epiphanies - Tumblr blog

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TAYLOR SWIFT The Tortured Poets Department | Spotify's Canvas (2024)

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Dev Patel in Monkey Man (2024) | Official trailer

In this city, the rich don't see us as people.

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dev patel really said "i support trans ppls rights....... trans ppls rights to kill bigots with guns and metal pipes and chairs and cool knives'' anyway watch monkey man

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DEV PATEL in MONKEY MAN (2024)

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Opinion Here’s how to get free Paxlovid as many times as you need it

When the public health emergency around covid-19 ended, vaccines and treatments became commercial products, meaning companies could charge for them as they do other pharmaceuticals. Paxlovid, the highly effective antiviral pill that can prevent covid from becoming severe, now has a list price of nearly $1,400 for a five-day treatment course.

Thanks to an innovative agreement between the Biden administration and the drug’s manufacturer, Pfizer, Americans can still access the medication free or at very low cost through a program called Paxcess. The problem is that too few people — including pharmacists — are aware of it.

I learned of Paxcess only after readers wrote that pharmacies were charging them hundreds of dollars — or even the full list price — to fill their Paxlovid prescription. This shouldn’t be happening. A representative from Pfizer, which runs the program, explained to me that patients on Medicare and Medicaid or who are uninsured should get free Paxlovid. They need to sign up by going to paxlovid.iassist.com or by calling 877-219-7225. “We wanted to make enrollment as easy and as quick as possible,” the representative said.

Indeed, the process is straightforward. I clicked through the web form myself, and there are only three sets of information required. Patients first enter their name, date of birth and address. They then input their prescriber’s name and address and select their insurance type.

All this should take less than five minutes and can be done at home or at the pharmacy. A physician or pharmacist can fill it out on behalf of the patient, too. Importantly, this form does not ask for medical history, proof of a positive coronavirus test, income verification, citizenship status or other potentially sensitive and time-consuming information.

But there is one key requirement people need to be aware of: Patients must have a prescription for Paxlovid to start the enrollment process. It is not possible to pre-enroll. (Though, in a sense, people on Medicare or Medicaid are already pre-enrolled.)

Once the questionnaire is complete, the website generates a voucher within seconds. People can print it or email it themselves, and then they can exchange it for a free course of Paxlovid at most pharmacies.

Pfizer’s representative tells me that more than 57,000 pharmacies are contracted to participate in this program, including major chain drugstores such as CVS and Walgreens and large retail chains such as Walmart, Kroger and Costco. For those unable to go in person, a mail-order option is available, too.

The program works a little differently for patients with commercial insurance. Some insurance plans already cover Paxlovid without a co-pay. Anyone who is told there will be a charge should sign up for Paxcess, which would further bring down their co-pay and might even cover the entire cost.

Several readers have attested that Paxcess’s process was fast and seamless. I was also glad to learn that there is basically no limit to the number of times someone could use it. A person who contracts the coronavirus three times in a year could access Paxlovid free or at low cost each time.

Unfortunately, readers informed me of one major glitch: Though the Paxcess voucher is honored when presented, some pharmacies are not offering the program proactively. As a result, many patients are still being charged high co-pays even if they could have gotten the medication at no cost.

This is incredibly frustrating. However, after interviewing multiple people involved in the process, including representatives of major pharmacy chains and Biden administration officials, I believe everyone is sincere in trying to make things right. As we saw in the early days of the coronavirus vaccine rollout, it’s hard to get a new program off the ground. Policies that look good on paper run into multiple barriers during implementation.

Those involved are actively identifying and addressing these problems. For instance, a Walgreens representative explained to me that in addition to educating pharmacists and pharmacy techs about the program, the company learned it also had to make system changes to account for a different workflow. Normally, when pharmacists process a prescription, they inform patients of the co-pay and dispense the medication. But with Paxlovid, the system needs to stop them if there is a co-pay, so they can prompt patients to sign up for Paxcess.

Here is where patients and consumers must take a proactive role. That might not feel fair; after all, if someone is ill, people expect that the system will work to help them. But that’s not our reality. While pharmacies work to fix their system glitches, patients need to be their own best advocates. That means signing up for Paxcess as soon as they receive a Paxlovid prescription and helping spread the word so that others can get the antiviral at little or no cost, too.

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Monkey Man (2024) dir. Dev Patel

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DEV PATEL as THE KID

Monkey Man (2024) dir. Dev Patel

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um. perhaps everyone should go see monkey man. just maybe. consider.

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Monkey Man (2024) dir. Dev Patel

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Don't look away from us. Don't ignore the Oklahoman queer community. Don't ignore the indigiqueer community. Don't forget Nex Benedict and the future they should have been entitled to.

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AULIʻI CRAVALHO as JANIS ʻIMI’IKE in Mean Girls (2024)

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Free Palestine - ceasefire now!

There is currently a strike for Palestine taking place from February 18th, 2024, to February 25th, 2024. During this time, I will only be posting about Palestine on this account and doing what I can to spread awareness. If you are able, I highly recommend participating in the strike in whatever way you are able - something is always better than nothing. Staying home from work and/or school, not buying anything that isn't strictly necessary, using your social media platforms only to boost posts about Palestine, etc., are all ways to help the efforts!

Below are various links for ways you can help Palestine, including educational resources, petitions, fundraisers, etc. If you have any to add on, please do, these are just the ones I've found so far.

Palestine Red Crescent Society

Palestine Children's Relief Fund

eSims For Gaza

Decolonize Palestine (Patreon)

Jewish Voice For Peace

Help Gaza Children

Islamic Relief Canada's Palestine Emergency Appeal

Medical Aid For Palestinians

Gisha (Israeli organization working to protect Palestinians' rights to the freedom of movement)

Click to help Palestine daily

Palestine Action

Attend an upcoming protest for Palestine (remember to mask up if possible, COVID isn't over)

Sign a petition to urge governments to invoke the genocide convention to stop the war on Gaza

Sign a petition from Amnesty calling for a ceasefire

Check this list of ways to demand a ceasefire in Gaza

Sign the petition for Canada to take urgent action for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza

Download these posters to print out and put up in your area and/or share on socials to build awareness

Join the BDS boycott

Check out resources and ways to help from Justice For All

Donate to the Gofundme for medical expenses for Hisham, a Palestinian-Irish-American who was shot in an anti-Palestinian hate crime in Burlington, Vermont

The Palestine Academy's Palestine 101

Palestinian literature recommendations

Check out Independent Jewish Voices Canada and their campaigns to help Palestine

Join Palestine Action to help bring down Israel's weapons trade

Shop Palestine (online store where your purchases support artisans in Palestine and in refugee camps in Lebanon, proceeds go to Middle East Children’s Alliance's work supporting Palestinian children)

Donate direct aid to Gaza (run by a longtime activist and volunteer who has been carrying out donations and humanitarian projects in Gaza since 2021)

Buy from the Hirbawi factory (this is the last kufiya factory in Palestine that is still active, purchasing helps support the Palestinian economy, which has not been in a great state for a while)

Spreadsheet listing mutual aid

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Chefchaouen, Morocco.

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melissa barrera (the actress who got fired from the scream franchise for being pro palestine) has started a fundraiser with unrwa!

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I think something that also drives me up a wall is that people like don't realize that you don't get fired or blacklisted or ignored for being a zionist or a zionist sympathizer whereas if you so much as wear a palestinian flag pin you get fired or in trouble like no actually i constantly have to watch myself irl to make sure I don't have my words potentially misconstrued because the entire American sociopolitical system will come at me if I so much as accidentally say one word out of place I can't even say "from the river to the sea" without being accused of genocide meanwhile people publish literal thinkpieces about how an overwhelmingly Muslim town famous for their sweets is a center for terrorism like come on. Like there's a levels of fuckery happening right now and we have politicians openly calling Palestine protests as "Russian funded" I'm sorry but Palestinians, Arabs, muslims and people racialized as from these groups are in pretty immediate fucking danger??? Like??? Can you not see the fascism unless it directly happens to you????

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Genocide experts warn that India is about to genocide the Shompen people

Who are the Shompen?

The Shompen are an indigenous culture that lives in the Great Nicobar Island, which is nowadays owned by India. The Shompen and their ancestors are believed to have been living in this island for around 10,000 years. Like other tribes in the nearby islands, the Shompen are isolated from the rest of the world, as they chose to be left alone, with the exception of a few members who occasionally take part in exchanges with foreigners and go on quarantine before returning to their tribe. There are between 100 and 400 Shompen people, who are hunter-gatherers and nomadic agricultors and rely on their island's rainforest for survival.

Why is there risk of genocide?

India has announced a huge construction mega-project that will completely change the Great Nicobar Island to turn it into "the Hong Kong of India".

Nowadays, the island has 8,500 inhabitants, and over 95% of its surface is made up of national parks, protected forests and tribal reserve areas. Much of the island is covered by the Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve, described by UNESCO as covering “unique and threatened tropical evergreen forest ecosystems. It is home to very rich ecosystems, including 650 species of angiosperms, ferns, gymnosperms, and bryophytes, among others. In terms of fauna, there are over 1800 species, some of which are endemic to this area. It has one of the best-preserved tropical rain forests in the world.”

The Indian project aims to destroy this natural environment to create an international shipping terminal with the capacity to handle 14.2 million TEUs (unit of cargo capacity), an international airport that will handle a peak hour traffic of 4,000 passengers and that will be used as a joint civilian-military airport under the control of the Indian Navy, a gas and solar power plant, a military base, an industrial park, and townships aimed at bringing in tourism, including commercial, industrial and residential zones as well as other tourism-related activities.

This project means the destruction of the island's pristine rainforests, as it involves cutting down over 852,000 trees and endangers the local fauna such as leatherback turtles, saltwater crocodiles, Nicobar crab-eating macaque and migratory birds. The erosion resulting from deforestation will be huge in this highly-seismic area. Experts also warn about the effects that this project will have on local flora and fauna as a result of pollution from the terminal project, coastal surface runoff, ballasts from ships, physical collisions with ships, coastal construction, oil spills, etc.

The indigenous people are not only affected because their environment and food source will be destroyed. On top of this, the demographic change will be a catastrophe for them. After the creation of this project, the Great Nicobar Island -which now has 8,500 inhabitants- will receive a population of 650,000 settlers. Remember that the Shompen and Nicobarese people who live on this island are isolated, which means they do not have an immune system that can resist outsider illnesses. Academics believe they could die of disease if they come in contact with outsiders (think of the arrival of Europeans to the Americas after Christopher Columbus and the way that common European illnesses were lethal for indigenous Americans with no immunization against them).

And on top of all of this, the project might destroy the environment and the indigenous people just to turn out to be useless and sooner or later be abandoned. The naturalist Uday Mondal explains that “after all the destruction, the financial viability of the project remains questionable as all the construction material will have to be shipped to this remote island and it will have to compete with already well-established ports.” However, this project is important to India because they want to use the island as a military and commercial post to stop China's expansion in the region, since the Nicobar islands are located on one of the world's busiest sea routes.

Last year, 70 former government officials and ambassadors wrote to the Indian president saying the project would “virtually destroy the unique ecology of this island and the habitat of vulnerable tribal groups”. India's response has been to say that the indigenous tribes will be relocated "if needed", but that doesn't solve the problem. As a spokesperson for human rights group Survival International said: “The Shompen are nomadic and have clearly defined territories. Four of their semi-permanent settlements are set to be directly devastated by the project, along with their southern hunting and foraging territories. The Shompen will undoubtedly try to move away from the area destroyed, but there will be little space for them to go. To avoid a genocide, this deadly mega-project must be scrapped.”

On 7 February 2024, 39 scholars from 13 countries published an open letter to the Indian president warning that “If the project goes ahead, even in a limited form, we believe it will be a death sentence for the Shompen, tantamount to the international crime of genocide.”

How to help

The NGO Survival International has launched this campaign:

From this site, you just need to add your name and email and you will send an email to India's Tribal Affairs Minister and to the companies currently vying to build the first stage of the project.

Share it with your friends and acquittances and on social media.

Sources:

India’s plan for untouched Nicobar isles will be ‘death sentence’ for isolated tribe, 7 Feb 2024. The Guardian.

‘It will destroy them’: Indian mega-development could cause ‘genocide’ and ‘ecocide’, says charity, 8 Feb 2024. Geographical.

Genocide experts call on India's government to scrap the Great Nicobar mega-project, Feb 2024. Survival International.

The container terminal that could sink the Great Nicobar Island, 20 July 2022. Mongabay.

[Maps] Environmental path cleared for Great Nicobar mega project, 10 Oct 2022. Mongabay.

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lmao i don’t come on here often but i just found out one of my oldest mutuals is a zionist so if any of you other bitches feel that way block me!!! it’s free palestine free kashmir free sudan free congo always