Murder Of A Visiting Nurse Initiates Widespread Demand For Home Health Worker Protections In CT
“None of us are surprised,” said Sen. Martha Marx, D-New London, a nurse and union president of AFT Local 5119 for RNs and home aides. “We have been trying to get safer protocols in our homes for decades.”
Joyce Grayson was identified as the victim. According to her obituary, Grayson worked with her current employer, Elara Caring, for over 10 years. Grayson also served as a foster parent for more than 20 years. Media outlets reported that Grayson was making a home visit to a resident at a halfway house for convicted sex offenders in Willimantic the morning she was killed. Her body was found by police after her failure to show up for subsequent appointments triggered a wellness check.
Walgreens To Cancel Corporate Bonuses
Walgreens disclosed that this year's bonuses for pharmacy and store managers will be significantly less, while corporate staff will not be eligible to receive them. The organization cited growing debt, budget cuts, theft, leadership turnover, and workforce issues.
Bayer To Pull Lymphoma Drug, Aliqopa, In The US
Copanlisib (Aliqopa) is being removed from the US market by Bayer. This follows failure to meet its primary endpoint in a confirmatory trial. The drug was given fast approval by the FDA in 2017 for people with recurrent follicular lymphoma who had received at least two previous systemic therapy.
Bayer announced it will collaborate with the agency to work toward a voluntary removal of the medication. The FDA's expedited approval was subject to a study verifying copanlisib's clinical benefit; however, according to Bayer, the addition of the medication to standard immunochemotherapy regimens failed to achieve the primary endpoint of the trial, which was the benefit in progression-free survival compared to regular immunochemotherapy.
IAM Healthcare Unionization Campaign
Many U.S. pharmacy workers are considering unionization as a means of creating change in response to situations such as excessive hours and insufficient staffing. The walkouts at CVS Health and Walgreens pharmacies this year, which by all accounts had little effect on conditions, served as the impetus for the move toward official organization. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), saw the protests as a critical first step toward empowering the pharmacy community, and the organization is providing the Pharmacy Guild with resources and expertise.
Three main concerns were addressed in the mission statement: proper legislative and regulatory measures, representation and collective bargaining, and staffing and workload guidelines. According to the founding statement of the Pharmacy Guild, "this is more than a union organizing effort." "It is a call to take this powerful social movement of pharmacy professionals to the next level by developing the organizational infrastructure and institutional influence necessary to make real change."
The World’s First Whole Eye Transplant Announced In NY
Despite the fact that the patient has not yet regained sight in the affected eye, New York surgeons declared last Thursday that they have successfully completed the first-ever whole-eye transplant in a human. The surgical team at NYU Langone Health reports that in the six months following the procedure, which was done during a partial face transplant, the grafted eye has demonstrated significant indicators of health, such as functional blood vessels and a promising-looking retina.
