'COVID-19 Levels Peaking Across The US, CDC Figures Show'

 by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

COVID-19 is peaking in many parts of the country, even as respiratory illness activity is “very low” across the United States, according to an update provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Throughout the country, the CDC’s surveillance data show that “activity is peaking in many areas of the country with elevated emergency department visits and hospitalizations nationally,” the agency said on Sept. 5.

However, “the amount of acute respiratory illness causing people to seek health care is at a very low level,” the CDC also said. Data released by the CDC late last week show that emergency department visits associated with COVID-19 increased slightly, from 1.5 percent on Aug. 23 to 1.6 percent on Aug. 30.

Levels of COVID-19 are reported to be “likely growing” or “growing” in the District of Columbia and 23 states, including Oregon, Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire, according to a map released by the CDC.

Meanwhile, CDC wastewater figures show that COVID-19 viral activity levels are “moderate” and that the District of Columbia and 14 states are reporting “very high” levels, including Alaska, Hawaii, California, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Connecticut.

Levels of the flu and RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, are both considered very low but increasing, according to the CDC’s weekly update.

Aside from those viruses, respiratory infections caused by the bacteria Mycoplasma pneumoniae, which can cause “walking pneumonia” in severe cases, remain elevated in some parts of the United States, said the CDC, citing emergency visits and positive tests.

The health agency also said that cases of pertussis, or whooping cough, “are lower than their peak in November 2024” but have been elevated this year compared to the levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There’s no distinct seasonal pattern to whooping cough, but past trends suggest that cases may increase in summer and fall,” the agency said. “Whooping cough is very contagious and can spread easily from person to person.”

The CDC and other health officials warned that infants younger than 1 year of age are at the highest risk of developing severe disease and complications from whooping cough, including death.

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/covid-19-levels-peaking-across-us-cdc-figures-show

Pregabalin Tied to Elevated Heart Failure Risk

 The results of a recent study published online in JAMA Network Open show a substantially higher risk for heart failure (HF) in people taking the antiseizure medication pregabalin for chronic noncancer pain. The risk is particularly high for people with preexisting cardiovascular disease. 

1. Comparing Gabapentinoids

   The study compared the gabapentinoids pregabalin and gabapentin in relation to increased HF risk. Both medications are among the most commonly prescribed antiseizure medications used off-label to treat chronic neuropathic pain.

2. Purpose and Function

   Nerve injury increases a neuron’s production of the α₂δ subunit, the auxiliary protein that directs calcium channel movement. Pregabalin and gabapentin bind to the α₂δ subunit, reducing calcium influx at presynaptic terminals, thereby dampening pain signaling.

3. Which Manages Pain Better?

   Pregabalin and gabapentin both bind to the α₂δ subunit of voltage-gated calcium channels, but pregabalin has a higher binding affinity, greater potency at lower doses, and more predictable absorption, which can translate into stronger and more consistent analgesic effects.

4. Study Overview: Method and Results

   The study’s cohort included 246,237 Medicare beneficiaries aged 65-89 with no history of HF. Of these individuals, 18,622 and 227,615 were newly prescribed pregabalin and gabapentin, respectively. Researchers used the inverse probability of treatment weighting method to approximate a randomized trial. Data analysis of 114,113 person-years of follow-up showed that a total of 1470 patients experienced HF events, with incidence rates of 18.2% per 1000 person-years for pregabalin and 12.5 per 1000 person-years for gabapentin.

5. Pregabalin’s Link to HF

   Pregabalin is more frequently associated with peripheral edema and weight gain than gabapentin, which may contribute to fluid retention and increased cardiac workload. However, the precise mechanism linking pregabalin to heart failure risk has not been established.

Bottom line: While pregabalin may provide more effective pain relief than gabapentin, its use is associated with a higher risk for HF in older adults, particularly those with preexisting cardiovascular disease. Clinicians should weigh this risk when prescribing pregabalin and consider monitoring or alternative therapies for high-risk patients.

https://www.medscape.com/s/viewarticle/pregabalin-tied-elevated-heart-failure-risk-2025a1000o3y

Contraceptive Tied to Higher Brain Tumor Risk in Women

 The birth control method depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (dMPA) has been linked to a twofold increased risk for a common brain tumor type.

The risk for meningioma associated with dMPA, commonly known as Depo-Provera, was greatest in women who began using the injection after age 31 years or who used it for 4 years or more.

The findings of this study come amid ongoing lawsuits, which allege that Pfizer, the manufacturer of Depo-Provera, failed to inform users about this risk.

However, the investigators noted that the number needed to harm (NNH) is high, suggesting a relatively low overall clinical risk.

“The main point of our study is that we need to spread awareness of this potential risk of meningioma development with dMPA exposure, especially for those at increased risk of meningioma due to other risk factors such as prior brain radiation, history of breast cancer, and certain genetic conditions such as neurofibromatosis,” principal investigator Varun Kshettry, MD, and a neurosurgeon at Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, told Medscape Medical News.

The study was published online on September 2 in JAMA Neurology.

A Common Tumor Type

Meningioma is the most common primary brain tumor, and women are twice as likely as men to develop this tumor type. This risk increases as women age, likely due to interactions between tumor receptors and female hormones.

A previous matched case-control study based on French data showed that long-term use of dMPA was associated with a 5.5-fold increased risk for meningioma.

The current study corroborates the findings of the French study, Kshettry said, but he noted that it only included patients who had undergone surgery for meningiomas, and that of these individuals, only a small number reported dMPA use.

For their research, Kshettry and colleagues evaluated over 80,000 women with dMPA exposure in the US over a 20-year period using a cohort study design. They also included individuals who used dMPA and did not develop meningioma, allowing them to calculate clinical risk.

Data from 10,425,438 female patients (mean age, 33 years) from TriNetX, a national health database, were included in the study. Patients with previous meningiomas were excluded from the analysis.

Patients were grouped on the basis of use of a single type of birth control: oral or injectable medroxyprogesterone acetate, combined oral contraceptives, intrauterine devices, progestin-only pills, or subdermal implants. Women who did not use any of the evaluated contraceptives served as controls (n = 8,186,531).

The researchers used propensity score matching to gauge the rate of meningioma diagnosis (based on International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision codes) in these groups and controlled for several confounders including race, age, BMI, and neurofibromatosis.

Compared with control individuals, dMPA use was associated with an increased risk for meningioma (relative risk, 2.43; 95% CI, 1.77-3.33), and the investigators determined that 59% of meningioma cases could be attributed to dMPA.

The NNH was 1152 patients, meaning that 1152 women would have to use dMPA before one developed a meningioma.

Oral medroxyprogesterone acetate was associated with a 1.18 relative risk for a meningioma diagnosis compared with control individuals (95% CI; 1.10-1.27). The NNH was 3020 patients. The researchers found no increased risk for meningioma diagnosis with any of the other contraceptives.

“Our data suggest as well that prolonged exposure and older age with dMPA use both appear to increase the risk of meningioma,” Kshettry said.

Limitations of the study include potential variations among patient data from the live database and that the timeline of meningioma diagnosis could not be assessed.

‘Overall Low Clinical Significance’

In an accompanying editorial, Gilles Reuter, MD, PhD, and Britta Wandschneider, MD, PhD, at the Department of Neurosurgery, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Liège in Liège, Belgium, said the findings indicated “overall low clinical significance that does not justify modification of the MPA treatment indication.”

They recommend that every woman presenting with a meningioma undergo a thorough review of her overall medical history, with special attention to gynecologic and hormonal factors.

“Overall, this large study demonstrates that the dMPA-associated meningioma risk remains very low but provides healthcare professionals with data to counsel women taking these medications that meningioma may be a risk to consider,” Reuter and Wandschneider wrote.

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/contraceptive-tied-higher-brain-tumor-risk-women-2025a1000o2s

LB Pharmaceuticals upsizes IPO to $285M in 1st biotech listing in months

 LB Pharmaceuticals’ decision to break cover and go public seems to have paid off, with the company bumping up the number of shares on offer for its Nasdaq listing this morning.

The CNS-focused biotech is now offering 19 million shares for its IPO, above the 16.7 million shares the company had suggested earlier this week. With the shares priced at $15 apiece, it means that LB is now eyeing $285 million in gross proceeds from the offering, compared to $228.5 million in net proceeds suggested Monday.

The final haul could increase by about $42.7 million if underwriters take up their 30-day option to buy an additional 2.85 million shares for the same price.

The company’s stock is due to start trading on the Nasdaq this morning under the ticker “LBRX,” with the biotech having already earmarked the proceeds to advance its oral schizophrenia candidate LB-102.

LB-102 is a modified version of amisulpride, a dopamine inhibitor developed in the 1980s and marketed by Sanofi as Solian outside the U.S. In January, LB Pharma unveiled top-line data from a phase 2 study showing its candidate was linked to statistically significant changes on a symptom scale after four weeks of treatment.

LB Pharma said earlier this week that it expects to spend $133 million of IPO profits on a phase 3 study of LB-102 in schizophrenia, while about $25 million will be used to support a phase 2 trial in bipolar disorder. The rest will be allotted to “general corporate purposes.”

Along with its existing cash, the proceeds should be enough to fund operations through the first quarter of 2028, the company said in a Sept. 8 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

LB Pharma has previously raised funding from Deep Track Capital, TCG Crossover, Vida Ventures and Pontifax. It is now operating under a new CEO in Heather Turner, the former chief at Roche-acquired Carmot Therapeutics. Recent efforts to stretch the company’s cash runway include a layoff round in May that saw the departure of its chief financial officer and chief scientific officer.

Having entered July with only $14 million left in the bank, LB decided to end a drought of biotech IPOs that has lasted since February by plunging into the public markets.

https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/lb-pharmaceuticals-upsizes-ipo-285m-first-biotech-listing-months

Lilly loses appeal of $183.7 million Medicaid fraud award

 A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected Eli Lilly's appeal of an $183.7 million judgment won by a whistleblowing lawyer and pharmacist who accused the drugmaker of defrauding Medicaid.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago said a federal jury reasonably found that Lilly knowingly concealed having retroactively increased prices on some drugs, and then failing to rebate Medicaid on the higher prices.

Circuit Judge Joshua Kolar said jurors heard "ample evidence" suggesting that Lilly "was aware of, or disregarded, an unjustifiable risk of skirting the law and chose to obfuscate rather than conduct a reasonable inquiry."

The three-judge appeals court panel also rejected whistleblower Ronald Streck's claim that the judgment should have been higher because the trial judge undercounted Lilly's violations of the federal False Claims Act.

Jurors ordered Indianapolis-based Lilly to pay $61.23 million in August 2022, which the trial judge tripled to $183.7 million under the False Claims Act.

In a statement, Lilly said it disagreed with the decision and plans to appeal. It also said the decision conflicts with a 2018 ruling by the federal appeals court in Philadelphia, in a similar lawsuit by Streck against other drugmakers.

"We remain committed to upholding the highest standards of corporate conduct in our business dealings," Lilly said.

A lawyer for Streck had no immediate comment.

Lilly's top-selling drugs include Mounjaro for patients with type 2 diabetes, and Zepbound for patients with obesity or obstructive sleep apnea.

Both won regulatory approval several years after the alleged Medicaid overcharges. Lilly also co-markets the type 2 diabetes drug Jardiance with Germany's Boehringer Ingelheim.

LILLY ACTED 'WITHOUT QUALIFICATION' UNREASONABLY

From 2005 to 2017, Lilly required wholesalers to accept price increases on drugs they had already purchased from Lilly but had yet to resell to pharmacies.

Thus, if Lilly raised drug prices to $11 from $10, wholesalers would owe an extra $1 for drugs still in inventory.

Streck said Lilly should have reported the original and higher prices to the government, not just the original prices.

Lilly said service charges it paid the wholesalers offset the price increases, and it told regulators about its methodology several times and received no complaints.

Kolar nevertheless said it was "without qualification" unreasonable for Lilly to report only the original prices as its Average Manufacturer Price (AMP), in light of federal law and regulations and the terms of the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/eli-lilly-loses-appeal-183-172920010.html

Uber Sued by DOJ Over Passenger Disability Discrimination

 

Uber Technologies Inc. was sued by the US Justice Department over claims that the ride-sharing giant discriminates against people with physical disabilities in violation of federal law.

The department’s civil rights division alleged in a complaint filed Thursday in federal court in northern California that Uber drivers routinely refuse to accommodate passengers who travel with service animals or who use stowable wheelchairs.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-09-11/uber-sued-by-justice-department-over-disability-discrimination

Mercy to the Guilty Is Cruelty to the Innocent

 by Sean Ring

Two people who should still be with us are no longer with us.

Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee who rebuilt her life in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her family, was stabbed by a man who should never have been out on the street.

Charlie Kirk, a star in conservative politics and co-founder and executive director of Turning Point USA, was assassinated in cold blood by a professional sniper.

Different lives. Different circumstances. But both deaths share a familiar backdrop: a culture of leniency that confuses mercy with moral laziness.

Or as Adam Smith warned over two centuries ago:

Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.

We forgot that. And innocent people keep paying for it in blood.

When Compassion Becomes Complicity

Somewhere along the line, our leaders convinced themselves that the surest path to a safer society was to hug the wolves and lecture the sheep about tolerance.

Remember former UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s idiotic “Hug a Hoodie” campaign? It was supposed to melt the hearts of disaffected British youth. Instead, it broadcast to every aspiring street thug that society didn’t fear them — it pitied them.

The hoodies didn’t hug back. Knife crime soared, trust collapsed, and Cameron’s brainwave now sits in the political Hall of Shame right between “Peace in Our Time” and “Let’s Try Prohibition.”

Of course, the Rotherham Grooming Gangs in the UK were even worse, and are an ongoing stain on the national and local governments. The complicity is what Gad Saad calls “suicidal empathy.”

Mayors of Sanctuary Cities in America look equally stupid. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, LA Mayor Karen Bass, and California Governor Gavin “Gruesome” Newsom are among the dimmest the Democratic Party has to offer. I pray the DNC will give Newsom the 2028 Democratic nomination for President. Vance will wipe the debate room with Newsom’s idiocy.

This is the pathology of our times: elites congratulating themselves for their “compassion” while the rest of us nervously scan the street at night.

Leniency Erodes Trust — and Safety

Legal and economic research is painfully evident on this point: when punishment becomes optional, so does obedience.

Societies maintain high trust levels through visible, reliable consequences for wrongdoing. When citizens see murderers and rapists being punished swiftly and seriously, they trust the system. They cooperate with the police. They testify in court. They invest in their neighborhoods.

But when they see violent offenders stroll out of court on suspended sentences or “restorative justice” retreats, they assume — correctly — that the system will not defend them.

Trust collapses. Fear takes over. And social cohesion rots from within.

The Criminals Are Watching Too

We talk about deterrence as if it were some mystical force. It’s not. It’s simple math.

If the reward of committing a crime outweighs its risk, crime wins.

Research on UK knife crime showed that soft sentencing didn’t just fail to deter—it emboldened repeat offenders. They calculated that the system wouldn’t stop them, so they didn’t stop themselves.

Leniency without consequences is an engraved invitation to keep offending.

The Revolving Door to Hell

Once the public stops believing the system will protect them, they disengage. We see it now. Consider the Daniel Penny case. He saved a woman’s life on the NYC subway by accidentally killing her attacker. His reward was a show trial that luckily went his way.

It’s no wonder people looked the other way when poor Iryna was bleeding out. Innocent bystanders no longer want to get involved.

People stop reporting crimes. They stop cooperating with the police. In the worst cases, they start handling “justice” themselves.

And when that happens, you don’t get peace — you get chaos. You get vendettas, vigilantism, and neighbors who stop trusting neighbors.

The rule of law works only when it’s enforced. And seriously ask yourself this? How many laws are on the books? Lawlessness isn’t the problem. The complete lack of enforcement of current laws from Soros DAs is.

Remove the enforcement, and all that’s left is a very expensive pantomime — a stage set of statutes no one believes in anymore.

Iryna and Charlie

That’s the backdrop to both murders: perpetrators who long ago stopped fearing a system because of its failure to punish.

Iryna’s killer, Decarlos Brown, Jr., was a known violent offender who had 14 priors. The judges who let him off were barely qualified to fingerpaint, let alone judge criminal cases.

Charlie’s suspected assassin operated in a climate where political violence increasingly carries little consequence. Remember, no one served a minute’s worth of time for burning down Minneapolis in 2020.

And while the talking heads scold the public to be more “understanding,” the graveyards fill with the names of people who played by the rules and paid the price for it.

That time came to an end yesterday. The People will have their way.

Wrap Up

Genuine mercy is a virtue. Misplaced mercy is malpractice.

We don’t preserve civilization by hugging hoodies, group-therapying gangsters, or applauding ourselves for “restorative justice” while the morgues fill up.

Remember:

Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.

That isn’t callousness. It’s realism. Justice that refuses to defend the innocent isn’t justice at all — it’s aiding and abetting.

If the state won’t protect its people, it shouldn’t be surprised when the people stop believing in The State.

https://dailyreckoning.com/mercy-to-the-guilty-is-cruelty-to-the-innocent/