June, 24 2021, 04:41pm EDT
Amnesty International USA Urges Congress to Pass the Break the Cycle of Violence Act
Amnesty International USA Commends Senator Cory Booker and Representative Steven Horsford for Their Reintroduction of Life-Saving Legislation
Funding Community Gun Violence Prevention Groups
WASHINGTON
At a time when guns are killing more and more Americans, Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Representative Steven Horsford (D-NV) took bold action today by reintroducing the Break the Cycle of Violence Act. Their leadership is a call-to-action for all Senators to join them in battling the United States' decades-long gun violence epidemic.
Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) commends Senator Booker and Representative Horsford. Their call must be heard and responded to by President Biden, Congress, and state and city leaders. The bill includes measures AIUSA has long advocated for and will provide sustained funding for lifesaving programs run by leaders with lived experience in communities most impacted by gun violence.
In a new policy briefing, "From Pain to Progress: Confronting the Struggle on the Front Lines of America's Gun Violence Crisis," AIUSA lays out how centering investment in community violence intervention programs can be a key way to curb gun violence across the country.
"Reintroducing the Break the Cycle of Violence Act, and signing it into law, will give local heroes and the programs they run to reduce gun violence the financial support that's been missing for far too long," said Ernest Coverson, Amnesty International USA's End Gun Violence Campaign Manager. According to a study by physicians and researchers featured in the American College of Surgeons Journal, gun violence costs the U.S. healthcare system $170 billion per year. The Health Alliance for Violence Intervention concluded that it would cost an estimated $670 million per year -- $5.36 billion over eight years -- to fund sustained and adequate violence intervention programs in the 48 U.S. cities with the highest rates of violence.
"Senator Booker and Representative Horsford's introduction of this critical measure offers Congress an opportunity to make fundamental changes in how the United States addresses gun violence and to make our communities safe. We can do better, we will do better, and this is just the first step in reimagining a country that is safe for all," said Coverson.
AIUSA and community organization partners in the "Invest In Us" coalition have long pushed for legislation which would support funding and implementation of evidence-based violence prevention and intervention programs, with at least $5 billion over the next eight years in federal funding for local community gun violence prevention programs.
"Local intervention programs like BRAVE save lives," said Lamar Johnson Jr., Violence Prevention Coordinator of the BRAVE Youth Leaders in Chicago, IL. "It gives kids in the inner city a platform and humanizes them. Gun violence is inherently linked to human rights, because as a human being you deserve respect and to be seen. Anything that creates trauma, abuse and inequity is a human rights issue -- and gun violence does that. It touches everyone." Evidence-based violence intervention and prevention programs have been successful in some of the hardest hit cities in the U.S. In Boston, Operation Ceasefire reduced youth homicides by 61% when it was first introduced in the 1990s. More recently, the Cure Violence model reduced homicides by 38% in Chicago in targeted districts compared to districts that did not receive the intervention. Similar programs have helped stem the tide of violence in Philadelphia, Oakland, California; New Haven, Connecticut; and New York City. As gun violence rates continue to rise, only eight U.S. states have passed measures to support evidence-based violence prevention and intervention programs.
Gun violence remains a uniquely American issue that continues to undermine and threaten the human rights of everyone living in this country. Gun homicides in the U.S. disproportionately impact Black and brown communities, with African American men being ten times more likely to be the victims than white American men. Gun homicides are also the leading cause of death among Black men and boys ages 15-34, and the third-leading cause of death for Hispanic men in the same age range.
Children and youth contextualize the United States' gun violence in particularly horrific, and what should be unacceptable, terms. Killing an average of 109 people each day, gun violence is the third leading cause of death among U.S. youth ages 15-24 and the fourth leading cause of death for children ages 10-14. "Black and brown children and teens are disproportionately impacted by shootings nationwide," said Jasmeet Sidhu, AIUSA's lead gun violence researcher. "Survivors, family members and witnesses to gun violence carry devastating, long-lasting trauma, not to mention the short- and long-term health care costs of treatment. We should be investing in communities and trying to break the cycle of violence, rather than over-policing communities in crisis. The legacy of gun violence in the United States is not one our youth should have to carry forward."
Noting the budgeting disparity and failure to invest in proven solutions, Coverson said, "We fund policing, but we don't fund gun violence prevention programs and the heroes that run them. According to the Vera Institute, we spend over a hundred billion dollars a year on policing in the United States, yet gun violence is worse than ever. To end this cycle of gun violence, we first have to recognize it for what it is: a national human rights crisis. Only then will our government do what's right and invest in our future by funding community gun violence prevention programs."
The Break the Cycle Act would help reduce gun violence by:
- Propose to authorize $6.5 billion over 8 years to invest in effective community-based violence intervention programs and provide jobs to youth between the ages of 16-24;
- Propose to authorize $5 billion over 8 years for a competitive grant program to community-based organizations and local units of government that develop effective, prevention-oriented violence reduction initiatives focused on young people at high risk for violence; and
- Propose to authorize $1.5 billion over eight years for the Improving Approaches for Communities to Thrive (IMPACT) grant for eligible organizations and units of local government to provide job training, education, apprenticeship, skilled trades training, or other paid and unpaid work experiences for youth in communities disproportionately affected by gun violence.
Amnesty International is a global movement of millions of people demanding human rights for all people - no matter who they are or where they are. We are the world's largest grassroots human rights organization.
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Big Pharma Drug Patent Abuses Cost Medicare Billions: Report
"As CMS negotiates the prices Medicare will pay for top-selling drugs, it should take into account the billions we've already lost due to these patenting tactics," said one researcher.
Dec 11, 2024
When the Inflation Reduction Act became law in 2022, it included a historic provision that gave the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) the ability to negotiate maximum fair prices for select drugs. This means that CMS now has an important tool to resist high prices imposed by pharmaceutical companies and lower the cost that Medicare recipients pay for their drugs. So far, Medicare has negotiated the maximum fair prices for 10 drugs, which will go into effect January 1, 2026.
But according to a report released Wednesday by the watchdog group Public Citizen, the manufacturers behind these drugs are able to rely on another method to protect their profits: patent abuses and evergreening tactics.
The report defines "evergreening tactics" as the practice of "patenting trivial and/or obvious modifications of existing medications to lengthen exclusivity on branded medicines."
The makers of the drugs Eliquis, Imbruvica, Jardiance, Farxiga, and Entresto, for example, obtained patents on what constitute trivial or minor changes to earlier patent claims, "such as crystalline forms of drug compounds which would be discovered and managed during routine testing that is part of the drug approval process," according to Public Citizen. These new patents allow the manufacturers to extend their monopoly on these drugs.
"Big Pharma patent abuse is cheating Medicare enrollees of more affordable drugs and costing taxpayers billions," said Public Citizen Access to Medicines program researcher Jishian Ravinthiran in a statement.
"Patent abuses enable Big Pharma companies to unfairly extend their monopolies and keep prices artificially high. As CMS negotiates the prices Medicare will pay for top-selling drugs, it should take into account the billions we've already lost due to these patenting tactics," he added.
The report makes this same point, arguing that the agency's initial offers on pharmaceuticals should take into account how long-monopoly drugs have been able to obtain longtime exclusivities on medicines by manipulating patents.
This is paramount, Public Citizen argues, given the scope of lost savings. The group estimates that Medicare will lose somewhere between $4.9 and $5.4 billion in savings that should have accrued to taxpayers if four out of the 10 drugs did not take advantage of patenting tactics, and therefore would have faced greater competition prior to negotiation.
"These lost savings are nearly as much as what Medicare is expected to save if negotiated prices go into effect on all of the selected drugs in the first year of the program ($6 billion)," according to the report.
As an example, the drug etanercept, which is marketed as Enbrel, is on the list of 10 drugs that will be subject to a negotiated cap come January 2026. Etanercept's maker Amgen did not contribute to the original research and development of etanercept, per Public Citizen, it just acquired the original maker of the drug, Immunex, in 2002.
Immunex's patent of etanercept was set to expire in 2019, but "by using abusive patent practices" Amgen was able to extend the patent protections through 2029, according to Public Citizen. Amgen was able to evade competition of two potential "biosimilar" competitors, Erelzi and Eticovo, which received FDA approval in the 2010s.
Referencing analysis done in a separate report, Public Citizen estimated "that biosimilars could have entered the market after August 2019 were it not for Amgen's unwarranted patent exclusivities, and we calculated Medicare would have spent $1,891,500,836 less on a net basis had enrollees been able to use lower-cost alternatives by the time negotiated prices go into effect on January 1, 2026."
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Accepting the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the grassroots Japanese anti-nuclear group he co-chairs, Terumi Tanaka warned on Tuesday night that the world is moving in the opposite direction than the one hibakusha—survivors of the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—have demanded for nearly seven decades.
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The group accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, with the Nobel Committee honoring Nihon Hidankyo "for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons."
The organization aims to maintain a taboo around the use of nuclear weapons, which have only been used in combat by the U.S. in Japan in 1945.
Tanaka warned that there are currently 12,000 nuclear warheads in the arsenals of the U.S., Russia, China, and six other countries, and 4,000 of those "could be launched immediately."
"This means that the damage that occurred in Hiroshima and Nagasaki could be multiplied by hundreds or even thousands," said Tanaka, who is 92. "Let us all strive together to ensure that humanity is not destroyed by nuclear weapons, and to create a human society where there are no nuclear weapons and no war."
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"I hope that the belief that nuclear weapons cannot—and must not—co-exist with humanity will take firm hold among citizens of the nuclear weapon states and their allies, and that this will become a force for change in the nuclear policies of their governments."
Tanaka said that "the nuclear taboo threatens to be broken," as evidenced by Israeli Heritage Minister Amihay Eliyahu's recent comment that a nuclear attack on Gaza would be "one way" to defeat Hamas.
"I am infinitely saddened and angered" by such statements, said Tanaka.
He described his experience as a 13-year-old when the U.S. bombed Nagasaki, just a couple of miles away from his family's house, which was crushed by the impact.
He said he later found the charred body of one of his aunts and saw his grandfather close to death from the burns that covered his body.
"The deaths I witnessed at that time could hardly be described as human deaths," Tanaka said. "There were hundreds of people suffering in agony, unable to receive any kind of medical attention."
"I hope that the belief that nuclear weapons cannot—and must not—co-exist with humanity will take firm hold among citizens of the nuclear weapon states and their allies, and that this will become a force for change in the nuclear policies of their governments," said Tanaka.
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) applauded Nihon Hidankyo and the hibakusha "for their resilience and willingness to share their stories over and over again, so that the world may learn and come together to say 'never again.'"
"It was their courage that enabled the [Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons] to be adopted, which represents the first progress on nuclear disarmament in decades," said Melissa Parke, executive director of ICAN, referring to the treaty that's been ratified by 73 countries.
"Listening to Mr. Tanaka describe the horrendous effects on his family and city when the Americans dropped their atomic bomb should convince world leaders they have to go beyond simply congratulating the hibakusha of Nihon Hidankyo for this award. They must honor them by doing what the hibakusha have long called for—urgently getting rid of nuclear weapons," said Parke. "That is the only way to ensure that what Mr. Tanaka and the other hibakusha have been through never happens to anyone ever again. As long as any nuclear weapons remain anywhere, they are bound one day to be used, whether by design or accident."
Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Nobel Committee, condemned the nine nuclear powers for "modernizing and building up their nuclear arsenals."
"It is naive to believe our civilization can survive a world order in which global security depends on nuclear weapons," Frydnes said. "The world is not meant to be a prison in which we await collective annihilation."
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"She is on a shamelessness tour," journalist Jeremy Scahill said of American diplomat Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
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The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is facing backlash after delivering a speech earlier this week touting the universal "right to food" as the Israeli military—armed to the teeth with American weaponry—fuels widespread and increasingly deadly hunger in the Gaza Strip.
In remarks Monday at a gathering of U.N. and civil society leaders focused on global food insecurity, Thomas-Greenfield called hunger, starvation, and famine "man-made tragedies" that "can be stopped by us."
"Let me be clear: Every human being, everywhere, has the right to food," she continued. "For the United States, this is a moral issue. And it's an economic and national security issue."
Thomas-Greenfield's speech sparked derision given the Biden administration's continued military support for an Israeli government that has been accused of wielding starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza, where—according to the latest U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization assessment—food aid has reached an all-time low under Israel's suffocating blockade.
"Hunger is a man-made tragedy that you helped make in Gaza."
Oxfam and other human rights groups have said that by arming the Israeli military as it obstructs humanitarian aid, the Biden administration is complicit in the starvation of Palestinians in Gaza and Israel's repeated attacks on aid workers attempting to feed the enclave's hungry.
"She is on a shamelessness tour in her final weeks as U.S. ambassador to the U.N.," journalist Jeremy Scahill wrote Wednesday in response to Thomas-Greenfield's speech. "She presided over numerous cease-fire vetoes as part of an administration that facilitated Israel's starvation policy against the Palestinians of Gaza. Listen to her remarks on 'hunger' in that context."
Yesterday, @USUN brought together humanitarian leaders to discuss solutions to the global food insecurity crisis.
Hunger is a man-made tragedy. But if it caused by man, that means it can be stopped by us, too.
Every human being, everywhere, has the right to food. pic.twitter.com/zczlerRHEc
— Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (@USAmbUN) December 10, 2024
Middle East scholar and analyst Assal Rad, wrote that Thomas-Greenfield's vetoes at the U.N. "have helped Israel continue its genocide and deliberately starving people."
"Hunger is a man-made tragedy that you helped make in Gaza," Rad added.
Despite Thomas-Greenfield's insistence that addressing global food insecurity has long been a priority for the world's wealthiest and most powerful nation, the U.S. and Israel were the only two countries to vote against a U.N. committee draft on the right to food in 2021.
On Tuesday, the Biden administration welcomed to the White House former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who—along with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—is facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for "the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare," among other crimes.
"Today is Human Rights Day—a date chosen to honor the UN’s adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948," the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project wrote Tuesday. "Biden's White House is dishonoring this day by hosting a confirmed war criminal who conducted a genocide, and starved and targeted Palestinian civilians."
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