Hepion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:HEPA), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on Artificial Intelligence (“AI”)-driven therapeutic drug development for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (“NASH”), fibrotic diseases, hepatocellular carcinoma (“HCC”), and other chronic diseases, today announced new research findings uncovering a previously unknown mechanism by which Hepion’s lead drug candidate, rencofilstat, may exert anti-cancer activity.
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
California Legislature Approves $25 Per Hour Healthcare Worker Minimum Wage Bill
By Kelly Gooch of Beckers Hospital Review
The California legislature has passed a bill that would establish a $25 hourly minimum wage requirement for workers in hospitals and other medical settings.
The bill, proposed in February, now awaits a decision by Gov. Gavin Newsom and comes after union and hospital representatives reached agreement on how such a requirement could be addressed.
Under the bill, cities and counties would be blocked from increasing pay via ballot measures for 10 years.
Workers at healthcare facilities with 10,000 or more full-time equivalent employees would earn $23 per hour starting in 2024, with pay increasing to $25 an hour in 2026. That affects workers including nursing assistants, medical coders, launderers and hospital gift shop workers, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Workers at a hospital with a high governmental payer mix, an independent hospital with an elevated governmental payer mix, a rural independent covered healthcare facility, or a covered healthcare facility that is owned, affiliated or operated by a county with a population of less than 250,000 as of Jan. 12 would earn $18 per hour starting next year, with pay increasing to $25 an hour in 2033.
Urgent care clinics, skilled nursing facilities and other smaller facilities would be required to pay workers $21 per hour in 2024, with pay increasing to $25 per hour in 2028, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The bill allows some healthcare facilities to apply for a temporary pause or alternative phase-in schedule of the minimum wage requirements if they have documentation proving financial distress.
Carmela Coyle, president and CEO of the California Hospital Association, described the bill as a balanced approach that supports workers and protects jobs and access to care in vulnerable communities.
"The bill creates a pathway to improving wages for our lower-wage healthcare workers, while also recognizing the needs of our state's most troubled hospitals," Ms. Coyle said in a statement shared with Becker's.
"And, by preempting local ballot measures on minimum wage and compensation, all healthcare workers will be paid equitably regardless of where they work. SB 525 demonstrates hospitals' commitment to healthcare workers, patients, and communities."
Tia Orr, executive director of Service Employees International Union California, also praised the bill.
"Healthcare in California will be more accessible and equitable because workers and healthcare providers stood together and stood up for patient care," she said in a statement.
She added that the bill also invests in a strong, diverse workforce.
"By and large, Black and brown workers have held the lowest-paid and most overlooked jobs in healthcare, so SEIU workers are particularly proud of this landmark investment in equity," Ms. Orr said.
Read more about the bill here.
Voter Registration Charities: A Massive, Overlooked Scandal
by Parker Thayer via RealClear Wire,
Nonprofit voter registration” doesn’t sound interesting. Yet nonprofit voter registration, or the use of tax-exempt charitable organizations to conduct and fund voter registration drives, is one of the most important and underreported political scandals of our time.
Nonprofit voter registration, and the get-out-the-vote (GOTV) activities that usually accompany it, have become the heart of a billion-dollar industry in America. According to Candid’s Foundation Funding for U.S. Democracy database, since 2011 nearly 60,000 grants have been made for “Voter Education, Registration, and Turnout” and “Civic Participation,” benefitting 15,000 different organizations to the tune of $5.9 billion dollars.
Most of the largest grantors and grantees in this industry are left-leaning. Despite IRS rules prohibiting 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit groups from engaging in partisan electioneering, it has long been an open secret that the purpose of their work is to register voters from favorable demographics in order to help get Democrats elected. The voter registration industry has always retreated behind the fig-leaf of “nonpartisanship” when necessary, which has protected it from serious scrutiny..
Until now, that is. My recent special report, How Charities Secretly Help Win Elections, ripped away that fig-leaf. The report reveals the untold story of a nondescript charity named the “Voter Registration Project” that was used to funnel over $100 million into a five-year voter registration scheme hatched by Clinton campaign operatives to help Democrats win elections in 2020. Using tax forms, leaked documents, and leaked emails, the report shows how the scheme aimed to register over 5 million “non-white” voters in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, and Nevada; how it was developed through multiple drafts and edits into a highly sophisticated plan dubbed the Everybody Votes Campaign; and how that plan was eventually adopted by a super PAC tied to Sam Bankman-Fried that instructed billionaire donors to keep it completely secret since it was the most “cost-effective” method for “netting additional Democratic votes.”
The report even shows several of the plan’s major donors admitting, in signed tax forms, that their “charitable” grants to the Voter Registration Project were made for the express purpose of supporting the super PAC that had recommended it to them. It was the largest, most organized, and most blatantly partisan nonprofit voter registration drive in American history. By our estimates it generated between 1 and 2.7 million swing-state votes for President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Americans are expected to believe the excuse, given on the Everybody Votes Campaign’s new website, that their left-wing donors are merely “committed to creating a more representative democracy by building and supporting large-scale, long-term voter registration in communities of color.” Their website notably boasts that 76% of the 5.1 million voters they have registered were people of color, but then curiously declines to mention which states said people of color were from. A recent job listing from the organization shows that their targets states for 2024 will be Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin.
That’s right, the donors and directors of the Everybody Votes Campaign care deeply about the civic participation of “communities of color.” So deeply, in fact, that they have been, and will be, registering millions of minority voters, but only in the most important presidential swing states. No room for California and New York (two of America’s most populous states) nor Mississippi and Louisiana (which have the highest Black population by percentage).
It should be obvious to anyone who looks a little deeper than the mission statement that “Everybody Votes” is more than a little bit of a misnomer.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/voter-registration-charities-massive-overlooked-scandal
Early convalescent plasma use—aid in avoiding severe COVID—also may cut long COVID risk
Findings from a nationwide, multicenter study led by Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggest that patients with COVID-19 have less chance of developing post-COVID conditions—commonly known as long COVID—if they receive early treatment with plasma from convalescent (recovered) COVID patients that contain antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
The new research, published by mBio, is a follow-up investigation to the 2021 clinical trial that showed convalescent plasma is an effective and safe option as an early outpatient treatment for COVID-19. The latest study looked at the long-term outcomes of a large portion of the participants from the 2021 clinical trial.
"Following our initial study, health care professionals kept SARS-CoV-2 antibody-rich blood plasma available in their blood banks as part of the treatment arsenal against COVID-19 in people who are immunocompromised; and now, our new findings show it also may lower the risk of post-COVID conditions," says study co-lead author David Sullivan, M.D., professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with a joint appointment in infectious diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
The original outpatient early treatment clinical trial was conducted between June 2020 and October 2021. The researchers provided 1,181 randomized participants with one unit each of either polyclonal high-titer convalescent plasma (containing a concentrated mixture of antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2) or placebo control plasma (with no SARS-CoV-2 antibodies).
The participants were 18 and older, and had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 within eight days prior to transfusion. A successful outcome was defined as not requiring hospitalization within 28 days after plasma transfusion.
The original clinical trial found that 17 participants out of 592 (2.9%) who received the convalescent plasma required hospitalization within 28 days of their transfusion, while 37 out of 589 (6.3%) who received placebo control plasma did. This translated to a relative risk reduction for hospitalization of 54%.
As part of the clinical trial, 882 participants also were evaluated for their levels of 21 different cytokines and chemokines at screening, and at 14 days and 90 days after they received either convalescent plasma or placebo control plasma. Cytokines and chemokines are signaling proteins secreted by cells in response to infection, and as a result, activate specific immune system functions such as inflammation. In turn, excessive or unchecked inflammation is believed to be a key factor in the development of post-COVID conditions.
For the latest study, the researchers used the cytokine and chemokine measurements, along with reports by patients of any post-COVID conditions at the 90-day examination, to determine if there was any association between early convalescent plasma therapy and long COVID symptoms. Statistical analyses were conducted to validate the findings, after adjusting for other factors that could make someone more prone to post-COVID conditions, such as demographics (e.g., age and race), competing diseases (e.g., diabetes) and vaccine status.
At 90 days after receiving either convalescent or control plasma, 590 (66.9%) of the study participants showed no post-COVID conditions, while 292 (33.1%) did. Of the latter group, the most commonly reported symptoms were fatigue and anosmia (loss of smell).
"Levels of cytokines and chemokines were elevated at screening for most of the study participants, and decreased more by day 90 in those who had received convalescent plasma," says study senior author Aaron Tobian, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Transfusion Medicine Division and professor of pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Additionally, study participants who had higher-than-normal levels of one particular cytokine, interleukin-6 (IL6), at screening were more likely to be among those with post-COVID symptoms by day 90. IL6 is known to trigger an inflammatory response in humans.
"Our study is among the first to show that elevation of IL6 early after the onset of infection is associated with post-COVID conditions," says study co-lead author Kelly Gebo, M.D., M.P.H., professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
"While cytokine levels decreased throughout the study population from infection to day 90, they dropped more significantly in those who received convalescent plasma early in the course of their illness. So, it appears that when IL6 levels remain elevated during the COVID-19 recovery phase, it likely contributes to post-COVID conditions."
Future studies, says Gebo, could examine the impact of anti-IL6 agents combined with other treatments against COVID-19 among outpatients.
More information: Kelly A. Gebo et al, Early antibody treatment, inflammation, and risk of post-COVID conditions, mBio (2023). DOI: 10.1128/mbio.00618-23
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-09-early-convalescent-plasma-usehelpful-severe.html
F-35 probe: Debris field believed to be missing F-35 found two hours northeast of base
UPDATE: Joint Base Charleston announced Monday evening that a debris field believed to be the missing F-35 was found two hours northeast of the base.
The Marine Corps is pausing its aviation operations for two days as the disappearance of a Marine Corps F-35B jet over South Carolina on Sunday remains unsolved.
The Corps’ Monday statement announcing the standdown cited three recent significant mishaps involving Marine aircraft.
“During the safety stand down, aviation commanders will lead discussions with their Marines focusing on the fundamentals of safe flight operations, ground safety, maintenance and flight procedures, and maintaining combat readiness,” the statement reads. “This stand down being taken to ensure the service is maintaining operational standardization of combat-ready aircraft with well-prepared pilots and crews.”
In August, a Marine pilot was killed after his F/A-18D Hornet crashed in southern California, and three Marines were killed in an MV-22 Osprey crash in Australia days later.
In the wake of these mishaps, the acting commandant, Gen. Eric Smith, ordered every unit in the Marine Corps to review its safety practices, and he said the Corps will establish a safety center led by a general officer by summer 2024.
The standdown comes in addition to these measures.
Where is the F-35?
Meanwhile, a Marine F-35B fighter jet is still missing after its pilot parachuted out on Sunday.
A pilot flying a Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501 aircraft safely ejected from an F-35B on Sunday, a 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing spokesperson said.
The pilot, whose name has not been released, landed in a North Charleston neighborhood at around 2 p.m. Sunday, The Associated Press reported. The pilot was transferred to a nearby medical center in stable condition, Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina, said Sunday.
But just what happened to the jet remains unclear.
A day after the disappearance, the search for the stealth aircraft remains underway, with teams employing both ground and air assets, according to the base.
“Based on the jet’s last-known position and in coordination with the FAA, we are focusing our attention north of JB Charleston, around Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion,” Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina, said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Among those involved in the investigation are Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina; 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, based at Cherry Point, North Carolina; Navy Region Southeast; the Federal Aviation Administration; the Civil Air Patrol; and law enforcement across the state, according to the joint base.
The joint base has asked the public for help in locating the aircraft, providing even more fodder for ribbing by those startled that an approximately $100 million fighter jet could somehow vanish.
“How in the hell do you lose an F-35?” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-South Carolina, whose district includes Lake Moultrie and part of Lake Marion, tweeted Monday morning. “How is there not a tracking device and we’re asking the public to what, find a jet and turn it in?”
Mace said on X early that afternoon that she planned to meet with Marine Corps representatives to ask for answers on what happened to the jet.
She later tweeted, “One of the shortest meetings I’ve ever had, bc guess what, no one @usmc sent over to brief me and my staff had any answers. Shocker.”
“When there is an ongoing situation which potentially threatens public safety, the Pentagon has an obligation to keep citizens and their representatives informed,” Mace said in a statement to Marine Corps Times on Monday, calling the Marine Corps’ lack of answers “unacceptable.”
A 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing spokesperson said in a statement to media Monday that the mishap was under investigation, adding, “We are unable to provide additional details to preserve the integrity of the investigatory process.”
If the F-35 did go down in a lake, said retired Air Force Gen. Hawk Carlisle, the first thing a search team would likely do would be to look for debris from the plane’s impact, or slicks from fuel, oil or hydraulic fluid floating on the surface to try to narrow down the search area.
“They would look for telltale signs that something catastrophic happened in the lake,” said Carlisle, who flew F-15s and was head of Air Combat Command until his 2017 retirement.
If the search team spots such signs, Carlisle said, the military likely would bring in sonar or other detection equipment to look for where the F-35 might be submerged.
Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina, and the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing declined to comment on the status of the fighter’s transponder, though The Washington Post reported that a base spokesman said the transponder was not working at the time of the crash for an unknown reason.
In an emailed statement Monday, the F-35 Joint Program Office didn’t address Defense News’ questions about whether transponders have had problems in the past. The office said that the pilot’s health and well-being were paramount and that it was working with the Marine Corps, industry and other involved parties to help with the investigation.
Carlisle said the unusual circumstances of the mishap and the difficulty finding the fighter raises other questions, such as whether the fighter was on a data link with another aircraft at the time. If the fighter was on a data link transmitting and receiving information, Carlisle said, that could have provided more clues to help track it down.
“Those are all things that an investigation or safety board is going to look at,” Carlisle said.
If the jet was on autopilot when its pilot ejected, Carlisle said, it conceivably could have flown for hours and hundreds of miles more, depending on how much gas it had left. A fully fueled F-35B can fly a little more than 1,000 miles.
Carlisle also wondered if this jet’s radar cross section had been augmented to make the F-35 more visible to radar, which the military sometimes does when F-35s are flown stateside for air shows or local training missions.
The military sometimes augments the F-35′s cross-section during public or semi-public flights so they will look different on a radar from how it would during an actual combat mission, Carlisle said. That way, he said, an adversary such as China wouldn’t be able to peek at a planned air show with an F-35 and figure out what it would actually look like at war.
If the lost F-35′s cross-section had not been augmented to mask its true radar signature and make it more visible, Carlisle said, that might explain why it has been so hard to find.
But even discussing ways the military might be able to find this missing F-35 can be fraught, Carlisle said.
“You’ve got to be a little careful about what you talk about,” Carlisle said. “Because if you have an airplane go down in combat, you don’t want the bad guys to know how to find it.”
A Single Oil Trading Firm Is Fueling a Price Runup in US Barrels
- Physical strength compounds futures rally as supply tightens
- Robust demand driven by high refining margins, export pull
Atlantic Trading and Marketing Inc., the trading arm of France’s TotalEnergies SE, is bidding up the US physical crude market, according to people familiar with the deals.
West Texas Intermediate crude for delivery at Cushing, Oklahoma, has jumped to its highest premium since November, and that’s on top of futures surging above $90 a barrel. Overseas buyers must pay an additional $1-$2 barrel to get the crude shipped to the Gulf Coast for export.
Musk's Neuralink to start human trials for brain implant
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's brain-chip startup Neuralink said on Tuesday it has received approval from an independent review board to start the first human trial for its brain implant for paralysis patients.
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