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Healthcare Reform
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State of Healthcare 2022

2022 is coming to a close, leaving behind many challenges to healthcare in the United States. The changes to reproductive freedom and attacks on gender affirming healthcare all while the COVID-19 pandemic rages in its third year while being systematically ignored/normalized have greatly affected how people access healthcare and how much it costs. People in the United States continue to count healthcare costs as a major concern.   In the final days of 2021, we were beginning to see the effects of the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Even with the new highly transmissible variant, the CDC cut isolation/quarantine […]

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Awareness, Vaccinations
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Get the flu shot to avoid complications and coinfections with COVID and RSV

This week is National Influenza Vaccination Week in the United States. Established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2005, this week highlights the importance of continuing flu vaccination through the holidays and beyond. Vaccines against the flu are the best defense against the virus and developing flu-related complications.   The influenza vaccine contains elements of killed or inactivated viruses. The dead virus still contains the antigens they had when active, and a person’s immune response is similar to the immune response from an infection. Despite misconceptions, the flu shot can not cause the flu. Due to […]

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Health, Safety
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Holiday Tips for Safe Travel and Mental Health

The holiday season in the United States and throughout the world has begun, and many people travel to visit family during these months — including some who may be traveling with a chronic illness, all of which have added complications due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We at NeedyMeds have some tips for healthy travel over the holidays along with suggestions for staying safe and mitigating the spread of coronavirus. Getting fully vaccinated and/or receiving boosters of available COVID-19 vaccines is the best way to protect yourself from infection while traveling — especially if you are uninsured; COVID vaccines will […]

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An unhoused man holds a sign that reads "Seeking human kindness" on the MBTA
Awareness
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Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week 2022

Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week is an annual observance when people and organizations draw attention to the problems of hunger and homelessness and show compassion for our unhoused neighbors. While the issues are broad and causes are varied, the solutions that have been shown to work (but are rarely employed in the United States) are centered around harm reduction as opposed to increased criminalization.   Homelessness can take many forms, with people living on the street, in encampments or shelters, in transitional housing programs, or staying with family or friends. While the U.S. government reports 1.5 million people a year […]

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Awareness
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Transgender Awareness Week 2022

Transgender is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity is different from their sex assigned at birth; ‘gender identity’ is one’s innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend of both (gender fluid), or neither (nonbinary). Gender expression involves expressing one’s gender identity through their social roles, appearance, and behaviors. Many health concerns that transgender people face are due to minority stress, such as discrimination and social/internalized stigma. Gender affirming care is essential to transgender health.   Transgender people experience gender dysphoria, a clinically significant distress recognized by the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental […]

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About Us

Welcome to the NeedyMeds Voice! We look forward to presenting you with timely, provocative pieces on healthcare reform, patient advocacy, medication and healthcare access, and other health-related news. Our goals are to educate, enlighten, and elucidate; together, we will try to make sense of the myriad and ongoing healthcare-related changes in the U.S. today.