The council sounded very paternalistic when saying that parents need to carefully consider whether to vaccinate their newly born child. To me this puts the blame on whatever happens to the infant squarely on the parents. And the verbal poison the parents are being exposed to on social media via “mommy groups”.

How did we get here?

Oh, so many reasons. MAHA, the influencers who want to see the world burn, those who want to control women and babies.

It is a tale as old as time. Control the babies, control the women. But at the black heart of it is control the women because, they, as CIS men, know best. But the 6 men and women on the committee that voted for this monstrosity of a recommendation will be dead when the first babies, who will be born shortly, starts showing the liver damage.

There was a paper written on the “Economic evaluation of delaying the infant hepatitis B vaccination schedule”. The paper was written by Eric W. Hall, Prabhu Gounder, Heather Bradly, and Noele P. Nelson and published in medRxiv on November 25, 2025. Citation at the end of the post.

Each of the delayed vaccination scenarios were modeled on a Markov model to simulate lifetime health outcomes for babies who have the vaccine, those who have a delayed vaccine, and those who have no vaccine, among others. The costs of the attendant liver problems skyrocketed, as did the infections and possible/probably early death.

The conclusion of this paper is that even brief delays in hep B vaccine initiation exacts a wide cost to the person (baby) being vaccinated. The cost cited is hep B infections, chronic liver problems, including cirrhosis, and cancer, decrease in life years (meaning the possibility of early death), and the list goes on. This points a number to what will happen if the hep B vaccination schedule is disrupted.

I found this brief paper very stark and it tells a devastating tale of possible disease and possible death for babies that aren’t vaccinated at birth.

My personal feelings on this are the same as when RFK Jr. came in and cleaned house. This means he fired all the responsible medical type people who were previously on ACIP. It is like when you let the fox in the henhouse and they fire all the roosters who protect the hens and the fox hires other foxes to protect the hens, why are we surprised when the hens all end up dead?

This will end badly and all the culprits will be dead by the time the damage is assessed.

Hall, E. W., Gounder, P., Bradley, H., Nelson, N. P., Hall, E. W., Gounder, P., Bradley, H., & Nelson, N. P. (2025). Economic evaluation of delaying the infant hepatitis B vaccination schedule. bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory). https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.11.24.25340907

Tuesday Top of Mind 12/2/25- Kant have it both ways

Forgive the pun.

Immanuel Kant is a central figure in modern philosophy. One of the key tenets of his writings is the pursuit of enlightenment. Enlightenment is defined by him in his 1784 essay What is Enlightenment as the “Thinking for oneself rather than letting others think for you.” He was for individual human reason above all else.

He doesn’t really have a lot to do with this post. I just thought it was interesting.

Yeah, right.

It is interesting and a lesson that more of us need to take to heart.

Don’t let others think for you. You never know what kind of trouble that will lead you to.

For those who are not following the train wreck around the sinking of a “drug boat” off the coast of Venezuela on September 2, 2025, there are lies aplenty.

And an illegal order. That someone who should’ve known better followed.

There were survivors from the first attack on the “drug boat” and a second strike was ordered by the secretary of “war” and these survivors were killed.

This is against the Law of War Manual from our very own Department of Defense.

In Chapter 7, which is titled Wounded, Sick, Shipwrecked, Dead, and the Medical Services, what should have happened is that the survivors should have been taken into custody. This could have been done by our own military or a relief society, or the inhabitants.

But it wasn’t was it?

What’s the matter? Kant keep the lies straight.

Okay, I’ll stop.

What’s the matter? Can’t keep the lies straight anymore? Letting someone else do your thinking?

There are two stories that the secretoy of war bandied about. That the secretoy of war gave the order for the second strike.

Oh, wait, there was no second strike.

Okay there was a second strike but it was in self defense of the US. (hard to square this one)

Okay there was a second strike but it happened when the secretary was out of the room. And it was the admiral (who the secretary has complete faith in) ordered the strike.

Well.

Which is it?

Or do you not remember/care? Those who serve under the secretary of war will remember this kerfluffle. And the lies. And the admiral that was scapegoated for it.

That’s what happens when you can’t keep track of your lies. Lies are never a good foundation of truth. Americans deserve the truth. As do the families of the survivors you had killed.

By the way, the secretoy typos 8 sections ago? Was no typo. Deliberate typos, deliberate philosophy puns.

Because I think for myself.

School Me Saturday 11/29/25- The realized cost of college is not what it used to be

The latest October 2025 NBC News poll about the value of a college degree, nearly 2/3 of registered voters say that a four-year college degree is not worth the cost of attending college. That means that 33% of those polled thinks that a four-year degree is worth the cost.

In June 2013, the spread was much different. Then 53% of those polled said that a 4-year degree was worth the cost and 40% thought that college wasn’t worth the cost.

I have two thoughts about this.

TWELVE YEARS is all it took to destroy the idea of furthering your education. This was not done in a vacuum and certain people have been working toward this for a very, very, very, very, very long time. All the way back in the 1860s when the department of education was first created by President Andrew Johnson. And people railed about it enough then that the department was decreased to the office of education. (I think this is a genesis point of people realizing that LOUD makes right).
This is a problem of the education purveyor’s own making, in part. College has skyrocketed each year for as long as I’ve been a college student.

My final thought is that y’all are playing right into their hands.

They want Americans dumb. A less educated populace asks fewer questions that they don’t want to answer.

They want Americans without education to realize hey, this isn’t right.

They want Americans without education to realize that there is no way to rise above their station so they should just give up and become a corporate drone.

The questions you should be asking yourself are who is pushing the dumbening of America?Which corporations and billionaires stand to profit from keeping us dumb?

It also isn’t too late to ask yourself “how do we stop it?” Nearly but no.

As always follow the money.

And then read a history book and get ready to fight.

My final thought is to caution wariness about the make up of the poll. Who was their sample? How did they know their sample would be representative of the population? Who is asking these question? What is their angle?

Lastly, who is paying for the poll/study? And how do they profit from it?

FFS Friday 11/28/25- Feckless administration denies human trafficking concern for made up BS reason

Feckless is a fabulous word. It means incompetent.

In yet another broadside to others that the administration does not wish to recognize, on November 15th the “administration” removed a vital report on missing and/or dead Native Americans. This was a mandated report from the department of justice’s website.

This was a report that was mandated in 2020 by the Not Invisible Act.

They disappeared the report in FEBRUARY. After the debacle of the executive order declaring there are only 2 sexes. This was the DOJ’s way of complying with the order.

With a dash of also complying with the anti DEI executive order.

According to the Missing American Indian and Alaskan Native Persons Data 2024, there were ten thousand, two hundred forty eight entries of missing American Indians or Alaska Natives in 2024 into the data base. Of that 10,248, 233 cases are still active as of April 25, 2025. This data is pulled from the FBI Documents.

The vast majority of them are under 18. 7077 under 18, both female (4,179) and male (2,898) to 3,151 over 18. That is the only way the report marks age; over 18 and under 18.

Obviously human trafficking is a concern.

As well as violence.

The missing American Indian and Alaska Native persons has been simmer for a long time. Which is why the report was mandated in 2020. Finally.

Our media is more concerned with the white kids, you see. Especially if the perpetrator is not white.

More sensational.

More eyeballs means more money for the media company. We truly live in an attention economy.

More missing and exploited American Indians and Alaska Natives doesn’t have any juice, you see.

More missing kids that aren’t white or male, the government shrugs. The families are left to wonder why their loved one is gone. The families are left to wonder who took them. The families are left to wonder where their loved one is.

This is agony for them. And the government shrugs and obscures the report for BS made up reasons.

So many executive orders, each one a slap in the face of a woman or a minority or, to put plainly, anyone who isn’t a straight white man.

Reminder, an executive order is a wish.

A wish to put women firmly back in their place.

A wish to roll back the years of hard won progress.

Not a law.

School Me Saturday 11/22/25- This just in, a nursing degree (any kind) is not a professional degree

This is more of a Tuesday Top of Mind topic but the intersections with education cannot be ignored.

In a slap in the face heard around the country, the Department of Education dropped guidance that a list of degrees would no longer be considered professional. Do you know how many nurses, registered or not, working in healthcare or not, are in the United States?

4.7 MILLION, according to the American Association of the Colleges of Nursing.

Yeah, you done fucked up and insulted 4.7 million people.

The so called professional degrees that were listed

medicine
pharmacy
dentistry
optometry
podiatry
law
veterinary medicine
osteopathic medicin
clinical psychology

The so called non-professional degrees that were listed

NURSING
physicians assistants
physical therapists
social worker
speech therapy
architects
accountants
educators

I first read about this on Wednesday and the everyone else had read about it and were giving their reactions. I held onto my reactions until today. They are in three sections.

The first is that this downgrade means that there is less money for all of these professions to go to graduate school. The “professional” degrees (see above) can borrow up to $50,000 per year, with a cap of $200,000. The “non-professional” degrees (see above) are limited to $25,000 per year, with a cap of $65,000. Massive difference, right?

They do know there is a nursing shortage, right? And the shortage is exacerbated by the severe shortage of MSN and PhD prepared nurses to serve as nursing school instructors. I fear this would only deepen this shortage.

It’s like only rich people can obtain graduate degrees. I mean people have the option go into crippling private loan debt. Things to consider. I would not recommend private loans for school. I know too many nurses who have been destroyed by them.

The second is that the “non-professional” degrees are, with the exception of the architect, mandated reporters. Being a mandated reporter means that the social workers, the health-care professionals (including nursing, duh), the teachers, the child care providers, and law enforcement are mandates, by law, to report child abuse or neglect. This definition comes from the childwelfare.gov.

I know that most people love their children and would never abuse them, but there are always those that will. And, as a mandated reporter, I have to report it. This is to save children’s lives.

The third section is that the “non-professional” degree workers are mostly women. And those in power love nothing more than to treat women as less than. This has been happening more and more in the last few years.

If women can’t get loans to go to school and the cost is prohibitive, I guess they will have to stay home and have ALL THE BABIES. Even though nurse practitioners and physician assistants make up the bulk of the rural healthcare that is available. According to an interview I saw with Dr. Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, the president of the American Nurses Association (ANA), if there were no NPs or PAs a patient in need of care would have to drive 90 miles for care. Each way.

I am not less than. I am a professional working registered nurse. I am not a doctor or surgeon’s handmaiden.

Ew.

In 5 years we’ve gone from hero at the bedside during covid to non-professional.

I have called or written my representatives and the ANA has an online petition at RNaction.org. You better believe I signed that as soon as I heard about this travesty.

It’s like they want women in the home, having babies, and to cripple higher education. If only we were warned (this is heavy sarcasm)! Oh, wait, we were. This is all in Project 2025.

In simpler terms, to keep women dumb and in the homes so they can have all the babies. After which I guess we die?

Nice try and fuck all the way off!

FFS Friday 11/21/25- Fidelity

As I am sure you are aware, a group of 6 Democratic lawmakers, both Senators and Representatives alike, released a video on Tuesday (November 18, 2025) advising military and intelligence communities to defy illegal orders they are given. 2 Senators and 4 Representatives made up the group. All of them had served either in the military or in intelligence work. There were 2 Navy (Senator Mark Kelly, Representative Chris Deluzio), 1 Air Force (Representative Chrissy Houlahan), 1 Army Ranger (Congressman Jason Crow), and 2 intelligence officers (Senator Elissa Slotkin, CIA, Congresswomen Maggie Goodlander).

The message is brief and stark. It is a reminder to the intelligence officers and military members of all services that their first duty is to the American citizens, not the current president.

Illegal orders must be disobeyed.

Their fidelity is owed to the constitution, not the current administration. Not the current Secretary of Defense, now named the SECRETARY OF WAR.

The CONSTITUTION that they have all sworn to uphold.

Not the self styled monarch that is drenching OUR house, the White House, in tacky spray painted shit.

Not the foreign leaders that hold their leashes.

Not the billionaires who bought the election for them. Because their loyalty is not to the Constitution.

The current members of the military and intelligence community owe their loyalty to the CONSTITUTION.

Their fidelity.

As the Marine Corps saying goes “Semper Fidelis”.

Always Faithful to the ideals of America, not the wanna be strong man ruler and his cronies.

The fight will be hard. Hell, it already has been hard. I cannot imagine the pressure that all current members of these institutions are facing.

I’ve written about the Officer Oath that I took at 19 to the Air Force.

I did not swear to Bill Clinton, who was the president at the time. I swore to uphold the Constitution. Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

And neither did the current and past members of the military and intelligence community. Including the 6 that gave this powerful and timely message.

The current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue reacted, of course. Badly, like they always do. Like the big blowhard they are. And of course he reacted with the threat of treason. And death threats. Because that is the only play that they know.

His current press secretary came out with “All the president’s orders are legal.” Excuse me? The fuck they are.

And of course the members of the “right wing” media reacted as if they’d been scalded. Instead of sitting and thinking what the message of the 6 truly was.

Get the military off American streets. Stop threatening United States Citizens. Remember your oath to the Constitution.

And, for the love of America, put that back in your pants before you hurt yourself!

FFS Friday 11/14/25- Frilly, ice is coming to town and all I can think about is sparkling ice capades costumes

The F word for the day is frilly.

As in rebranding immigration and customs enforcement as the ICE CAPADES!

Picture it. Loads of government goons, festooned in frilly ice (frozen water) dancing costumes.

This may be the rebrand that the department is needing. I mean, you can’t fear what you are laughing at.

The newest blue city to come under the frosty gaze of ice (do you see what I did there?) is Charlotte. This isn’t my city but I live nearby.

Why are they coming? No one knows.

There was the killing of an immigrant on the train by a under medicated and under watched individual with mental problems. But that was in August, practically last year in the fast pace of news.

According to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, in the third quarter violent crimes were down 20%. A violent crime is defined as homicide, robbery, rape, and aggravated assault. In fact, since January, overall crime has decreased 8%.

Kind of like Chicago. Who had a 28% drop in violent crime. BEFORE ice came calling. This is according to a mayoral report.

So, what gives?

Charlotte is blue.

And the administration DOES NOT LIKE THAT.

I mean, they can try to actually help the average American with a net worth under 1 billion. But where is the fun in that?

It is much easier to rule with fear. This dovetails nicely in the Authoritarian plans.

What if we laugh instead?

Kind of deflating, isn’t it?

For them, I mean.

I will continue to consider this ice incursion into our blue city as the latest stop on their nationwide ice capades tour.

Think of the frilly costumes.

And resist.

On a more practical note, preparation is key.

Make sure your phone is fully charged. The better to take their pictures with or to stream video with.

My husband has reported that several of his coworkers will be working from home because of the color of their skin. Which led him to wonder if he should do the same. No matter that his mother’s family has been here for 200 years. The family originally came from Spain but, according to ice, they are the wrong color.

For the undocumented persons in Charlotte, it has been advised by a lawyer to carry all documentation of time in country, rent and utilities information, taxes (anything that has your name and address on it), green card application, signed G-28 form from your attorney, your attorney’s information, work permit if applicable, any sort of status such as DACA, and asylum proof.

Remain silent immediately upon detention. And copy the packet to the cloud.

Stay calm.

But also picture them in a frilly ice dancing dress.

If only for the smile it gives you. On the inside.

Think of the frilly costumes. Especially the sparkles.

Tuesday Top of Mind 10/7/2025- Scammy Scamerton called Trump Rx

Let me get this straight:
The president shakes down the pharmaceutical companies, like a mob boss.
The president simultaneously hikes tariffs on medications brought in to the country to triple digits.
The president then announces Eurka! Drug prices will now be falling, no one has ever seen drug prices fall four digits before!
The president then announces that one of the pharmaceutical companies has bit and will be lowering THEIR drug prices.
The president then delays the triple-digit tariffs to allow for “bargaining” time. This is another name for a shakedown.
The president announces a Trump Rx. This is where you give him all of your very personal information, including diagnoses, and current medications, and upcoming prescriptions. This is so your prescriptions, from this one company, are cheaper.

but think what it will cost you in the future.

You are denied a promotion because you are deemed too fat. At least the president thinks so.

The prescription that you need is only $2 less. But hey, the government can have your privileged information. And it use it to line their own pockets.

The prescription that you need now has you on a governmental list. What is the list for? Shh, spoilers.

The prescription that you need is available at the “most favored nation price”. You see little difference between the the price on Good Rx, and that on Trump Rx.

This is so fucking dangerous. I want to see how the website is built to make sure that any information I give up, willingly remember, is protected. If the information is protected this might be adequate. But that is a very high bar.

I am not sure that I am willing to trust the government, this current iteration of the government, to hold my handbag while I am changing clothes.

Perhaps this announcement was rushed out too soon. Before the website is built as a distraction.

Distraction from what, Kate?

Any number of things. The Republican caused government shut down because they won’t protect American’s medical insurance prices. Perhaps it is the Epstein files that they are death gripping. The rising inflation rate. The rising jobless rate. The lowering opinion of the world about America.

I’m stumped as to the reason.

To be clear, this is SARCASM.

Not the very real fear you should have over handing your personal information to the government to be exploited for cash money. That will go to line billionaires’ pockets. Billionaires like the president who has made over a billion after taking office.

Because you know that there is money to be made somewhere. And not by us, the American public.

FFS Friday 10/3/25- The right is lying to you, to your face. Again, and again and again

Who are you gonna believe? Your republican senator/congressman/”news” outlet who had to come clean that they are an entertainment company and not a news company even if it is in their company name? Those who would lie to you to gain imaginary political favor with their king?

Or your own eyes as you read the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (PQRWORA) that states that undocumented immigrants and those immigrants without permanent status like DACA recipients, temporary protected status (TPS) holders, or nonimmigrant visa holder are BARRED from access to most federal benefits, including health care programs and assistance, including Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). This is taken verbatim from the Immigrant Migration Forum. And a check of healthcare.gov states that people in the groups that can get coverage are United States Citizens, U.S. nationals, lawfully present immigrant.

Oh, you’re being hung up on the word immigrant and ignoring the lawfully present part. These are the people with green cards. According to HealthCare.gov lawfully present people are people who have qualified non-citizen immigration status, humanitarian status, valid non-immigrant visas, legal status conferred by other laws.

To hear that “news” program call it the current government shutdown is caused by Democrats who want to extend medical care such as Medicaid to all the groups who don’t qualify for government health care assistance.

This is a fucking, disgusting lie.

The Democrats want the ACA tax credits that made healthcare affordable for millions of LEGAL AMERICANS to be extended. Without the tax credits the cost of healthcare will double at a minimum for those who are cannot afford it. This has a trickle down affect on anyone else’s health insurance rates to go up as well.

I am going to hold your hand when I tell you that it is a good thing for people to have health insurance.

People who don’t have health insurance don’t get regular check ups or preventative health care.

People who don’t have health insurance use the emergency room as their primary care doctor.

Without it, ERs will be over-run, more than they already are. People will ignore symptoms until they cannot be ignored anymore, far longer than what would have happened if they had access to healthcare. The patients in the hospital will be sicker. The patients in the operating rooms will be sicker.

This is because of another federal rule known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). This act mandated that anyone who presented to an emergency room be treated. End of story. Because of this act, the ER does not care if you are female, non-binary, male, immigrant, naturalized citizen, citizen, everyone must be treated.

But what do I know?

I’ve just been training in how to research for 10 years (through the BSN, MSN, and now PhD). I’m just a nurse who has over 24 years experience.

I’m just a woman who gives a damn.

Do those who you are listening to you care about you? Or do they care about lying to you? Consider that.