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Monday, April 22, 2024

Paging Doctor John: Chinese public toilets now scan your urine for health problems

Public restrooms in China have rolled out high-tech “health checking” urinals that can analyze urine for a variety of health markers — and costs those looking for a screening less than $3.

The futuristic urinals have recently begun popping up in some public men’s restrooms in major Chinese cities, like Beijing and Shanghai, and claim they can quickly and accurately test urine on site for just 20 yuan, which equals about $2.76.

Shanghai-based documentary director Christian Petersen-Clausen posted about the innovative find in a now-viral X thread, noting, “A private company is offering the urine analysis for RMB 20. Naturally I tried that out.”

In the thread Petersen-Clausen brushed off privacy concerns, saying he hasn’t had a health check in a while and was “more worried about knowing everything is OK and the convenience is unbeatable.”

“The whole process is about as easy as one might think. I paid my fee via WeChat and before I even made it down the escalator had my results,” Petersen-Clausen wrote alongside photos of the high-tech machine, which shows a man peeing into the urinal along with an explanation written in Mandarin.

His results, which said he lacked Calcium, were “otherwise unremarkable,” he said.

Petersen-Clausen later stumbled upon another health-checking urinal and took a second test, which reported his Calcium levels had gotten better.

“The company seems to be installing them all over China and given how important early detection of health issues is I think this is quite good,” he said.

Petersen-Clausen also shared a translated image showing that the machine tests for things including Vitamin C, Creatinine, white blood cells, glucose and more.

“Addendum: my Chinese wife could not have cared less about all of this and is surprised this tweet ended up as popular as it did. At least now I can prove to her I’m not the only weirdo who finds this stuff interesting.”

According to the Bastille Post, similar high-tech urinals have been found across China in many high-speed service areas like shopping malls.

A disclaimer on the machine, however, reads, “This product is not a medical device, and the results cannot be used as a basis for diagnosis. It is only used as a reference for health management data.”

https://nypost.com/2024/04/22/world-news/chinese-public-toilets-can-scan-urine-for-health-problems/

FDA approves ImmunityBio's bladder cancer therapy

The U.S. FDA had approved ImmunityBio's combination therapy to treat a type of bladder cancer, the company said on Monday.

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/IMMUNITYBIO-INC-23160241/news/US-FDA-approves-ImmunityBio-s-bladder-cancer-therapy-46496606/

Syria's President Assad Confirms Rare Direct Talks With Washington

Via The Cradle

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told the Foreign Minister of the south Caucasus republic Abkhazia during an interview published on 21 April that Damascus holds dialogue with Washington "from time to time." In response to a question from Abkhazian Foreign Minister Inal Ardzinba on whether there has been an opportunity for Syria to "restore dialogue with the collective west," Assad said: "America is currently illegally occupying part of our land, financing terrorism, and supporting Israel, which also occupies our land."

"But we meet with them from time to time, although these meetings do not lead us to anything," the Syrian president said, adding, however, that "everything will change."

As part of regime change efforts against Damascus in 2011, Washington, along with Turkey, Gulf states, and several other countries, sponsored extremist groups with the aim of overthrowing the Syrian government.

With the help of Russia, Iran, and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Damascus has regained control over large swathes of Syria, which were under the control of ISIS and other US-backed groups.

Under the pretext of fighting ISIS, the US army occupied Syrian oilfields in the north of the country in 2015 in coordination with its Kurdish proxy, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – one year after the launching of an international military coalition in Iraq and Syria.

In May 2023, a senior diplomatic official in the Arab League revealed exclusively to The Cradle that Washington and Damascus were holding secret, direct negotiations in the Omani capital of Muscat.

During the talks, Syrian officials mainly pressed for the complete withdrawal of US occupation troops from the country.

The diplomat added that "secret talks took place in previous years between Damascus and Washington, but most of them were through mediators, such as the former director general of the Lebanese General Security, Abbas Ibrahim. Direct meetings also took place between the two countries, one of which was in the Syrian capital, Damascus." However, the number of direct meetings remained limited.

The secret talks in Muscat also touched on Austin Tice, a US citizen who entered Syria illegally via the Turkish border in 2012. Not long after, Tice disappeared in the territory of armed opposition groups that were fighting the Syrian government.

"There is always hope: even when we know there will be no results we must try," he said when asked about the possibility of mending ties with the West. — Times of Israel

During the Muscat talks, the source stressed that "the American envoy repeatedly confirmed that he has information that Austin Tice is alive and in a Syrian army detention center. However, the Syrian delegation insisted that it had no information about Tice, with Damascus expressing its readiness to make all possible efforts to reveal his fate."

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/syrias-president-assad-confirms-rare-direct-talks-washington

‘Hush money’ is not a crime, and Bragg has no case against Trump

Opening statements get underway in Manhattan Monday morning in Donald Trump’s “hush money” trial — the first-ever criminal trial of a former American president and, indeed, of a de facto major-party presidential nominee.

It got me to thinking: Why do we call it the “hush money” trial?

Well, sure, the media-Democrat complex loves the salacious overtones of that spin. But that’s not the real reason. If Trump had robbed a bank or, as he once famously put it, shot someone on Fifth Avenue in broad daylight, we’d be talking about Trump’s bank robbery trial or his murder trial. That is, we’d be talking about the crime.

The problem that Democrats and their note-takers have, the problem that the elected progressive Democratic prosecutor Alvin Bragg has, is that what they want to accuse Trump of is not a crime.

Yes, of course, Bragg has indicted Trump for a nonsensical business-records falsification offense — a mere misdemeanor that he has abusively tried to inflate into 34 felonies. But that’s not what he and Democrats are really alleging.

What they want to say, instead, is that Trump stole the 2016 election. Only they can’t do that. After all, that would make them election deniers — just like Trump.

They’ve spent nearly four years telling Americans that Trump is the most profound threat to our constitutional order in history because, to this day and even as he seeks the Oval Office yet again, he will not admit that he lost the 2020 election fair and square. Yet, boiled down to its essence, Bragg’s indictment accuses Trump of stealing the 2016 election. It is not the former president but the district attorney who is the election denier.

But more to the point, Bragg’s elaboration of Trump’s supposed criminal scheme — laid out in a Statement of Facts, so-called, that he penned and published when the indictment was unsealed — elucidates that what he is accusing Trump of is not a criminal conspiracy.

That is why Democrats and their journo allies have to say “hush money” trial. It sounds sinister, and when you don’t have a crime and you’re about to commence a criminal trial, you’d better sound sinister.

In its curtain-raiser, the Democrats’ house organ, the New York Times, tells readers that in their opening statement, “Prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office are expected to say that Mr. Trump orchestrated a scheme to suppress stories that could have damaged his 2016 campaign.”

That’s probably right. There’s just one tiny glitch: It is not a crime to suppress damaging information.

Politicians do that habitually. The Clintons and their cronies notoriously ran a “bimbo eruption” war room in the lead-up to Bill’s 1992 election, squelching revelations by women who credibly claimed to have had trysts with the then-Arkansas governor.

Come to think of it, who among us doesn’t have some skeletons we’d prefer were left in the closet? Unless there is a legal obligation to disclose, it is not a crime to suppress embarrassing details.

What are pejoratively described as “hush money” deals are actually legal and commonplace. They are less promiscuously described as non-disclosure agreements. Far from being unlawful, NDAs are a staple of civil litigation settlements in the United States.

Look, if scheming to suppress information were a crime, Bragg’s case would be very simple: He would have charged Trump with scheming to suppress information.

And if Bragg had evidence that Trump had actually stolen the 2016 election, that would be simple too: He would have charged Trump with crimes that were committed in the lead-up to the 2016 election.

Instead, Bragg has charged business-records falsification on the absurd theory that the way Trump booked NDA payments violated federal campaign laws — even though Bragg, a state prosecutor, has no authority to enforce federal law; and even though the NDA payments were technically not campaign expenditures, which is why the feds did not bring enforcement action against Trump.

And since he doesn’t have an election-theft crime, Bragg has ludicrously charged as felonies the booking of NDA installment payments that occurred from February through December 2017. You are being asked to suspend common sense and believe that Trump stole an election in 2016 by committing crimes that didn’t happen until the following year.

That’s why they call it the “hush money” trial. From the perspective of Bragg and Democrats, to accurately describe what they’ve alleged would be to see it laughed out of any court that isn’t a kangaroo court.

Andrew C. McCarthy is a former federal prosecutor.

https://nypost.com/2024/04/22/opinion/hush-money-is-not-a-crime-and-bragg-has-no-case-against-trump/

Why Are Cash Prices Lower Than Health Insurance Negotiated Prices?

Growing evidence demonstrates a counterintuitive phenomenon in healthcare: the cash price is often cheaper than insurance prices for the same service or product. Cash prices are unilaterally determined by a provider, while insurance prices are bilaterally negotiated between a provider and an insurance company. Don’t insurance companies presumably possess more bargaining power than individual patients?

Our study found that among common shoppable services—such as lab tests, imaging, and joint replacements—half of U.S. hospitals set cash prices lower than their median insurance negotiated prices. About 20% of hospitals even set cash prices equal to or lower than their minimum insurance prices. System-affiliated hospitals and those located in low-income communities are more likely to set relatively cheaper cash prices.

How about non-shoppable services, for which patients cannot compare prices or plan ahead? A typical example is trauma activation. Hospitals designated as trauma centers bill trauma activation fees to patients coming to emergency rooms. Our study published in JAMA Surgery found that nationwide, cash prices are lower than insurance prices on average, as well as at the median and various percentiles, for almost all levels of trauma activation fees.

In Arkansas, median cash prices and insurance prices are $2,030 vs $2,477 for level I trauma activation (18% cheaper paying cash), $1,152 vs. $2,011 for level II (43% cheaper), $1,149 vs $1,900 for Level III (40% cheaper), and $764 vs. $1,420 for level IV (46% cheaper).

Cash price being cheaper than insurance prices has also been documented for prescription drugs. While counterintuitive, these findings reflect the inherent and inevitable trade-offs between using cash and using insurance to purchase healthcare.

Insurance shields us from financial risk exposure but adds administrative complexities. When financial risk exposure is low, it makes little sense to use insurance. That’s why car insurance does not cover oil changes, and home insurance does not cover faucet replacements; otherwise, premiums would skyrocket and such plans would be driven out of business.

Additionally, financial interests are not well aligned between insurance companies and plan sponsors. Lower healthcare spending typically means less revenue for insurance companies. It’s no surprise that they often negotiate uncompetitive prices, leaving plan sponsors’ money on the table.

From providers’ perspective, serving cash-pay patients costs less than dealing with insurance. Administrative burdens and the time and energy spent on insurance compliance disappears. As Dr. Mario Molina recently said: “When I see a patient complaining about a sore throat, I want to focus on the sore throat, not all the screening questions insurance wants me to go over.”

Importantly, patients who spend their own money are sensitive to prices and, by having full agency, actively shape the provider’s reputation, just like consumers typically do in cash-pay markets. Providers understand this and set cash prices accordingly: cash prices are more likely to be cheaper than insurance prices in low-income communities. Even powerful system-affiliated hospitals and non-shoppable services, like trauma activation, offer cheaper cash prices than insurance prices.

Insurance companies should focus on what they do best—covering services that impose meaningful financial risks that can justify administrative complexities. Patients should gain control of their own healthcare dollars (either earned or subsidized) to purchase other services, thus allowing providers to focus on care delivery and innovation.

As we wrote in JAMA Internal Medicine: “Broader health insurance coverage is not the same as better health care or improved health. Policy solutions to improve health while containing costs should focus on allowing patients, not insurance, to control healthcare dollars whenever possible.” Failing to do so results in high prices and deprives patients of a dynamic and innovative healthcare delivery system that centers around their best interests.

Ge Bai: a professor of accounting at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and a professor of health policy & management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. An expert on healthcare accounting, finance, and policy, I have testified in Congress, written for popular press, and published my research in leading academic journals. My work has been widely featured in the media and cited in regulations and congressional testimonies. I was a visiting scholar at the Congressional Budget Office from 2022 to 2023.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/gebai/2024/04/21/why-are-cash-prices-lower-than-health-insurance-negotiated-prices/?sh=219252ef1e42

Iran-Linked Iraq Militia Says It Is Resuming Attacks On US Forces

The prior period of constant attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria which corresponded with the opening first half of Israel's operations in Gaza could soon resume, after a Sunday incident saw at least five rockets fired on an American base in northeastern Syria.

The Iraqi militant group Kataib Hezbollah - which has close ties with Iran claimed responsibility, and more importantly announced that it is resuming attacks on US bases in the region.

Reuters described that "Two security sources and a senior army officer said a rocket launcher fixed on the back of a small truck had been parked in Zummar border town with Syria."

"The military official said the truck caught fire with an explosion from unfired rockets at the same time as warplanes were in the sky," the report continued. There were no casualties, according to regional correspondents.

The military official subsequently said: "We can’t confirm that the truck was bombed by US warplanes unless we investigate it"—strongly suggesting the Pentagon's response was almost immediate, and that air power was deployed.

Crucially, Sunday's incident marked the first such attack on a US base since early February. At that time Iranian militia leaders ordered their fighters to temporarily stand down. That order held, given there hasn't been any notable attack in two months before this weekend.

The Guardian notes further of the timing of this fresh attack:

It comes one day after Iraq’s prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, returned from a visit to the United States and met with Joe Biden at the White House.
Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah said Iraqi armed groups had decided to resume attacks on the US presence in the country after seeing little progress on talks to achieve the exit of American troops during al-Sudani’s visit to Washington.
“What happened a short while ago is the beginning,” the group said.

On Monday, following Sunday's brief rocket attack on the US base near the Iraq-Syria border, there was another assault - on the Iraqi side of the border.

"Another attack on US forces in the region in the last hours, now on Al Assad base in Iraq," according to Walla News, as cited in news wires. There are unverified reports of US military helicopters airborne over the area and that a response is ongoing.

During the three to four months following the Oct.7 Hamas terror attack, there were an estimated over 150 drone and rocket attacks against US bases in Iraq and Syria. Among these was the attack which killed three Americans and wounded 40 others at an outpost along the Jordan-Syria border.

President Biden had in the wake of the Jordan outpost attack ordered airstrikes on Iran-linked militia positions, and following the tit-for-tat, Kataib Hezbollah's stood down. However, events of this weekend strongly suggest things are about to ramp up again, also as Iraqi and Syrian government officials have long sought to see Pentagon troops finally expelled from their sovereign territories.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/iran-linked-iraq-militia-says-it-resuming-attacks-us-forces

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