NCL: Biden pandemic plan is a welcome step towards an equitable COVID-19 response

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For immediate release: February 10, 2021

Media contact: National Consumers League – Carol McKay, carolm@nclnet.org, (412) 945-3242 or Taun Sterling, tauns@nclnet.org, (202) 207-2832

Washington, DC—Today the National Consumers League applauds the Biden’s Administration’s focus on addressing health disparities in its national response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equality is a clear and welcome indication that the health and well-being of racial and ethnic minority communities is a priority for this administration,” said NCL Director of Health Policy Jeanette Contreras. “We are also encouraged by the fact that the leadership within the Biden Administration is the most ethnically diverse in our nation’s history. Our nation’s leaders can no longer turn a blind eye to the consequences of racial inequality on the health and economic status of people of color. As a result, the White House Domestic Policy Council is being tasked with applying a racial equity lens to all policies impacting the American people.”

The White House COVID-19 response plan has called for the establishment of a COVID-19 Racial and Ethnic Disparities Task Force to provide oversight on disparities in the public health and economic response. The Administration has also demonstrated its commitment to racial equity by establishing that the COVID-19 Task Force will become a permanent Infectious Disease Racial Disparities Task Force after the pandemic has ended.

In order to address health disparities and implement an equitable response to the pandemic, advocates argue it is critical that race and ethnicity data be collected. President Biden’s plan calls for the creation of a Nationwide Pandemic Dashboard that provides real-time data on key metrics, such as cases, testing, vaccinations, and hospital admissions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will host a public dashboard tracking transmission rates by zip code.

“Current reporting of transmission rates reveals the inconsistent collection of data across the country—data that is incredibly important to decision-making across all aspects of daily life,” said Contreras. For example, school boards across the country rely on local transmission data to base their decisions on when it’s safe to return to in-person instruction, and city officials rely on this data to decide when to allow indoor dining at restaurants.

Access to testing will remain a vital tool in curbing the pandemic. The Administration has pledged to double the number of drive-through testing sites to alleviate the long lines and shortages that characterized the pandemic in 2020. As remotely-functioning employees return to worksites, there will be an ongoing need for employee testing. President Biden’s plan calls for a Pandemic Testing Board that will ensure the production of testing supplies meets the increased demand. Advocates welcomed the Administration’s swift enactment of the Defense Production Act to produce more vaccination supplies, at-home tests, and personal protective equipment.

“The lack of leadership from the Trump Administration left state and local health officials essentially flying blindly without data to inform their decisions,” said Contreras. “We are facing the consequences today, with evidence that communities of color are being vaccinated at disproportionately lower rates than their white counterparts. The Biden Administration’s COVID-19 plan offers federal officials a comprehensive framework for coordinating an equitable response to the pandemic. The National Consumers League applauds this Administration in its foresight and intention to build trust in communities of color to ensure our most vulnerable populations are not ignored moving forward.”

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About the National Consumers League (NCL)
The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.

No PPP for anti-vaxxers! Ten advocacy groups tell SBA to claw back $850,000 in PPP Funding to anti-vaxxers

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For immediate release: February 5, 2021

Media contact: National Consumers League – Carol McKay, carolm@nclnet.org, (412) 945-3242 or Taun Sterling, tauns@nclnet.org, (202) 207-2832

Washington, DC—Ten patient and consumer advocacy organizations are demanding that the Small Business Administration claw back nearly a million dollars worth of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) monies granted to the leading American anti-vaccine groups.   

The advocacy organizations sent a joint letter to the U.S. Small Business Administration to express their collective concerns about the fact that, according to the Washington Post, five of the most virulent anti-vaccine organizations—each of which has spread misleading information about the coronavirus—were granted more than $850,000 in loans from the federal PPP. 

“Recipients of PPP loans include organizations that engage in conspiracy theories and lies about the safety and efficacy of vaccines generally and in this current environment, have spread misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine,” stated the letter. 

Operation Warp Speed—the federal government’s program to develop, produce, and distribute enough COVID-19 vaccine doses to inoculate 300 million Americans in record time—has cost the American taxpayer roughly $12 billion so far, a number expected to grow more than two-fold at $26 billion.  

“It is unfathomable and utterly counterproductive that taxpayer money was awarded to anti-vaccine groups during this national public health crisis,” the groups wrote. They called upon the Small Business Administration and the Biden Administration to investigate and rescind the loans made to the following anti-vaccination groups:    

Mercola.Com Health Resources ($335,000) 

Mercola.Com Health Resources received an astonishing $335,000 to maintain its operations during the pandemic. In December 2019, Mercola’s founder, Joseph Mercola, authored an article falsely stating that COVID-19 vaccines released via emergency authorization may cause massive side effects. In 2019, Mr. Mercola funded pervasive anti-vaccine efforts while the nation was grappling with widespread spikes of measles cases.  

Informed Consent Action Network ($166,000) 

The Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), founded by anti-vaccine activist Del Bigtree received approximately $166,000 in PPP funding. Bigtree has attracted more than 43,000 followers via ICAN, and regularly posts about his skepticism regarding the COVID-19 vaccine, actively downplaying the severity of the pandemic. In a December 2020 interview, Bigtree falsely stated that the COVID-19 vaccines would lead to “vaccine-enhanced diseases” and could cause infertility in women, arguing that the antibodies could potentially attack a woman’s placenta, rather than the spike protein as intended. “If it starts attacking placentas, no one will be able to get pregnant. These are legitimate theoretical issues.” 

National Vaccine Information Center (Less than $150,000) 

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., head of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), took to social media in December of 2020 to call into question the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines: “We clearly have a systematic problem when government health regulators have utterly abdicated their responsibility to safeguard public health and refer safety concerns about shoddily tested, zero-liability vaccines to pharmaceutical companies.” Kennedy’s claims regarding the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines have not been validated and are irresponsible. 

Children’s Health Defense (Less than $150,000) 

NVIC’s Kennedy also founded Children’s Health Defense. His group’s misinformation campaign has contributed to widespread vaccine hesitancy around the country—primarily via social media, stirring up unfounded concerns among the population. 

Tenpenny Integrative Medical Center ($72,000) 

Tenpenny Integrative Medical Center, spearheaded by physician, Sherri Tenpenny, was awarded $72,000 in PPP loans. Tenpenny is the author of a book titled “Saying No to Vaccines: A Resource Guide for All Ages.” Additionally,  Tenpenny’s online forums promote alternative health in lieu of immunization and argue against vaccinations across an individual’s lifespan. One of Tenpenny’s pages was banned from Facebook in December for spreading misinformation. 

In the joint letter to the SBA, the advocacy organizations insist that taxpayer dollars be well spent on efforts to vaccinate 60-70 percent of Americans.

“Operation Warp Speed and other related efforts are the right investment. Funding groups with a long history of using junk science to question the safety and efficacy of vaccines is a colossal waste of taxpayer money. Any funds provided to groups that oppose the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines must be returned to the Treasury. PPP funding should not contribute to efforts aimed at undermining our national efforts to fight the SARS CoV 2 virus,” said the groups.  

The advocacy organizations signing the letter are listed below:  

Alliance for Aging Research
American Immunization Registry Association
American Medical Student Association
American Muslim Health Professionals
Families Fighting Flu
Idaho Immunization Coalition
Kimberly Coffey Foundation
Meningitis B Action Project
National Consumers League
Vaccinate Your Family 

Read the letter here.

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About the National Consumers League (NCL)
The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.

Consumer groups back FDA on NDI draft guidance

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For immediate release: February 3, 2021

Media contact: National Consumers League – Carol McKay, carolm@nclnet.org, (412) 945-3242 or Taun Sterling, tauns@nclnet.org, (202) 207-2832

Washington, DC—While the Biden Administration reviews late-hour regulations enacted by the Trump Administration, one important FDA guidance related to CBD deserves further consideration. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently withdrew its pending CBD guidance, which the agency had submitted last summer. These highly anticipated guidelines were meant to elaborate on FDA’s CBD enforcement policy as unregulated, untested CBD products continue to infiltrate the consumer market. The FDA has not yet shared a timeline for re-submitting the CBD guidance.

NCL launched Consumers for Safe CBD in 2019 to encourage the FDA to use its existing authority to curtail the proliferation of potentially dangerous, unapproved CBD products and to incentivize CBD research, clinical trials, and the creation of science-based CBD medicines.

NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg released the following statement in response to the FDA pulling its guidance:

The early weeks of 2021 have brought about many changes – with a new Administration, a new Congress, and continued progress in the fight against COVID-19,  there is hope for a safer, healthier future. NCL will continue to do its part to protect consumers and promote public health.

Unfortunately, CBD manufacturers continue to make unsubstantiated medical claims about their products, putting consumers at risk. We remain hopeful that the FDA and the Biden Administration will join us in our efforts to protect consumers from the potential dangers that exist in the current unregulated, wild west CBD marketplace.

NCL urges the FDA to re-circulate an updated proposal that encourages further research into CBD and the development of science-based CBD medicines and uses the FDA’s authority to regulate the CBD marketplace to protect consumers from CBD products that may put them at risk. Consumers deserve a safer, healthier future. We simply cannot abandon this work now.

To learn more about NCL’s Consumers for Safe CBD campaign, click here. To learn more about FDA’s recent efforts related to CBD, click here.

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About the National Consumers League (NCL)
The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.

National Consumers League calls on Administration to swiftly address PBMs’ role in diving up drug costs

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For immediate release: February 3, 2021

Media contact: National Consumers League – Carol McKay, carolm@nclnet.org, (412) 945-3242 or Taun Sterling, tauns@nclnet.org, (202) 207-2832

Washington, DC—Washington, DC – The National Consumers League encourages the Biden Administration to continue work on meaningful reforms that help drive down consumer out-of-pocket costs of medicines. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Monday announced the decision to delay a final rule on pharmaceutical rebates that would address critical issues in our healthcare system. The rule aims to lower out-of-pocket costs for consumers by eliminating anti-kickback safe harbors for drug rebates and offering them as direct-to-consumer discounts.

As HHS has demonstrated, the rebates, discounts, and fees negotiated between pharmaceutical companies and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are rarely used to lower consumer out-of-pocket costs for medications. According to the new Senate Finance Committee report, some PBMs receive as much as 70 percent of insulin’s list price—demonstrating that PBMs can increase their profits when list prices are higher. By passing PBM rebates along to patients, savings at the pharmacy counter could be significant.

The following statement is attributable to NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg:

This delay is a major and preventable setback for consumers. We could be one step closer to significantly lowering out-of-pocket costs, but the government has delayed action. As we continue to face a global pandemic and economic challenges, it’s absolutely essential that we put the interests of consumers above all else—including PBMs.

“We must fix our broken drug pricing process, and HHS has identified one major flaw. The discounts these manufacturers offer to PBMs aren’t passed along to consumers as they should be. And PBMs continue to increase their fees, driving costs up even further. This rule would ensure that consumers—not large, corporate PBMs—save money on the medications they need.

Consumers deserve better, and NCL is committed to encouraging meaningful PBM reforms as soon as possible.

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About the National Consumers League (NCL)
The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.

Script Your Future launches tenth annual student competition for innovations in medication adherence

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February 1, 2021

Media contact: National Consumers League – Carol McKay, carolm@nclnet.org, (412) 945-3242 or Taun Sterling, tauns@nclnet.org, (202) 207-2832

Washington, DC—Today marks the launch of the tenth annual Script Your Future Medication Adherence Team Challenge, a two-month-long intercollegiate competition among health profession student teams and faculty for creating solutions to raise awareness about medication adherence as a critical public health issue. The Challenge, hosted by the National Consumers League (NCL), is returning to university campuses across the country after nine years of successful student competition and innovation.

The Challenge is an integral part of Script Your Future, a campaign launched by NCL and its partners in 2011 to combat the problem of poor medication adherence in the United States, where nearly three out of four patients do not take their medication as directed.

“Today’s medications are better than ever at treating and curing people, but these treatments can only work if patients know the importance of taking their prescriptions as directed. It takes all members of the health team to make that happen,” said Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director. “For 10 years, our Script Your Future Medication Adherence Team Challenge has galvanized student health professionals to explore creative, interprofessional approaches, in encouraging medication adherence. To usher Script Your Future into the next era of improving adherence, we have implemented two new components to the Team Challenge: technology innovation and vaccine adherence. We have been blown away by the ingenuity of our student teams, and we look forward to how they will contribute to their communities in this year’s Team Challenge.”

As the nation continues to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, Script Your Future teams are encouraged to build their campaigns centering around vaccine confidence to help address hesitancy and mitigate further spread of the coronavirus. Teams are encouraged to tailor their outreach towards chronic health issues including cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, and respiratory illnesses. Challenge administrators also welcome the inclusion of other disease groups that would benefit from medication adherence-related interventions.

The Challenge is sponsored by the American Pharmacists Association (APhA), the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) Foundation, and the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA).

Through April 2, inter-professional teams—including student pharmacists, nurses, doctors, and others—will implement creative outreach approaches in their communities to raise awareness and improve understanding about medication adherence. At the end of the Challenge, teams submit entries for review by national partner organizations, and winners are recognized for their efforts to improve medication adherence.

Last year, Team Challenge student health professionals were met with unique circumstances, hurdles, and obstacles as they navigated the historic COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in school closures, event cancelations, and a host of other challenges. To adhere to social distancing guidelines, dedicated teams pivoted their campaigns and made an impact in other ways. Ultimately, however, more than 80 teams submitted applications; the competition saw engagement from nearly 2,900 future healthcare professionals and volunteers, who hosted more than 250 events in 14 states. Collectively, the teams directly counseled close to 12,000 patients and introduced Script Your Future messaging to more than 430,000 consumers, nationwide.

Since the Team Challenge began in 2011, more than 21,000 future healthcare professionals have directly counseled nearly 87,000 patients and nearly 26 million consumers.

Last year’s national award winner was University of the Sciences: Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. Other schools winning category-specific honors included: Howard University College of Pharmacy; St. Louis College of Pharmacy; Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine School of Pharmacy (LECOM); University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy; and Western University College of Pharmacy. Additional participating schools received finalist and runner-up status across a variety of award categories.

To learn about previous winners, visit Script Your Future’s online home.

For more information on the Challenge, visit the Challenge Community website.

Tweet along with us during the Challenge using #SYFchallenge, and follow the campaign @IWillTakeMyMeds.

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About National Consumers League

The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.

About Script Your Future

Script Your Future is a campaign of the National Consumers League (NCL), a private, non-profit membership organization founded in 1899. NCL’s mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information about the Script Your Future campaign, visit ScriptYourFuture.org. For more information on NCL, please visit nclnet.org.

Annual Fraud.org report shows link between COVID-19, recession, and scammers preying on Americans

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Watchdog group’s annual report tracking trends out today 

For immediate release: February 1, 2021

Media contact: National Consumers League – Carol McKay, carolm@nclnet.org, (412) 945-3242 or Taun Sterling, tauns@nclnet.org, (202) 207-2832

Washington, DC—An analysis of the scams most frequently reported by consumers in 2020 tells the story of economic downturn, social isolation, pandemic fears, and opportunistic criminals, according to a new report released today by the National Consumers League’s (NCL) Fraud.org campaign. Through the Fraud.org website, NCL collects complaints from consumers about suspected and confirmed fraud incidents, tracks trends, and shares the data with law enforcement. 

The report’s findings note the pandemic’s impact on fraud trends, including increases in “get rich quick” schemes and predatory scams of the heart. The number of complaints received at Fraud.org regarding bogus prizes, sweepstakes, and free gifts nearly doubled year-over-year. Another pandemic scam trend: a notable increase (30 percent) in romance scams, which experts at Fraud.org are linking to the social isolation brought on by the COVID pandemic and Americans turning to online communication for companionship. 

“The COVID recession has fueled a rise in get-rich-quick schemes and romance scams,” said John Breyault, NCL Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications, and Fraud and the new report’s author. “The pandemic created a perfect storm for criminals: millions out of work and struggling with new financial hardship; people forced to isolate and seek companionship online; and incredible uncertainty about the future. Last year was a good year to be a con artist.” 

With many of the conditions from 2020 still in place, the consumer watchdog is cautioning consumers against the most common scams that plagued Americans last year.  

“While the exact pitch differs from scam to scam, there are red flags that consumers should consider,” said Breyault. “A request to send money to someone you’ve never met in person is almost always a scam. Another tried-and-true tactice scammers use is to create a false sense of urgency to get victims to send money before they stop and think. The best advice we can give to consumers is to stop, think, and talk to a friend or loved one before you send money.” 

In 2020, consumers submitted more than 5,700 complaints to Fraud.org. Forty-three percent of complaints reported a monetary loss, with the median loss of $1,628.   

Top Ten Scams of 2020 

  1. Internet: Gen Merchandise 
  2. Phishing/Spoofing 
  3. Fake Check Scams 
  4. Friendship & Sweetheart Swindles 
  5. Prizes/Sweepstakes/Free Gifts 
  6. Advance Fee Loans, Credit Arrangers 
  7. Computers: Equipment/Software 
  8. Internet: Auctions 
  9. Investments: Other (note in comments) 
  10. Internet: Extortion 

Other topline findings from the report include:  

New fraud entered top ten: extortion scams. 

 “As the pandemic and the recession continue to grind on in 2021, we are paying special attention to so-called ‘Internet extortion’ scams, which entered the top ten scams for the first time last year,” said Breyault. Such scams fall in to two broad sub-categories. The first category are “sextortion” scams, where consumers receive a message where the scammer threatens to release embarrassing photos, videos, or other personal information to the victims’ friends and family. The second sub-category involves “psychic” services, where the scammer claims to had discovered that a “curse” or other tragic event is about to befall the victim. Only by paying a significant fee can the victim have the “curse” lifted.  

Younger consumers and seniors are being targeted more frequently.  

The percentage of complaints received from consumers aged 26-65 decreased by an average of 8.76% in 2020.  By comparison, complaints from consumers aged 25 and below and those 65 and older increased by an average of 30.60% and 15.82%, respectively versus 2019. For consumers aged 25 and under, the top three most reported fraud categories were Internet merchandise scams, fake check scams, and romance scams. For those 65 and older, the top complaint categories were prize/sweepstakes scams, phishing/spoofing, and Internet merchandise scams.  

The Web and the telephone remain scammers’ preferred contact methods. 

With email spam filters growing increasingly successful at blocking out scam emails, fraudsters continued to turn to the Web and the telephone to find victims. Those two contact methods were mentioned in more than 81% of the complaints. “This highlights the need for consumers to be wary when responding to messages from unknown senders, particularly those encountered on social media,” said Breyault. “Consumers should also continue to be on guard for unknown callers seeking to offer them prizes or other inducements to send money.”  

Read the full 2020 Top Scams report from NCL.

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About the National Consumers League

The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneering consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.