Black influencers

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Tiffani Bell Washington, a psychiatrist specializing in obesity medicine, said on the show. Obesity is “a health issue, so it really does need to be covered, and if Medicare covers it, usually other people follow.”

Dunlap declined to comment for this article, and Bell Washington did not answer questions sent by email.

Novo Nordisk enlisted Black music and entertainment stars Queen Latifah and Yvette Nicole Brown to be paid spokespeople for an educational campaign that began in 2021 to communicate that obesity is a chronic disease and should be treated like other ailments. Both celebrities have openly talked about living with obesity.

Stanford, one of the participants in the September panel, received $23,188 from Novo Nordisk in 2022, nearly double what she received from the company in 2021, federal records show. The 2022 payments include consulting fees and expenses for meals and travel.

“I wouldn’t want someone that has no knowledge informing them on how this actually works in real life,” Stanford said, explaining her relationship with the companies. “The people they learn from are people like me—the people that actually do this work on the ground every day with patients.”

Another panelist was Eric Griggs, an assistant vice president at Access Health Louisiana, a network of federally qualified health centers. In an interview, Griggs said Medicare coverage of obesity drugs “would help the solution. If you can help one group, you can help them all.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based on BMI, 50% of non-Hispanic Black adults in the U.S. are classified as obese, the highest rate for any race or ethnicity.

However, the BMI measurement has increasingly come under criticism as flawed. In June, the American Medical Association said it “does not account for differences across race/ethnic groups, sexes, genders, and age-span.”

But sanctions could weaken the economy of Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries, and therefore stoke support for the junta and Islamist groups that offer money and shelter.

“We want diplomacy to work, and we want this message clearly transmitted to them (the military) that we are giving them every opportunity to reverse what they have done,” said

Since 2014, Novo Nordisk has spent more than $30 million on lobbying members of Congress and other federal officials, according to a KFF Health News review of lobbying disclosures. A consistent subject is the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act.

“We have enormous health care challenges that flow from obesity,” said Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), a lead sponsor of that legislation. He argued that spending money on weight loss drugs would reduce spending on chronic diseases that drive up the federal government’s healthcare tab.

Carper is a longtime recipient of campaign cash from drug companies, including makers of weight loss drugs. However, some researchers express caution about lifting Medicare’s coverage ban. For seniors, the side effects of such drugs could be more dangerous, according to a paper by scholars at Vanderbilt University and the University of Chicago.

Side effects for Wegovy and Ozempic may include kidney problems, gallbladder disease, inflammation of the pancreas, and thyroid cancer, according to the product labels. Suicidal thoughts

But he warned that “all the elements that will go into any eventual intervention have been worked out,” including how and when force would be deployed.

Back in Niger, Adama Oumarou of the capital Niamy told an Agence France-Presse reporter:

“We’re going to fight for this revolution. We’re not going to retreat faced with the enemy, we’re determined…We were waiting for this coup for a long time. When it arrived, we breathed a sigh of relief.” are listed as a potentially serious side effect of Wegovy, its label says.

The Vanderbilt and Chicago researchers found that, even with modest uptake of the medications, annual Medicare Part D expenses could increase by $13.6 billion. That could leave policymakers “in the position of making broad cuts to other types of care,” said Khrysta Baig, one of the paper’s authors.

But people who want Medicare and other insurance programs to cover the drugs emphasize potential advantages.

Coverage would save “the lives that we’re losing at early ages, especially in the Black community,”

Bell Washington said on Martin’s show in March, before calling on viewers to take action. “You need to write to your legislators, make sure you’re choosing people who are in support of health care for all,” she said.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces indepth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism.

Edo Language Day

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Lucky Igbendion, California’s Aghahowa Obazee, London’s Amb. Joe Ehigiamusoe, Benin City’s High Priest Osemwegie Ebohon, United Kingdom’s Lady Esosa Edogiawerie, a speech and language therapist/pathologist, and the Uyiedo Cultural Troupe.

The central theme is to strategize on how to “preserve, revitalize, and harmonize” the Edo Language among Edo Indigenes worldwide. Their initiative is focused on promoting and preserving a standardized Edo Language worldwide.

This year’s event will be hosted by Edo Language Day Worldwide (ELDW), NEBO TV Canada, Edo State Ministry of Arts, Culture, Tourism and Diaspora Affairs, in partnership with the University of Toronto, Canada. It will be held (in-person and virtually) on August 12th and 13th at the University of Toronto in Canada and Victor Uwaifo Creative Hub in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria.

For more information email: edolanguage2023@gmail.com for more info. Or go to https://edolanguageworldwide.org for details.