New national legislation targets U.S. loneliness crisis: 'It’s irresponsible for policymakers to continue ignoring this epidemic'

I do agree that it is a problem. Ever since "The Lonely Crowd" by Riesman et al. in 1950, it has been accepted that loneliness is one of the regrettable effects of modern society. That the government might be able to fix it is however a surprising proposition. Surely social connections are ineluctably personal. It is notable, however, that the proposition comes from a Democrat

Conservatives are generally better off when it comes to avoiding loneliness. They usually have church, military and valued family connections, whereas Leftists often have none of those. Conservatives are by far the most likely to stress the family whereas Leftists from Karl Marx onward have tended to deplore the family. And when Leftists do have famiiies, they will often be such miserable souls that their families will tend to avoid them. The world is all wrong to a Leftist.

Nonetheless anybody can lose social connections through death, illness and much else so the problem is not confined to Leftists. At my age (80) half of my friends are dead and I do feel that loss. I have always however managed to have good relationships with women and I still do. And that helps big-time. I even got myself a bright and attractive new girlfriend 18 months ago and we have become firmly attached. My lifelong appreciation of women is still having benefits. I recommend it.

This week, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) introduced national legislation to address the loneliness epidemic.

“Loneliness is one of the most serious, misunderstood problems facing America today. It may not sound like a problem government should care about, but I believe it’s irresponsible for policymakers to continue ignoring this epidemic,” Murphy said in a press release on the legislation released Tuesday.

The proposed legislation, the National Strategy for Social Connection Act, would require the White House to have an Office of Social Connection Policy to advise the President and “work across federal agencies to develop effective strategies for improved social infrastructure and issue national guidelines for social connection similar to existing guidelines on sleep, nutrition, and physical activity,” according to the senator’s press release. Improving social connections in transportation systems, housing environments, and schools is a part of the act.

This legislation comes on the heels of the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy’s advisory on the healing effects of social connection and community earlier this year.

“The harmful consequences of a society that lacks social connection can be felt in our schools, workplaces, and civic organizations, where performance, productivity, and engagement are diminished,” the advisory read. “We are called to build a movement to mend the social fabric of our nation…each of us can start now, in our own lives, by strengthening our connections and relationships.”

At Fortune’s Brainstorm Health conference in Marina del Rey, Calif., in April, Murthy said loneliness was a public health crisis. It increases the risk of developing heart disease, dementia, and mental health issues, and its health consequences are comparable to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.

“The pandemic has had a number of invisible costs in our country, and the increase in loneliness, the increase in mental health strain, these are part of those costs,” Murthy said at the conference. Nearly 25% of adults 65 and older are socially isolated, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“The data is clear about the risks to our physical and psychological health, though before the introduction of this act, we appeared stagnant as a nation to take this on,” Dr. Jeff Katzman, the Director of Education at Silver Hill Hospital, tells Fortune. Katzman studied human relationships and psychiatry and recently attended the Hull International Loneliness Conference in England.

“The concept of loneliness hasn’t been a true component of the mental health conversation—not part of the diagnostic lexicon, not a real target of prevention strategies, and evidence-based interventions lacking organization into a guideline for care.”

The success of this type of legislation will be seen in the ability to address loneliness across generations within systems and communities to instill a sense of belonging and trust, Katzman says.

“We need to consider those interventions that can help facilitate trust and assist individuals in abandoning practices of isolation that may have become comfortable yet dangerous and ultimately self-punishing,” he says.

The act would also ensure funding for the CDC's research on the effects of social isolation.

https://fortune.com/well/2023/07/19/new-national-legislation-targets-u-s-loneliness-crisis/

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Trudeau scorched as ‘stupid,’ ‘ignorant’ for response to Muslim parents’ concerns over school curriculum

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was called out by critics for his response to Muslim parents protesting LGBTQ curriculum and gender ideology in schools.

Trudeau spoke with a Muslim man who asked the prime minister to "protect our culture [and] our belief[s]."

"First of all, there is an awful lot of misinformation and disinformation out there [from] people on social media, particularly fueled by the American right-wing [who] are spreading a lot of untruths about what is actually… in the curriculum…," Trudeau said in a July 9 video posted to TikTok.

"If you look at the various curriculums, you'll see that there is not what is being said out there about aggressive teaching or conversion of kids to being LGBT. That is something that is being weaponized," he added.

Fox News’ Judge Jeanine Pirro argued on "The Five" Tuesday that Trudeau’s definition of "right-wing" was anyone who questioned ideology or had a difference of opinion.

"Muslims at night in Canada are going online to see what the ‘right-wingers’ are saying in the United States. I mean, it is so ignorant for him to say this. Does he not know anything about the Quran? Does he not know anything about the religion? Maybe he ought to take a course on religion so he doesn't sound so stupid," Pirro said.

Muslim parents angry with Trudeau over dismissing their LGBTQ curriculum protestVideo
Co-host Greg Gutfeld said it’s almost as if Trudeau was complaining that word about what was being taught in schools got out.

"It's like it was so much better when we only knew about this stuff. But now parents are actually finding and reading and seeing what's in the paraphernalia and watching this movement and realizing this is really dangerous and it's bad. If Trudeau wants to know whose fault it is, he should look in the mirror," he explained.

Gutfeld argued the pendulum has begun swinging back to "common sense."

"People are no longer afraid to say 'Sorry, we believe in science,' right? He [Trudeau] is the reason because he pushed it so far. He became a traitor to men and to women. He's a self-emasculating Peter Pan, and he elevated trans above boys and girls," he added.

"He elevated nonbinary boys over the toxic masculinity of young boys, right? And then he elevated men who say they're women over real women when it comes to playing sports. So he actually operates on a really kind of a cloaked misogyny. He looks so nice and so...but he'll throw anybody under the bus if it helps him, you know, politically. That's why he embraced woke culture and he embraced every bad idea."

https://www.foxnews.com/media/trudeau-scorched-stupid-ignorant-response-muslim-parents

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GOP Doctors Slam CDC Guidance on Transgenders

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is being questioned by GOP doctors in the Senate about its controversial guidance saying that transgender people can breastfeed children and suggesting that such individuals take drugs for lactation.

According to the CDC, transgender and non-binary individuals “may give birth and breastfeed or feed at the chest (chestfeed).” The agency has also published that transgenders can take “medication to induce lactation” so as to “chestfeed” infants. On July 13, Sens. Roger Marshall (R-Kans.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) issued a letter (pdf) slamming the CDC for its “chestfeeding” guidance.

“I am writing to you with serious concern about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) guidance for biological men who identify as women (transgender individual) who wish to breastfeed,” said the senators, who have a doctor of medicine (M.D.) certification.

“CDC’s Pledge to the American People commits that the basis of all public health decisions will be made on the highest quality scientific data that is derived openly and objectively. This guidance, however, seems driven by political considerations rather than science, and the Agency has provided no explanation of the reasoning and data behind these recommendations.”

The letter, addressed to CDC director Mandy Cohen, points out that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has currently not approved any medication to increase the supply of breast milk.

Two drugs that are most commonly used for this purpose are metoclopramide and domperidone, both of which “come with significant risks and side effects.”

The drugs are actually intended for other health conditions and are used off-label to boost milk supply. “Off-label” means using a medication for a purpose different from what it was approved for.

The FDA has warned about “serious risks” in using metoclopramide to raise milk supply. The drug’s label says that the medication can “pass into your breast milk and may harm your baby,” the letter notes.

With regard to domperidone, the FDA has “explicitly warned” using the drug for raising milk supply since 2004 due to safety concerns. In countries where the oral form of the drug is being sold, labels warn that the medication is “excreted in breast milk that could expose a breastfeeding infant to unknown risks.”

In addition to potentially being dangerous to the baby, the drugs also have side effects that can harm the person consuming them, the letter notes.

“It is shocking that CDC would directly contradict FDA by recommending the use of an unapproved drug, without any context about the dangers of the product … The CDC should not be recommending drugs that are not approved in the U.S., and otherwise blatantly contradicting FDA, the agency that Congress has tasked with reviewing the safety and effectiveness of drugs.”

The letter asked the CDC director to provide a scientific basis for its chestfeeding and lactation drug intake guidance, like submitting any peer-reviewed studies to inform its guidance on transgender individuals breastfeeding; data relied upon by the agency which compared nutritional benefits of biological women’s breast milk with the breast milk produced by a transgender individual; and data on evaluate long-term health risk evaluation to an infant from being breastfed by a transgender individual who has received hormonal therapy to transition genders.

“According to the data CDC reviewed in developing these recommendations, how many transgender individuals have been able to produce breast milk?” the letter asks.

“What data did CDC evaluate regarding the ability of transgender individuals to produce sufficient breast milk to exclusively breastfeed an infant for the CDC-recommended minimum of six months?”

And, “What is the review process for CDC to publish guidance that has little scientific backing on its website?”

The senators have required that the CDC provide answers to the questions by Aug. 1.

Harming Children

The CDC’s guidance has triggered massive criticism. In an interview with Daily Mail, Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the conservative Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, said that “we have no idea what the long-term effects on the child will be” if a breastfeeding transgender uses “all kinds of off-label hormones.’”

“A lot of people are pushing for off-label use of a drug … it’s become so politicized that you can do all kinds of things for a politically approved purpose,” she said. “The CDC has a responsibility to talk about the health risks, but they have been derelict in doing that.”

In a recent episode of the Washington Watch show, Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, stressed the health risks posed by the CDC policy.

Ms. Szoch pointed out that when a mother breastfeeds a child, the milk provides the infant with benefits like protection from infection and diseases.

“We know that that’s certainly not happening with this drug-induced secretion that is very much not breast milk,” she said about transgenders taking drugs to lactate and breastfeed. “Furthermore, we know that what is being produced has the potential to cause heart problems for this child.”

“We are putting a brand new baby, a child who has no defenses at all, who can’t speak for himself, we’re putting that child’s life at risk. We’re putting that child at risk of having heart palpitations and various difficulties so that we can encourage this woke culture,” she said.

Pamela Geller, editor in chief at the Geller Report, blamed Democrats for the CDC guidance. “Lunatics at CDC Gives Guidance to Trans Biological Males Looking to ‘Chestfeed’ Infants. Madness. Under the Democrats, lunacy is encouraged, rewarded,” she said in a July 8 tweet. “The horror here is the harm to the infant. The mission is to erase women.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/gop-doctors-slam-cdc-guidance-on-transgenders-chestfeeding-infants-request-scientific-basis-for-claim_5409952.html

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Biden’s new student-loan giveaway — another cynical con job

After the Supreme Court struck down his blatantly unconstitutional bid to have the taxpayers pick up $430 billion in student-loan debt, President Joe Biden on Friday came back with a scheme to pay off “just” $39 billion, plus unknown billions more as long as he remains in the White House.

It looks to be on firmer legal ground, but as a matter of policy and even politics it’s a giant middle finger to average Americans.

His original scheme at least would’ve meant some relief to the younger folks it was designed to please.

This one only covers some 800,000 people who’ve been paying for at least 20 years, so no one under 40 wins.

And nearly everyone over 40 (especially those who’ve kept up their payments for decades) is financially secure enough to keep paying.

These winners don’t need the help.

Biden must figure that if you were foolish enough to vote Democrat thanks to his earlier plan, maybe you won’t notice that this one doesn’t help you at all.

This is purely the White House chasing good headlines, at the cost of $40 billion in new deficit spending that can only feed the inflation the Federal Reserve has been fighting with soaring interest rates already at risk of tanking the US economy.

Not to mention that each major loan giveaway only encourages universities to keep hiking tuition and pushing kids to borrow to cover it, on the expectation that they’ll eventually get the debt forgiven.

Only 17% of Americans have any student debt, so these schemes inevitably slam the other 83%, who either paid off their loans, or never borrowed — mostly because they didn’t go to college and so don’t enjoy the higher incomes a degree leads to.

This giveaway will come as the federal Education Department “recalculates” its individual reads of who has been actually made regular payments for 20 or 25 years under various “income-driven repayment plans.”

Those plans were already generous, by the way: Your minimum payment is adjusted according to how much you earn, so many borrowers weren’t actually even paying much for many of those years.

And bureaucrats will be under pressure to err on the side of generosity, since that’s the whole point.

The taxpayers have already eaten $116 billion thanks to a three-year holiday on any student-loan payments, supposedly justified by the pandemic that ended two years ago.

None of it makes any sense except as vote-buying.

https://nypost.com/2023/07/14/biden-student-loan-plan-is-just-another-con/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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