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Healthcare Policy: Drug Vaccines
Healthcare policy is a difficult subject to navigate. People’s beliefs, morals, and opinions meet science and reason. Strongly held beliefs can make it difficult for the scientific community to convince the public that a particular action would be in their best interest. Alarmists create a sense of panic by publishing pseudoscientific information, which is sometimes widely believed by the public. These can sound convincing, especially when they are attached to low-quality studies or peppered with complex terminology. One example is the panic surrounding “Roundup Weed Killer.” A story popped up that Roundup was responsible for causing increased cases of non-Hodgkins’s lymphoma. This claim has been repeatedly proven inaccurate, but the damage was done. Many people refused to believe otherwise, and lawyers even tried to help people receive payouts based on false information (Ridley, 2019.)
There are many healthcare-related policies rising and falling at any given time. Most are practical, some are a little more unusual. The policy I’d like to discuss is a bill that has been introduced to the House and referred to Subcommittee on Health. This proposed bill establishes a prize for development of a vaccine to mitigate drug/alcohol use disorder (H.R. 7827, 2024.) This struck me as outlandish and frivolous at first. I thought, “How can there by a vaccine for this? It isn’t a virus.” I also thought, “How could we convince people to take this vaccine if it did exist?” The implications would be incalculable.
Drug abuse, both legal and non-legal, is a heavy burden on the healthcare system. Every year, over 96,000 people die from drug overdoses. Almost a million people have died since 1999. Approximately 13.3 million people are current drug users, and of those 25.4% have a drug use disorder (Drug Abuse Statistics, 2024.) Current treatments lack effectiveness and carry side effects. One article stated that there were 23 registered trials (as of 2022) for vaccines against drug use. The vaccines work by blocking psychoactive responses using monoclonal antibodies or metabolic enzyme-based therapies (Bloom & Bushell, 2022.) Animal trials have shown some promise. Variables have been shown depending on size and gender. Genetics and the immune system of the subject have also been shown to influence efficacy of the vaccine. Human trials have also been promising (Scendoni et al, 2022.)
We are still a long way from the revolutionary treatment we need for drug addiction. This bill, if passed would incentivize the development of effective vaccines against opioids, methamphetamine, cocaine, and alcohol (H.R. 7827, 2024.) Given the burden on the healthcare system and the personal toll this takes on the public, I think this would be beneficial if passed. Public opinion could pose a barrier to passing this bill. Drug abuse carries a certain stigma and sometimes creates unmovable bias. Some people could oppose spending more money on drug addiction. Misconceptions of drug addiction have existed and conflicted with science for many years, and some believe that drug addiction is a psychological disorder, rather than a physical one (Musto, 1999.) Personally, I think this is an exciting development and I am looking forward to seeing the advances in the science of treating drug addiction.
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