HEALTH MATTERS

Trump's Liberation Day tariffs are crashing the stock market.

• Yesterday

• Dow Jones:  - 1630  3.9% drop
• S&P 500:  -274  4.84% drop  (itself lost nearly $2 trillion of value)
• Nasdaq composite:  -1050  -6.97%
• NBC News:
• The ripple effects of tariffs will be felt the most by lower-income Americans. Here’s why.
• A growing number of Republicans are joining Democrats as they consider ways to rescind existing tariffs while limiting Trump’s ability to impose new ones.

• Today
• Dow Jones:  -2238  5.5% drop
• S&P 500:  -323  6% drop
• Nasdaq composite  -963  -5.8% drop
• U.S crude oil prices declined 7.3% to $62.54/barrel, a drop of $4.41.

From Time magazine:

• Trump had initially publicized his tariffs as “reciprocal tariffs”—meaning taxes on other countries equal to the existing tariffs foreign countries have set against American goods.
• However, the tariffs announced on Trump’s “Liberation Day” were not, in fact, reciprocally calculated but instead were calculated based on countries’ U.S. trade deficit levels. Countries with which the U.S. has a higher trade deficit received a higher tariff. 
• Economist are horrified by Trump's above math.
• He imposed tariffs on Antarctic islands with more penguins than people.
• The U.S. Senate is restive.

From the New York Times this morning:

• Trump’s tariffs may be 50 times as painful for Americans as the ones he instituted in his first term, Justin Wolfers argues.
• Late night hosts joked about tariffs.

• 
  South Korea’s top court voted unanimously to dismiss the country’s impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol.

• 
  A report predicts what will happen if A.I. becomes smarter than humans. Researchers are warning of danger.
• Most clicked yesterday: Barack Obama appeared in the background of a family portrait. See the photo.

I continue part two of health matters today.  While my low density lipoprotein has historically been low, many others suffer from this molecule.  From NBC News:

One dose of experimental drug nearly wipes out 

stealthy cholesterol in 'remarkable' trial.

Millions of Americans are born predisposed to high levels of 

a cholesterol called lipoprotein(a). 

Doctors are finally figuring out how to treat it.

• 
  A single dose of an Eli Lilly drug, called lepodisiran, dramatically reduced levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL, the bad cholesterol) for up to a year.  
• LDL causes heart attack, stroke and early death.

• 
  LDL clogs arteries, causes inflammation and leads to blood clots.
• Lepodisiran works by targeting the mRNA, or messenger RNA, that tells the body to make Lp(a). Messenger RNA carries instructions to proteins in the body to produce certain substances, in this case, Lp(a). The drug works by essentially shooting the messenger.
• The drug appears to be safe.
• One injection cut LDL by 93.9% after six months.  
• A year later, still 88.% lower.
• Those who got a second dose at six months had a 94.8% reduction at the one-year mark.
• Eli Lilly's lepodisiran just finished Phase II trials.
• 
  Turns out that Novartis with pelacarsen (developed by Ionis) and Aamgen (develooped by Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals) with olpasiran are already in Phase III.  
• Olpasiran from Amgen drove down LDL by at least 95% within nine months.
• These companies are three years ahead of Lilly.
• There are 64 million adults in the U.S. with this problem.
• When will these become available?

On average, it took 10.5 years for a drug to get from Phase I to regulatory approval. Looking at individual stages of the process, the averages were 2.3 years for Phase I, 3.6 years for Phase II, 3.3 years for Phase III, and 1.3 years between Phase III and regulatory approval.

A second health matter, also from NBC News:

Not even wealth is saving Americans from dying at rates 

seen among some of the poorest Europeans.

• 
  50 years ago, the life expectancy in the U.S. and wealthy European countries was similar.
• That began to change in 1980.
• European longevity steadily increased.
• U.S. life expectancy struggle to keep pace, and began declining in 2014.
• The wealthiest group in northern and western Europe now have a mortality rate about 35% lower than the wealthiest group in the U.S.
• Europeans live six years longer than Americans.
• Today, the wealthiest middle-aged and older adults in the U.S. have roughly the same likelihood of dying over a 12-year period as the poorest adults in northern and western Europe, according to a study published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine.

• 
  Oh, by the way, the poorest 20% of Americans are richer on average than most European nations.

• That could be the problem, for we can afford overconsuming junk food, while not getting enough exercise.  We also don't have adequate access to affordable health care.  While Donald Trump can't really be blamed, he was president from 2016-2020 and tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act.  This time he will succeed, making it all that much worse for the USA. Under these conditions, the Health and Human Services Department just laid off 20,000 employees.  Maybe not, for RFK Jr today said that it should only have been 10,000.
• Look for Europeans living even longer in the future, with American dying off even faster.

A third health item.  World Air Pollution index:

• Earlier this week.
•  #1  Baghdad  465.  #2  Kathmandu, Nepal 358.  #3  Delhi, India  222.
• #125  Seattle, USA  17.  #126  Kabul, Afghanistan  6.
• Oahu, Hawaii in the 20's.  However, Kilauea Volcano began eruption episode #16, with fountains up to 700 feet.  Episode #15 reached 1000 feet.  Alas, #16 ended two days ago, but the prevailing winds blew that old VOG to Honolulu.

Today, Honolulu jumped from the twenties to 79.  Photos from where I sit to crank out this posting:

About that photo of Barack Obama above, here is a family portrait taken more recently.

Michelle 61, Sasha 24, Barack is 63, and Malia Ann 26.  Below photo was taken a decade ago.

• 
  Malia in 2017 had an internship with Harvey Weinstein (yes him), graduated from Harvard in 2021 and worked on a short film, The Heart, as writer and director, which was screened at the 2024 Sundance Film festival.  She is now only called Maria Ann.
• Sasha worked at a seafood restaurant in Martha's Vineyard in 2016 and graduated from the University of Southern  California in 2023.
• Barrack Obama hasn't done much since leaving the presidency.
• Michelle Obama had two best-selling books Becoming (2018) and The Light We Carry (2022).

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