Richard’s Rant: MUCKRAKERS

November 2020 MUCKRAKERS Her name was Ida Tarbell. She was born in 1857. She was a Muckraker. While not a particularly flowery term, muckrakers and the process of muckraking have a storied history of changing the landscape of the U.S. You see, if you’re unfamiliar with the term, a muckraker today would be called an …

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October 2020 HUGE VACUUM I read a blurb online the other day about Daylight Savings time. The line I remembered was “There is no way I’m going to set my clock back. I don’t want to spend an extra hour in 2020.” It’s been a helluva year and there is still another quarter to go. …

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September 2020 2x4s for Self Preservation I’m damn tired of COVID. I’ve been stuck at home with my wife for months. I’m surprised she hasn’t bludgeoned me to death in my sleep. (Although I hide all suitable 2X4s for self-preservation.) As bad as it’s been, it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. There is, …

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August 2020 FOOD & PHARMACY Like many of you, the community I serve is small, rural, and poor. That has become the population most common to Independent Community Pharmacy. These folks, our folks, are more likely to have significant challenges accessing healthcare, understanding the healthcare system and suffer from multiple challenges related to Social Determinants …

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July 2020 SHARK CAVES It had the makings of a great day. The Pacific was calm, there was a light breeze and there were whales in the bay. Carrying a large net bag, I boarded an excursion boat that was going on a whale watching trip. An hour out, the excursion boat met up with …

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June 2020 PROUD TO BE AMONG YOUR RANKS June 4, 1940. War had broken out in Europe. England faced almost certain invasion. Faced with an existential threat, newly elected Prime Minister Winston Churchill grappled with the demons of capitulation and war. Churchill wrestled with a decision bigger than himself. In order to ease his mind …

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May 2020 COVID-19 DIDN'T CURE DIABETES No matter where you look, television, internet, newspapers all are full of COVID. It seems that’s all they cover. Meanwhile, we still have to care for patients that have DM, HTN, CAD, CHF, OUD, and every other chronic condition that has a bunch of letters as an acronym. Those …

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April 2020 TODAY'S BATTLE OF THE BULGE Like most people, I am in awe of my colleagues in healthcare who are fighting SARS-CoV-2 at ground zero. They have been called on to do more than is humanly possible. And they are doing it! They were thrust into the breach without proper equipment, enough support, and …

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March 2020 DANGLY BITS & BARBED WIRE I had the honor recently to be invited by APhA to participate in a call with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) concerning State PDMPs. I’m not sure why I was on the call. Everyone else on there was really smart. I suppose my dual life, 45 years …

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February 2020 CRUSTY OLD COOT He was a crusty old coot. I can’t think of a single person he liked, or that liked him. He was abrasive and argumentative. He did what he pleased and didn’t give 2 cents about what you thought or said. That extended to his healthcare. He had diabetes, heart disease, …

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