Family Of College Student Who Died From COVID-19 Vaccine Sues Biden Admin

  by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The family of a college student who died from heart inflammation caused by Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine has sued President Joe Biden’s administration, alleging officials engaged in “willful misconduct.”

U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) officials wrongly promoted COVID-19 vaccination by repeatedly claiming the available vaccines were “safe and effective,” relatives of George Watts Jr., the college student, said in the new lawsuit.

That promotion “duped millions of Americans, including Mr. Watts, into being DOD’s human subjects in its medical experiment, the largest in modern history,” the suit states.

The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act allows lawsuits against certain people if they have engaged in “willful misconduct” and if that misconduct caused death or serious injury.

COVID-19 vaccines are covered by the act due to a declaration entered during the Trump administration in 2020 after COVID-19 began circulating.

“DOD’s conduct and the harm caused as alleged within the four corners of the lawsuit speaks for itself,” Ray Flores, a lawyer representing the Watts family, told The Epoch Times via email. “I have no further comment other than to say: My only duty is to advocate for my client. If the DOD conveys a settlement offer, I will see that it’s considered.”

The suit was filed in U.S. court in Washington.

The Pentagon and the Department of Justice did not respond to requests for comment.

Watts Suddenly Died

Watts was a student at Corning Community College when the school mandated COVID-19 vaccination for in-person classes in 2021. He received one Pfizer dose on Aug. 27, 2021, and a second dose approximately three weeks later.

Watts soon began experiencing a range of symptoms, including tingling in the feet, pain in the heels, numbness in the hands and fingers, blood in his sperm and urine, and sinus pressure, according to family members and health records.

Watts went to the Robert Packer Hospital emergency room on Oct. 12, 2021, due to the symptoms. X-rays showed clear lungs and a normal heart outline.

Watts was sent home with suggestions to follow up with specialists but returned to the emergency room on Oct. 19, 2021, with worsening symptoms despite a week of the antibiotic Augmentin. He was diagnosed with sinusitis and bronchitis.

While speaking to his mother at home on Oct. 27, 2021, Watts suddenly collapsed. Emergency medical personnel rushed to the home but found him unresponsive. He was rushed to the same hospital in an ambulance. He was pronounced deceased at age 24.

According to a doctor at the hospital, citing hospital records and family members, Watts had no past medical history on file that would explain his sudden death, with no known history of substance abuse or obvious signs of substance abuse. His mother described her son as a “healthy young male.”

Dr. Robert Stoppacher, a pathologist who performed an autopsy on the body, said that the death was due to “COVID-19 vaccine-related myocarditis.” The death certificate listed no other causes. A COVID-19 test returned negative. Dr. Sanjay Verma, based in California, reviewed the documents in the Watts case and said that he believed the death was caused by the COVID-19 vaccination.

Pfizer did not respond to a request for comment.

Watts Took Vaccine Under Pressure

The community college mandate included a 35-day grace period following approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of a COVID-19 vaccine.

The Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines were given emergency use authorization early in the pandemic. The FDA approved the Pfizer shot on Aug. 23, 2021. It was the first COVID-19 vaccine approval. But doses of the approved version of the shot, branded Comirnaty, were not available for months after the approval.

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/family-college-student-who-died-covid-19-vaccine-sues-biden-administration

Cellular process that prevents spread of cancer

 Researchers have for the first time characterized a unique molecular mechanism of the early stages of programmed cell death or apoptosis, a process which plays a crucial role in prevention of cancer.

The study, which is published June 2, 2023 in Science Advances, was led by Dr. Luke Clifton at the STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source (ISIS) in Oxfordshire, alongside co-lead Professor Gerhard Gröbner at the University of Umeå and partners at the European Spallation Source in Sweden. It is the most recent in a series of research collaborations by this team, investigating the cellular proteins responsible for apoptosis.

Apoptosis is essential for human life, and its disruption can cause cancerous cells to grow and not respond to cancer treatment. In healthy cells, it is regulated by two proteins with opposing roles known as Bax and Bcl-2.

The soluble Bax protein is responsible for the clearance of old or diseased cells, and when activated, it perforates the cell mitochondrial membrane to form pores that trigger programmed cell death. This can be offset by Bcl-2, which is embedded within the mitochondrial membrane, where it acts to prevent untimely cell death by capturing and sequestering Bax proteins.

In cancerous cells, the survival protein Bcl-2 is overproduced, leading to uninhibited cell proliferation. While this process has long since been understood to be important to the development of cancer however, the precise role of Bax and the mitochondrial membrane in apoptosis has been unclear until now.

Dr. Luke Clifton, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source scientist and co-lead author, explains, "This work has both advanced our knowledge of fundamental mammalian cell processes and opened exciting possibilities for future research. Understanding what things look like when cells work properly is an important step to understanding what goes wrong in cancerous cells and so this could open doors to possible treatments."

The team used a technique known as neutron reflectometry (conducted using the advanced ISIS Surf and Offspec instruments) which enabled them to study how Bax interacts with lipids in the mitochondrial membrane. This built on their previous studies of membrane-bound Bcl‑2.

Using neutron reflectometry on SURF and OFFSPEC, they were able to study in real time the way that the protein interacts with lipids present in the mitochondrial membrane, during the initial stages of apoptosis. By employing deuterium-isotope labeling, they determined for the first time that when Bax creates pores, it extracts lipids from the mitochondrial membrane to form lipid-Bax clusters on the mitochondrial surface.

By using time-resolved neutron reflectometry in combination with surface infrared spectroscopy in the ISIS biolab, they were able to see that this pore creation occurred in two stages. Initial fast adsorption of Bax onto the mitochondrial membrane surface was followed by a slower formation of membrane-destroying pores and Bax-lipid clusters, which occurred simultaneously. This slower perforation process occurred on timescales of several hours, comparable to cell death in vivo.

This is the first time that scientists have found direct evidence of the involvement of mitochondrial lipids during membrane perturbing in cell death initiated by Bax proteins.

Dr. Luke Clifton continues, "As far as we can tell, this mechanism by which Bax initiates cell death is previously unseen. Once we know more about the interplay between Bax and Bcl-2 and how it relates to this mechanism, we'll have a more complete picture of a process that is fundamental to human life. This work really shows the capabilities of neutron reflectometry in structural studies on membrane biochemistry."

The finding builds on previous studies by the team on the molecular mechanism of membrane-bound Bcl-2 to inform a more complete understanding of the early stages of apoptosis.

Professor Gerhard Gröbner, University of Umeå scientist and and co-lead author says, "The unique findings here will not only have a significant impact in the field of apoptosis research but will also open gateways for exploring Bax and its relatives as interesting targets in cancer therapy such as by tuning up their cell-killing potential."

Future research is planned at ISIS to further elucidate the molecular mechanism of apoptosis and in particular, to characterize the interplay between Bax and Bcl-2. It is hoped that this will yield insights which will open new avenues of research to continue to develop our understanding of the cellular processes necessary for human life.

More information: Luke Clifton et al, Creation of distinctive Bax-lipid complexes at mitochondrial membrane surfaces drives pore formation to initiate apoptosis, Science Advances (2023). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adg7940. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adg7940

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-06-scientists-reveal-cellular-cancer.html

Chemical makers settle PFAS-related claims for $1.19 billion

 

Chemours Co, DuPont de Nemours Inc and Corteva Inc on Friday said they had reached an agreement in principle to settle claims that they contaminated U.S. public water systems with toxic "forever chemicals" for $1.19 billion.

The three chemical companies and several others are facing thousands of lawsuits in the U.S. over their alleged role in polluting the environment with perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl, substances (PFAS) that have been used for decades in manufacturing a wide range of products, including nonstick coatings such as Teflon and firefighting foams.

The three companies, which deny the allegations, said that they expect to finalize a formal agreement by the second quarter of 2023. Chemours said it would contribute half the agreed amount, while the remainder would be provided by DuPont and Corteva.

Chemours will take a pre-tax charge in the current quarter of $592 million related to the fund.

"This is an impressive step toward righting a corporate wrong that threatened the health of all Americans," said Scott Summy, an attorney for the plaintiffs with the law firm Baron & Budd.

The companies declined to comment beyond the original announcement.

The settlement came hours before Bloomberg News reported that 3M had struck a tentative $10 billion deal with U.S. cities and towns to resolve the PFAS water pollution lawsuits it is facing. Reuters could not immediately confirm that report.

Commonly called "forever chemicals" because they do not easily break down in the human body or environment, PFAS have been linked to cancer, hormonal dysfunction, weakening of the immune system and environmental damage.

The companies said the agreement resolves claims made against them by hundreds of water providers across the country, who say they are responsible to help pay to clean up PFAS contamination from firefighting foams.

Those lawsuits, which also target 3M and other companies that made, or sold, products containing PFAS, have been consolidated in South Carolina's federal court. A first trial testing those claims against 3M Co. is scheduled to begin next week, but it was not immediately clear whether it would proceed.

Once finalized, the settlement will be subject to the approval of U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel, who is overseeing the consolidated litigation.

The judge, noting the significant liability faced by defendants, said in 2019 that the litigation could pose an "existential threat" to the companies involved.

Friday's settlement does not cover personal injury claims against the companies brought by individuals exposed to PFAS, or claims involving pollution at water systems owned by states or the U.S. government or at some smaller water suppliers, the companies said in a statement.

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/THE-CHEMOURS-COMPANY-22795876/news/Chemical-makers-settle-PFAS-related-claims-for-1-19-billion-44023379/

California State Assembly Votes To Ban Driverless Trucks

 By Alan Adler of FreightWaves,

The California State Assembly voted Wednesday to ban driverless trucks from the state’s roadways, requiring a safety driver be present. If passed by the Senate, it would leave the state where most autonomous trucking companies are based as an outlier in adopting the technology.

The 54-3 vote banning autonomous vehicles over 10,000 pounds from operating without a safety driver followed similar majority committee votes on Assembly Bill 316. The measure received support from the Teamsters and other labor groups. They claim driverless trucks would eliminate thousands of good-paying jobs for human drivers.

“The public should not be treated as a lab rat for big corporations to test their technology. Californians deserve a safety-first approach. And this bill would do just that,” Randy Cammack, president of Teamsters Joint Council 42, said in March.

California 2024 Senate candidates U.S. Reps. Katie Porter, Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee have voiced support for the legislation. San Francisco Mayor London Breed also has expressed support.

Autonomous vehicle industry wants governor’s support

“AB 316 is a preemptive technology ban that will put California even further behind other states and lock in the devastating safety status quo on California’s roads, which saw more than 4,400 people die last year,” the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association (AVIA) said in a statement after the vote.

“AB 316 undermines California’s law enforcement and safety officials as they seek to regulate and conduct oversight over life-saving autonomous trucks,” said Jeff Farrah, AVIA executive director. “We encourage Governor Newsom and the State Senate to reject AB 316 so Californians will benefit from the safety and supply chain benefits of autonomous trucks.”

In an April 20 editorial, the Orange County Register said opposition to driverless trucking is “classic union featherbedding.”

Dozens of autonomous trucking and technology founders, CEOs, and others wrote to Newsom in June 2022. California in late August released “Driving the Future: Autonomous Vehicles Strategic Framework Vision and Guiding Principles.”

The nine-page document concludes that “AVs hold the promise to be an important part of our mobility future.” But its added that “they are just one part of a broader set of solutions.”

The California Department of Motor Vehicles is considering the framework that could allow autonomous vehicles over 10,000 pounds to hit the road, without consent from the State Legislature.

Self-driving trucking software companies Kodiak Robotics, Plus, Waymo and TuSimple are all based in California. But they only operate their trucks in the state with safety drivers. That is the current practice in other states. Several states have shown willingness to eventually allow the driver to be removed from the truck.

TuSimple is aiming to commercialize a driverless route in Arizona between Tucson and Phoenix as soon as 2024. Pittsburgh-based Aurora is planning to run driverless trucks in Texas by the end of next year.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/california-state-assembly-votes-ban-driverless-trucks

US Sent Billions to China, Russia For Cat Experiments, Wuhan Lab Research: Ernst

 by Mark Tapscott via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Hundreds of millions of U.S. tax dollars went to recipients in China and Russia in recent years without being properly tracked by the federal government, including a grant that enabled a state-run Russian lab to test cats on treadmills, according to Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).

Ernst and her staff investigators, working with auditors at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Congressional Research Service, as well as two nonprofit Washington watchdogs—Open The Books (OTB) and the White Coat Waste Project (WCWP)—discovered dozens of other grants that weren’t counted on the federal government’s USASpending.gov internet database.

While the total value of the uncounted grants found by the Ernst team is $1.3 billion, that amount is just the tip of the iceberg, the GAO reported.

Among the newly discovered grants is $4.2 million to China’s infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) “to conduct dangerous experiments on bat coronaviruses and transgenic mice,” according to a May 31 Ernst statement provided to The Epoch Times.

The $4.2 million exposed by Ernst is in addition to previously reported funding to the WIV for extensive gain-of-function research by Chinese scientists, much of it funded in whole or part prior to the COVID-19 pandemic by National Institutes for Health (NIH) grants channeled through the EcoHealth Alliance medical research nonprofit.

The NIH has awarded seven grants totaling more than $4.1 million to EcoHealth to study various aspects of SARS, MERS, and other coronavirus diseases.

Buying Chinese Puppy Parts

As part of another U.S.-funded grant, hearts and other organs from 425 dogs in China were purchased for medical research.

“These countryside dogs in China are part of the farmer’s household; they were mainly used for guarding. Their diet includes boiled rice, discarded raw food animal tissues, and whatever dogs can forage. These dogs were sold for food,” an NIH study uncovered by the Ernst researchers reads.

Other previously unreported grants exposed by the Ernst team include $1.6 million to Chinese companies from the federal government’s National School Lunch Program and $4.7 million for health insurance from a Russian company that was sanctioned by the United States in 2022 as a result of the invasion of Ukraine.

“It’s gravely concerning that Washington’s reckless spending has reached the point where nobody really knows where all tax dollars are going,” Ernst separately told The Epoch Times. “But I have the receipts, and I’m shining a light on this, so bureaucrats can no longer cover up their tracks, and taxpayers can know exactly what their hard-earned dollars are funding.”

The problem is that federal officials don’t rigorously track sub-awards made by initial grant recipients, according to the Iowa Republican. Such sub-awards are covered by a multitude of federal regulations that stipulate many conditions to ensure that the tax dollars are appropriately spent.

The GAO said in an April report that “limitations in sub-award data is a government-wide issue and not unique to U.S. funding to entities in China.”

“GAO is currently examining the state of federal government-wide sub-award data as part of a separate review,” the report reads.

Peter Daszak, right, the president of the EcoHealth Alliance, is seen in Wuhan, China, on Feb. 3, 2021. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

The Eco-Health sub-awards to WIV illustrate the problem.

“Despite being required by law to make these receipts available to the public on the USAspending.gov website, EcoHealth tried to cover its tracks by intentionally not disclosing the amounts of taxpayer money being paid to WIV, which went unnoticed for years,” Ernst said in the statement.

“I was able to determine that more than $490 million of taxpayer money was paid to organizations in China [in] the last five years. That’s ten times more than GAO’s estimate! Over $870 million was paid to entities in Russia during the same period!

“Together that adds up to more than $1.3 billion paid to our adversaries. But again, these numbers still do not represent the total dollar amounts paid to institutions in China or Russia since those numbers are not tracked and the information that is being collected is incomplete.”

Adam Andrzejewski, founder and chairman of OTB, told The Epoch Times, “When following the money at the state and local level, the real corruption exists in the subcontractor payments. At the federal level, the existing system doesn’t even track many of those recipients.

“Without better reporting, agencies and appropriators don’t truly understand how tax dollars were used. We now know that taxpayer dollars are traded further downstream than originally realized with third- and fourth-tier recipients. These transactions need scrutiny. Requiring recipients to account for where and how they actually spend each dollar creates a record far better than agencies are capable of generating.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/us-sent-billions-funding-china-russia-cat-experiments-wuhan-lab-research-ernst

OPEC+ discussing deepening oil production cuts

 OPEC and its allies are discussing deepening oil production cuts, possibly by as much as 1 million barrels per day, three sources told Reuters on Friday as oil prices fell towards $70 per barrel and market analysts spoke of a new supply glut.

OPEC+, which groups the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by Russia, pumps around 40% of the world's crude, meaning its policy decisions can have a major impact on oil prices.

Three OPEC+ sources said cuts were being discussed among options for Sunday, when OPEC+ ministers gather at 2 p.m. in Vienna (1200 GMT). Before then, OPEC ministers will meet at 11 a.m. on Saturday.

The sources said cuts could amount to 1 million bpd on top of existing cuts of 2 million bpd and voluntary cuts of 1.6 million bpd that was announced in a surprise move in April.

If approved, it would take the total volume of reductions to 4.66 million bpd, or around 4.5% of global demand. Earlier, two OPEC+ sources said they did not expect the group to agree further cuts.

Western nations have accused OPEC of manipulating oil prices and undermining the global economy through high energy costs.

In return, OPEC officials and insiders have said the West's money-printing over the last decade has driven inflation and forced oil-producing nations to act to maintain the value of their main export.

"We will never hesitate to take any decision to achieve more balance and stability (on) the global oil market," Iraq's Oil Minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani said on arriving in Vienna.

The surprise output announcement in April helped to drive oil prices about $9 per barrel higher to above $87, but they swiftly retreated, under pressure from concerns about global economic growth and demand. On Friday, international benchmark Brent was trading around $76. [O/R]

Last week, Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz said investors who were shorting the oil price should "watch out", which many market watchers interpreted as a warning of additional supply cuts.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/opec-unlikely-agree-bigger-oil-113111741.html

'Could Semaglutide Help Curb Addictive Behaviors?'

 Semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) and other drugs in its class are widely known for their role in managing type 2 diabetes and suppressing appetite.

They may also prove helpful one day in curbing certain addictive behaviors like alcohol use and smoking.

Preclinical research has shown promising results, and endocrinologists and patients have described, anecdotally, reduced cravings for alcohol, shopping, and even coffeeopens in a new tab or window.

"The consistency that I'm hearing from all across patient groups is gain of control, whereas previously, there was a loss of control," Gitanjali Srivastava, MD, an internist and director of the obesity medicine program at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, told MedPage Today. "All of a sudden, there is a calm. It's like the calm after the storm."

In addition to blunting previously uncontrolled eating, patients have described a feeling as if "a valve was turned off" on an array of other behaviors after starting the drug, she said. "All of a sudden they're able to step back and say, 'oh, well, I had this shopping phenomenon that was going on, gambling, addiction, or alcoholism, and all of a sudden, it just stopped.'"

However, the precise mechanisms behind semaglutide and other GLP-1 agonists' effects on behaviors like smoking and drinking are not well-understood. Researchers are in the early stages of studying the useopens in a new tab or window of this class of drugs for addictive behaviors in humans, and experts have said unresolved questions about a potential addiction indication for semaglutide should elicit attention -- and caution -- from prescribers.

Semaglutide modulates the release of insulin via the pancreas, which is how it helps people with type 2 diabetes to control their blood glucose. But it also works in the brain via GLP-1.

"If we look at where the GLP-1 receptor is in the brain, it is really widely distributed. So, it is in many centers of the brain in nuclei that would be associated with these types of behaviors," Daniel Drucker, MD, of the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, told MedPage Today.

"The challenge we have is, we have the anecdotal reports, which are pretty widespread -- we have lots of clinicians reporting this and many people on social media reporting their experiences. What we don't have are definitive randomized controlled clinical trials," he added.

Over the years, animal studies have shown similar reactions to other GLP-1 agonists like liraglutide (Saxenda)opens in a new tab or window, which suppressed or reduced alcohol consumption in rats and African vervet monkeysopens in a new tab or window. Studies about exenatide (Byetta) and opioid-relatedopens in a new tab or window behaviors had mixed resultsopens in a new tab or window, although it did decreaseopens in a new tab or window nicotine intake in mice.

While Drucker said the mechanisms behind an effect like this "are not very well-delineated," one may have to do with dopamine availability. "GLP-1 will suppress either the amount of dopamine or dopamine transporters, implying, indirectly ... that somehow we're not getting as much pleasure or not getting as much reward, because dopamine is induced by many of these substances that we take, which is part of the pleasure in taking them."

Another may have to do with the neurotransmitter GABA. Lorenzo Leggio, MD, PhD, of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, co-authored a recent study

opens in a new tab or window that found that semaglutide reduced "binge-like" alcohol drinking and alcohol dependence in mice and rats, respectively. This was true in both males and females, and the rodents also showed an aversion to a sweetened solution.

Leggio said that medications used for alcohol use disorder, like acamprosate (Campral), act on GABA. In the study, "we showed that the semaglutide is hitting some of the key factors related to addiction in our brain, such as dopamine and GABA," Leggio told MedPage Today. "So it's another piece of the pie, another proof of evidence that the semaglutide is working on those systems in the brain that we know are important for addiction."

Leggio is now working on a protocol for a randomized controlled trial that will look at semaglutide and alcohol use in humans, and collaborating with Oklahoma State University on a similar study.

There is still a measure of disagreement over exactly how GLP-1 signals are sent

opens in a new tab or window in the gut and brain, he said. What he and others are studying is how GLP-1 produced in the brain and GLP-1 produced in the gut interactopens in a new tab or window, which could inform whether the effects of semaglutide in reducing alcohol drinking are related to the effects of semaglutide in the body.

But physicians like Srivastava and Jody Dushay, MD, an endocrinologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, have noticed real-world signs.

Dushay told MedPage Today a small number of her patients who take GLP-1 agonists have reduced cravings or use of alcohol. "Anecdotally, it is true," she said. However, "I have only heard from people when they mentioned it spontaneously, so it's really a small number of people who mentioned alcohol."

Few of Dushay's patients smoke, she added, and she hadn't heard from patients about other behaviors like shopping or phone use.

Dushay also wondered whether a common side effect from semaglutide could also play a role in alcohol aversion: nausea, which she estimated around 85% of her patients experience to some degree. "Some people might say, 'I have no nausea and I really have not wanted to drink,'" she said. "And other people say, 'I'm so nauseous, I don't even want to have a drink.' So it could be either or. Or it could be both."

However, nausea is usually short-lived as patients develop a tolerance to semaglutide.

It's also possible, Dushay and others said, that an overall blunting of pleasure responses could be behind the phenomenon. "It's not entirely surprising that some people might feel like they're not getting pleasure out of activities that they were getting pleasure out of before," she noted. "It may just be the case that ... it's just not scratching the itch anymore."

Experts also warned of the potential risk of serious mental health issues that could arise from what is known as anhedonia, the reduced ability to experience pleasure. Labeling for Wegovy

opens in a new tab or window contains a warning about suicidal ideation, and advises avoiding its prescription to patients with a history of suicidal thoughts.

"This is exactly why we have to do double-blind placebo-controlled studies, to look not only at the efficacy, as we hope, but also safety, in particular because people with alcohol use disorder and addiction in general often have a comorbidity with other mental health problems, including depression," Leggio said, stressing the importance of monitoring closely for depressive symptoms.

But, he added, "we are definitely ... not concerned based on what we know so far, because semaglutide has been prescribed worldwide, and there have not been red flags."

Another big unknown, Drucker noted, is the dose-response relationship needed to produce the suppression of addictive behaviors, compared with weight loss and diabetes control.

"Are they identical? In which case, I don't really want to have everybody losing weight if they're trying to necessarily quit smoking or reduce their dependency, or can we get away with doses that are lower than those required to achieve weight loss?" Drucker said. "That's a really interesting question. And we just don't have good data to answer it."

Ultimately, experts agreed, all patients are different, and there's still no way to predict how someone will respond to semaglutide and other GLP-1 agonists.

"It's good to be aware, as someone who prescribes them often, that you need to ask patients about all this and not just be looking at 'how many pounds have you lost?'" Dushay said. "Really [ask], 'what is this medication doing in your body?' and start to ask a wider range of questions, rather than just putting someone on the scale and titrating up a dose."

"Do you think that the semaglutide is going to dramatically save the world from addiction? The answer is no," said Leggio. "If you asked me, 'do you think that semaglutide is a promising medication to help people with alcohol use disorder?' I think the answer is yes."

Disclosures

Srivastava reported consulting and other financial relationships with Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, and Rhythm.

Drucker reported consulting and other financial relationships with Altimmune, Amgen, Kallyope, Merck Research Laboratories, Novo Nordisk, and Pfizer. GLP-2 is the subject of a patent license agreement between Takeda and the University of Toronto, Toronto General Hospital and Daniel Drucker.

Dushay and Leggio reported no conflicts of interest.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/features/104825