The cadre of elite disease detectives at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to be left in ruin today as the Trump administration continues to slash the federal workforce.

Many members of the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service, EIS—a globally revered public health training program—were informed earlier Friday that they were about to be fired, according to reporting from Stat News. Multiple sources told CBS News that half of EIS officers are among the ongoing cuts.

The Trump administration is ousting thousands of probationary federal workers in a wide-scale effort to dramatically slim agencies.

The EIS is a two-year program filled with competitively selected, highly educated and trained experts. EIS officers are the ones deployed in critical public health situations, such as deadly outbreaks or bioterror attacks. The program has a long, rich history since its establishment in 1951, which includes contributing to the eradication of smallpox, among other achievements.

Scanning for data on infections that can arise in the three places she visited and align with her symptoms, they came up with a list of 10 possible infectious causes: eight parasites and two fungal pathogens. They went through them one by one, crossing things off the list that didn't quite fit with everything they knew of her case. They ended with angiostrongyliasis, caused by the nematode (roundworm) Angiostrongylus cantonensis, also known as rat lungworm. //

This nauseating roundworm is a known plague in Hawaii. In fact, it gained attention in recent years after sparking small outbreaks in the state. In 2017, there were 19 confirmed cases, but case totals in each of the years since have remained below 10. //

There are no clear treatment strategies for angiostrongyliasis, and some can recover fully without treatment after the larvae die off. In this case, the patient and her doctors decided to use a 14-day combination of the immunosuppressive steroid prednisone and the anti-parasitic drug albendazole.

Fortunately, the woman's symptoms cleared with the treatment, and she was discharged from the hospital after six days.

" Medical conditions associated with unreactive pupils include brain injury, stroke, and certain neurological disorders
" Seek immediate medical attention if you experience unreactive pupils along with severe headache, dizziness, or loss of consciousness

Nor are American pharmaceutical companies altruistic heroes; they’re in business to make a profit for their shareholders. But profits are the reward for risking capital and producing something of great value. My wife’s Tagrisso is such a product. Tagrisso got approval in the United States before Europe thanks, in large part, to the United States’s robust pharmaceutical industry and the regulatory system that accompanies it.

And yes, the United States has a tragic chronic disease burden, for which medications are probably not the exclusive, or even primary, answer. But Big Pharma is becoming a scapegoat for problems that often originated in, or were compounded by, poor lifestyle choices.

For all its well-documented inefficiencies, the American healthcare system is second to none. And the pharmaceutical industry is an essential part of it. My son and my daughter still have their parents because of Big Pharma. I have a wife because of Big Pharma. And millions of others are alive because a scientist, paid well out of the revenue generated by a company’s previously issued medicines, discovered a new miracle medicine that could save or prolong a life.

Senator Rand Paul delivered what could have been seen as a six-minute Ted Talk on how science works and how delivery of things like vaccines, along with diet and other considerations, change over time, and how parents, not the government, should be making decisions that affect their children.

There's an old joke that goes, "How can you tell if there's a vegan at your party?" The answer: "They'll tell you."

The entire issue of health factors and ethical matters around diet has been battered endlessly. "Ethical vegans," the most strident of the lot — and the most fact-challenged — make all kinds of outrageous claims about animals, their nature, the biology of humans, and how a "vegan" diet somehow causes "less harm" to animals than a diet that includes meat — a claim that they cannot back up.

That's the extreme end of the spectrum, though. There are plenty of people who forgo meat for reasons of their own without being self-righteous about it, and that's fine; live and let live. But there are matters of science involved, especially where pregnant women are concerned. We've known for some time now that excessive alcohol use by pregnant women can damage a developing fetus; this is what Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is. However, a recent study indicates that forgoing animal protein in the diet may be more damaging than moderate alcohol use. //

Realistically, while any cell mutation can happen any time, you are unlikely to get cancer caused by an occasional drink, but US culture always has pregnant women and new mothers on blast, so they are told to abstain from alcohol, coffee, too many foods to count, etc.

What we should really be cautioning pregnant women about is vegetarian diets. While some epidemiological data on alcohol can be critiqued on merit, people who believe claims about PFAS in water, GMOs, pasteurized milk, vaccinated chickens, Scotchguard, or cancer-causing spatulas absolutely cannot deny the risks of a vegetarian diet. This is far more rigorous than any of the epidemiology in those claims. //

It's important to note that the paper cited is not original work; it's what is called a "meta-analysis," an examination of previous peer-reviewed studies. That doesn't make the study any less credible, especially given the size of the data sets that were examined; eight studies, taking in 72,284 participants.

If you understand biology and the human digestive tract, though, the study isn't necessary. This isn't new information. It's been known for literally all of the history of humankind; that women who have a well-balanced diet have healthier babies. //

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589936824000707 //

Eeyore1953
4 hours ago
How is it possible that Baby Boomers were born, with their mothers smoking and drinking through the pregnancy? And how is it that the French even exist?

REMEMBER WHEN the Media laughed and said ivermectin was ONLY for horses and cows? THEY KNEW it was made for people since 1987.

Here’s what they didn’t tell you 👇

1 – It prevents the damage caused by drugs created using mRNA technology, blocks the entry of Spike Protein into cells and, if the person was vaccinated, they can treat themselves for damage already done through Ivermectin.

2 – It only has beneficial effects and no harmful effects in the treatment of the C virus. In fact, even before entering the cell, it has already destroyed the virus in the blood.

3 – It has a very powerful anti-inflammatory action against and has a powerful impact on traumatic and orthopedic injuries, it strengthens muscles and has no side effects like corticosteroids.

4 –It treats autoimmune ailments such as: rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, fibromyalgia, psoriasis, Crohn's disease, allergic rhinitis.

5 – It improves the immunity levels in cancer patients and treats Herpes Simplex and Herpes Zoster, plus reduces the frequency of sinusitis and diverticulitis.

6 – It protects the heart in cardiac overload. In an embolism for example, it prevents cardiac hypoxia because it stimulates the production of basic energy so that the tissue is not destroyed and thus improves cardiac function.

7 – It is anti-parasitic, anti-neoplastic (anti-cancer). Allegedly, it suppresses the proliferation and metastasis of cancer cells, preserving healthy cells and improving the effectiveness of chemotherapy treatment.

8 - It can kills cancer cells resistant to chemotherapy, defeating the resistance to multiple chemo-therapeutics that tumors develop, and combined with chemotherapy and/or anti-cancer agents, it provides an increase in the effectiveness of these treatments.

9 – It is antimicrobial (bacteria and viruses) and increases immunity.

10 – It reaches the Central Nervous System and regenerates the nerves.

11 – It helps to regulates glucose, insulin metabolism, cholesterol levels and reduces liver fat in steatose.

12 - It can be used as a prophylactic agent and has been associated with a significant reduction in infection, hospitalization and mortality rates due to C-19.

Federal toxicology researchers on Monday finally published a long-controversial analysis that claims to find a link between high levels of fluoride exposure and slightly lower IQs in children living in areas outside the US, mostly in China and India. As expected, it immediately drew yet more controversy.

The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, is a meta-analysis, a type of study that combines data from many different studies—in this case, mostly low-quality studies—to come up with new results. None of the data included in the analysis is from the US, and the fluoride levels examined are at least double the level recommended for municipal water in the US. In some places in the world, fluoride is naturally present in water, such as parts of China, and can reach concentrations several-fold higher than fluoridated water in the US. //

The inclusion of urinary fluoride measurements is sure to spark criticism. For years, experts have noted that these measurements are not standardized, can vary by day and time, and are not reflective of a person's overall fluoride exposure.

A Florida grand jury investigation ordered by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis reveals a "pattern of deceptive and obfuscatory behavior" by pharmaceutical companies and federal agencies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings of Florida's 22nd Statewide Grand Jury and their forward-looking recommendations highlight concerns about vaccine safety data, the effectiveness of lockdown measures, and captured regulatory oversight. //

The grand jury's report delivered a stark assessment of pandemic policies, stating:

"This wasn't an 'information' problem, it was a 'judgment' problem."

They found that solid scientific research about handling pandemics existed before COVID-19 but was largely dismissed by public health officials and media outlets. //

On the issue of masking, the grand jury was unequivocal:

"We have never had sound evidence of their effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 transmission."

Instead of acknowledging this, federal agencies promoted what the report calls "flawed observational and laboratory studies." //

DeSantis wrote:

"The Grand Jury has made a number of recommendations that should be followed. The status quo cannot continue. The American people deserve transparency on how Big Pharma is using their federal tax dollars, and they deserve regulating entities that operate as watchdogs, not cheerleaders."

In their conclusion, the Grand Jury wrote:

"Somehow, because of panic, hubris, ineptitude or some unfortunate combination of the three, this widely rejected idea not only made its way back into scientific discourse in 2020, it became the law of the land in most of the United States between 2020 and 2022. It is clear to this Grand Jury that whatever benefits inured from these mandates, they were not worth the price." //

anon-78cb
an hour ago
Not only did the government become unpaid advertisers for the covid shots, they also made claims that would have been illegal for the drug companies themselves to make. The drug companies cannot make unproven claims in their advertising, but the government sure as hell did. Remember the PSAs claiming that the shots would prevent transmission? All lies. The drug companies couldn't go that far in their advertising, but they didn't need to because the government did it for them.

The gasoline additive was not fully banned in the U.S. until 1996. //

It was probably a good idea to get rid of lead in gasoline and paint, but we probably should have done it a long time ago. Some countries did not fully remove lead from gas until 2020, and the effects on future generations have not yet begun to show themselves fully. It’s nice, however, to finally know why Gen X is the way they are.

While lawyers in the Tennessee transgender care ban case were slugging it out in court last week, the UK was putting the finishing touches on a “holistic” approach to pediatric transgender care—one that has broad, bipartisan support and is grounded in mental health protocol rather than risky, unproven drugs.

On Wednesday, the left-leaning Labour government announced that puberty blockers for minors with gender dysphoria would be banned indefinitely across the UK, except for use in clinical trials.

The announcement follows an emergency ban that extended to private providers beginning in May 2024, after the landmark Cass Review on children’s gender care found there was insufficient evidence to show these drugs were safe. It was a temporary measure enacted by the then-Conservative government and later upheld against a challenge in court, as we reported here. //

In October, Cass told The Times she attributes the report’s ongoing success to broad, cross-party support that kept it from becoming “a political hostage to fortune.”

So far, Cass—now Baroness Cass of Barnet to us—seems to be right. The UK did what the US failed to do: take the politics out of children’s medicine.

Progressives often cite Canada as a glorious utopia of good health and freedom.

Those of us who get our news from more reliable sources know that the opposite is the case.

But, personally, I did not have the return of the scourge of 15th-century sailors on my 2024 bingo card either.

Research by a young Canadian doctor working in Hamilton suggests that scurvy, a disease we mostly associate with life on sailing ships centuries ago, may be more prevalent in modern Canada than we might have thought. //

It also takes very little vitamin C to prevent scurvy. A single orange has five times the daily dose of vitamin C necessary to prevent scurvy.

The CDC notes that small children can have up to 10 grams of stool stuck to their butts at any point, according to some crack scientific modeling. That's about 10 standard paperclips worth of excrement. And small children tend to stand directly over jets, allowing any fecal matter stuck on their bums to wash out of their swim diapers—which do not trap poop. Some splash pads recirculate water. And among the kids who aren't standing on the jets, there are others putting their open mouths over them.

Once infectious material gets into the water, disinfection systems that aren't working properly or are inadequate can allow pathogens to gush from every nozzle. Splash pads aren't unique in having to handle sick children in poopy swim diapers—but they are unique in how they are regulated. That is, in some places, they're not regulated at all. Splash pads are designed to not have standing water, therefore reducing the risk of young children drowning. But, because they lack standing water, they are sometimes deemed exempt from local health regulations. //

The primary method for keeping recreational water free of infectious viruses and bacteria is chlorinating it. However, maintaining germ-killing chlorine concentration is especially difficult for splash pads because the jets and sprays aerosolize chlorine, lowering the concentration.

Still, in most splash-pad linked outbreaks, standard chlorine concentrations aren't enough anyway. The most common pathogen to cause an outbreak at splash pads is the parasite Cryptosporidium, aka Crypto. The parasite's hardy spores, called oocysts, are extremely tolerant of chlorine, surviving in water with the standard chlorine concentration (1 ppm free chlorine) for over seven days. (Other germs die in minutes.) In splash pads that might not even have that standard chlorine concentration, Crypto flourishes and can cause massive outbreaks.

In 2023, the CDC recommended new health codes that call for "secondary disinfection" methods to keep Crypto at bay, including disinfection systems using ozone or ultraviolet light. Another possible solution is to have "single-pass" splash pads that don't recirculate water. //

scarletjinx Ars Scholae Palatinae
4y
1,055
Subscriptor
Ah, as gross as this is (thank you Beth), if you kinda think through the numbers - 25 years of data, 60 outbreaks (2.4/year) - with most likely tens of millions of children playing in those splash pools in that 25 year period. 10k vs 10's of millions. Then looking at hospital visits - ~150 & 99 ER visits; yet there are over 200,000 ER visits from playground accidents each year by comparison.

Not a significant risk at all.

Look, any parent will tell you - kids are basically little petri dishes. They bring home colds & such from school & other venues, etc; germs from playing in playgrounds, pools, sandboxes. It's a thing, and the only recourse for the germophobes would be to raise the kid in a bubble with no contact to anything. Which might bring its own health problems.

That being said, I probably wouldn't have let my kid play in water where other kids with diapers were playing, that is kinda gross. If you got a kid in diapers perhaps be considerate of others and let your kid play in a home kiddie pool, not in a public space. But many people aren't considerate of others, look at a movie theater floor sometime after the lights come on.

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released its final report Monday, making numerous findings that would have gotten people deplatformed four - or even three - short years ago, and some of the points upon which there was bipartisan consensus will rock the minds of the Covidian cult.

Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), a physician, chaired the committee.

Entitled “After Action Review of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Lessons Learned and a Path Forward," the report begins with Wenstrup outlining those points of bipartisan consensus:

1. The possibility that the COVID-19 virus emerged because of a laboratory or research related accident is not a conspiracy theory.
2. EcoHealth Alliance, Inc., and Dr. Peter Daszak should never again receive U.S. taxpayer dollars.
3. Scientific messaging must be clear and concise, backed by evidentiary support, and come from trusted messengers, such as front-line doctors treating patients.
4. Public health officials must work to regain Americans' trust; Americans want to be educated, not indoctrinated.
5. Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo engaged in medical malpractice and publicly covered up the total number of nursing home fatalities in New York.

According to Wenstrup, the committee also made numerous findings, including (but not limited to):

1. The U.S. National Institutes of Health funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
2. The Chinese government, agencies within the U.S. Government, and some members of the international scientific community sought to cover-up facts concerning the origins of the pandemic.
3. Operation Warp Speed was a tremendous success and a model to build upon in the future. The vaccines, which are now probably better characterized as therapeutics, undoubtedly saved millions of lives by diminishing likelihood of severe disease and death. //

Contrary to what was promised, the COVID-19 vaccine did not stop the spread or transmission of the virus.

Vaccine mandates trampled individual freedoms and harmed military readiness.

And, most importantly, the committee found that "a lab-related incident involving dangerous gain-of-function research in China is the most likely origin of the COVID-19 pandemic." //

TXavatar
11 hours ago edited
I work in clinical drug trials and the key words missing from the discussion is "informed consent" which is the moral and legal bedrock of all medical treatments. With such a limited time to test, the drugs were not vaccines but rather experimental treatments and given liability exemption as a result. That could have been acceptable if presented as such to the concerned populace. However, when they were falsely promoted as vaccines and the population was coerced/mandated in to receiving them, "informed" and "consent" was thrown out the window.

While Gottlieb has the right to talk to as many senators as he wishes, I would suggest that his talk of a polio epidemic is more to scare than enlighten them. His real fear is that RFK, Jr., will upset the comfy, one-hand-washes-the-other that exists between regulators and regulated industries and the high-paying revolving door that shuttles regulators to regulated industries and then back to regulatory agencies. //

anon-89ic
13 hours ago
More likely than not, childhood vaccination rates are vastly lower than reported. As I've said many times, I never had those shots because the adverse reactions scared my doctors in the early 1970s, and my kids' pediatrician in the 90s never questioned the decision about whether or not to vaccinate our kids. Vaccination rates have dropped precipitously because so many parents don't trust the FDA. that's why Bobby's efforts, if they restore confidence in the FDA, may bolster vaccination rates, not lower them. Gottlieb is on the dark side and can't be trusted. //

jdquick
11 hours ago
The only thing I got to say is follow the money. Big Pharma is running scared and my bet is that they are spending millions on senators to kill RFK Jr's nomination. He will make them pay for what they have done to this country and they want to keep the gravy train rolling......for their fake vaccines and medicine for every little ache you have. Also, the medical community has probably chipped in a bunch because they follow their masters in big pharma.. //

Yoganana QueenieAnne
3 hours ago
Chicken pox vax is definitely one which cost benefit analysis needs to be done. we used to have chicken pox parties to get the disease immunity. You are correct that the epidemic of shingles is due to lack of community re exposure to chicken pox since the vaccine.
The pertussis ( whooping cough) vax does not prevent transmission, My sister and I had it after being vaxxed.
Measles may have some serious consequences: measles encephalitis, and other disabilities. But….what is the track record on the vaccination preventing it?
India saw an epidemic of polio cases resulting in some deaths and paralysis after Gates ran his polio vaccine program. India stopped the program and kicked him out.
Babies are routinely given the hepatitis vax in the nursery. What is their risk factor? Definitely stay away from HPV VAX, ( gardisil.) pediatricians are recommending it as part of the schedule for 11 year olds! It has had some severe disabling results.
RFK Jf is not eliminating vaccines. He is calling for an honest and thorough review of the literature and evaluation based on adverse events versus benefits.

In a case of an oft-overlooked food preparation risk, a 40-year-old man showed up to an allergy clinic in Texas with a severe, burning rash on both his hands that had developed two days earlier. A couple of days later, it blistered. And a few weeks after that, the skin darkened and scaled. After several months, the skin on his hands finally returned to normal.

The culprit: lime juice and sunlight.

It turns out that just before developing the nasty skin eruption, the man had manually squeezed a dozen limes, then headed to an outdoor soccer game without applying sunscreen. His doctors diagnosed the man's rash as a classic case of phytophotodermatitis, according to a case report published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The condition is caused by toxic substances found in plants (phyto) that react with UV light (photo) to cause a burning, blistering, scaling, pigmented skin condition (dermatitis).

Specifically, the toxic chemicals are furocoumarins, which are found in some weeds and also a range of plants used in food. Those include celery, carrot, parsley, fennel, parsnip, lime, bitter orange, lemon, grapefruit, and sweet orange. Furocoumarins include chemicals with linear structures, psoralens, and angular structures, called angelicins, though not all of them are toxic.

Furocoumarins can enter skin cells, and for those that are phototoxic, become activated by exposure to ultraviolet light. The light causes the chemicals to form cross-linking bonds with the pyrimidine bases in DNA. This ties the double-stranded genetic material together, halting replication, which in turn leads to cell death and inflammation. //

Edgar Allan Esquire Ars Tribunus Militum
7y
2,830
Subscriptor
jtwrenn said:
I am just curious...did he squeeze a bunch of limes then not wash his hands? Is it as simple as wash places contacted by vegetables or this could happen to you? Or is this something we are just always rolling the dice on and there i no simple way to keep it from happening except to stay out of the sun?
Did a little googling out of curiosity:
(from webmd)
It takes between 30 to 120 minutes before psoralen is absorbed into your skin. If you can wash it off before it has time to absorb, you can prevent the chemical reaction to the sun.

Bartenders that work outdoors apparently call it "margarita burn" as a trade risk. //

Arstotzka Ars Scholae Palatinae
8y
863
Subscriptor++
Wash your hands and apply sunscreen! There are plenty of other reasons why sunscreen is a good idea above and beyond preventing this kind of horribleness.

Collins frets about the politicization of science, but largely conflates science with his own political agenda. //

But don’t expect many mea culpas from Collins about his time at NIH. He offers no apology for funding the harvesting of body parts from late-term aborted babies for medical research. Or for financing research that used gender-destructive puberty blockers on young people. Likewise, he fails to acknowledge his past promotion of the failed Darwinian idea that our genome is swamped with “junk DNA.”

Nor does Collins take real ownership of his most significant missteps during Covid. During the rollout of the Covid vaccines, Collins falsely assured the public that mRNA from the vaccines wouldn’t stay in the body “beyond probably a few hours.” A subsequent study showed that the mRNA could persist in a person’s lymph system some two months after vaccination. Collins’ promotion of misinformation has been memory-holed. So has his emphatic promise in April 2021 that “There’s not going to be any mandating of vaccines from the U.S. government, I can assure you.” A few months later, Collins was praising the imposition of mandates as a “forceful, muscular approach” and demonizing those who didn’t want to take the vaccines as killers on the wrong side of history.

Collins does acknowledge problems with government messaging during Covid and the “collateral damage” inflicted on ordinary Americans by various policies. But he calls the collateral damage “inevitable.”

For many people, his admissions will be too little, too late. //

The most serious flaw is Collins’ core message. He frets about the politicization of science and the growing distrust of claims made in the name of science. He wants to restore public trust in “science” and the experts.

The problem is he largely conflates science with his own political agenda. By the end of the book, it becomes clear that for him “science” has become a convenient club to bludgeon people who disagree with him. //

His “pre-bunking” is entirely one-sided. His goal is to shut down critical inquiry, not cultivate it. //

Collins also suggests listening to people with whom you disagree. Unfortunately, he has spent much of his career doing the opposite.

In October 2020, three distinguished epidemiologists published the Great Barrington Declaration, which criticized the government’s lockdown policies. How did Collins respond? Did he convene a meeting with them to hear them out? No, he derided them in private as “fringe” figures and told subordinates: “There needs to be a quick and devastating take down” of their ideas. Collins expresses regret for his “intemperate” language, but says he has “no regrets for the point I made.”

In other words, he really hasn’t learned anything.

It’s precisely because Collins has insulated himself from fellow experts who disagree with him that he finds it so easy to caricature the viewpoints he opposes.

That is not the road to wisdom. It’s a road to folly.

Nuclear medicine is one of those cool specialities that doesn’t get enough attention. While nuclear energy has enjoyed a revival in recent years, little attention has been paid to nuclear medicine. That’s probably partly because explaining it in technical terms inevitably removes some of the magic and partly because many people fear radiation and don’t want to think about it.

But nuclear medicine deserves attention. Not all of the world's nuclear reactors are used for producing energy; they are also used for producing radioisotopes for medicine and industry, training, and other purposes. They are known as research reactors, and there are currently around 220 research reactors in 53 countries. In the heyday of nuclear development, in 1975, there were 373 neutron factories in 55 countries. //

Outside of the wealthier nations, there is a significant shortage of equipment and workforce for nuclear imaging around the world, and one study found that:

A comprehensive scale-up of imaging, treatment, and care quality would avert 9·55 million (12·5%) of all cancer deaths caused by the modelled cancers worldwide, saving 232·30 million life-years. Scale-up of imaging would cost US$6·84 billion in 2020–30 but yield lifetime productivity gains of $1·23 trillion worldwide, a net return of $179·19 per $1 invested.

Healthy people benefit humanity. For those living in the poorest nations to gain access to improved healthcare, nuclear medicine will play a vital role going forward, although when and how that will happen remains to be seen.

Whatever your office setup, the most important thing is to move. //

Without question, inactivity is bad for us. Prolonged sitting is consistently linked to higher risks of cardiovascular disease and death. The obvious response to this frightful fate is to not sit— move. Even a few moments of exercise can have benefits, studies suggest. But in our modern times, sitting is hard to avoid, especially at the office. This has led to a range of strategies to get ourselves up, including the rise of standing desks. //

However, studies on whether standing desks are beneficial have been sparse and sometimes inconclusive. Further, prolonged standing can have its own risks, and data on work-related sitting has also been mixed. While the final verdict on standing desks is still unclear, two studies out this year offer some of the most nuanced evidence yet about the potential benefits and risks of working on your feet.

The box of prescription drugs had been forgotten in a back closet of a retail pharmacy for so long that some of the pills predated the 1969 moon landing. Most were 30 to 40 years past their expiration dates — possibly toxic, probably worthless.

But to Lee Cantrell, who helps run the California Poison Control System, the cache was an opportunity to answer an enduring question about the actual shelf life of drugs: Could these drugs from the bell-bottom era still be potent? //

The age of the drugs might have been bizarre, but the question the researchers wanted to answer wasn't. Pharmacies across the country in major medical centers and in neighborhood strip malls routinely toss out tons of scarce and potentially valuable prescription drugs when they hit their expiration dates. //

Experts estimate such squandering eats up about $765 billion a year — as much as a quarter of all the country's health care spending. //

The findings surprised both researchers: A dozen of the 14 compounds were still as potent as they were when they were manufactured, some at almost 100 percent of their labeled concentrations. //

"Refining our prescription drug dating process could save billions," he says.

But after a brief burst of attention, the response to their study faded. That raises an even bigger question: If some drugs remain effective well beyond the date on their labels, why hasn't there been a push to extend their expiration dates?

It turns out that the FDA, the agency that helps set the dates, has long known the shelf life of some drugs can be extended, sometimes by years.

In fact, the federal government has saved a fortune by doing this. //

For decades, the federal government has stockpiled massive stashes of medication, antidotes and vaccines in secure locations throughout the country. The drugs are worth tens of billions of dollars and would provide a first line of defense in case of a large-scale emergency.

Maintaining these stockpiles is expensive. The drugs have to be kept secure and at the proper humidity and temperature so they don't degrade. Luckily, the country has rarely needed to tap into many of the drugs, but this means they often reach their expiration dates. Though the government requires pharmacies to throw away expired drugs, it doesn't always follow these instructions itself. Instead, for more than 30 years, it has pulled some medicines and tested their quality. //

In 1986, the Air Force, hoping to save on replacement costs, asked the FDA if certain drugs' expiration dates could be extended. In response, the FDA and Defense Department created the Shelf Life Extension Program.

Each year, drugs from the stockpiles are selected based on their value and pending expiration, and analyzed in batches to determine whether their end dates could be safely extended. For several decades, the program has found that the actual shelf life of many drugs is well beyond the original expiration dates.

A 2006 study of 122 drugs tested by the program showed that two-thirds of the expired medications were stable every time a lot was tested. Each of them had their expiration dates extended, on average, by more than four years, according to research published in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Some that failed to hold their potency include the common asthma inhalant albuterol, the topical rash spray diphenhydramine, and a local anesthetic made from lidocaine and epinephrine, the study said. //

An official with the Department of Defense, which maintains about $13.6 billion worth of drugs in its stockpile, says that in 2016 it cost $3.1 million to run the extension program — which saved the department from replacing $2.1 billion in expired drugs. //

Federal and state laws prohibit pharmacists from dispensing expired drugs, and The Joint Commission, which accredits thousands of health care organizations, requires facilities to remove expired medication from their supply. //

Testing showed 24 of the 40 expired devices contained at least 90 percent of their stated amount of epinephrine, enough to be considered as potent as when they were made. All of them contained at least 80 percent of their labeled concentration of medication. The takeaway? Even EpiPens stored in less than ideal conditions may last longer than their labels say they do, and if there's no other option, an expired EpiPen may be better than nothing, Cantrell says. //

"The question is: Should the FDA be doing more stability testing?" Berkowitz says. "Could they come up with a safe and systematic way to cut down on the drugs being wasted in hospitals?"

Four scientists who worked on the FDA extension program told ProPublica something like that could work for drugs stored in hospital pharmacies, where conditions are carefully controlled.

Greg Burel, director of the CDC's stockpile, says he worries that if drugmakers were forced to extend their expiration dates it could backfire, making it unprofitable to produce certain drugs and thereby reducing access or increasing prices.