(NewsNation) — In early November, the nation’s top public health agency softened its guidelines for U.S. doctors prescribing oxycodone and other opioid painkillers.

Dr. Christopher Jones, acting director of CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, weighed in on the agency’s decision on NewsNation’s “Prime.”

“This guideline provides an opportunity to update based on the latest science and the human story how best to approach pain care in the U.S.,” Jones said. “Sometimes that includes prescribing opioids.”

Jones said the CDC first put out guidelines around opioid prescribing in 2016. And at that time, according to Jones, the CDC indicated they would update the guidelines when new scientific information became available.

“What we’ve seen really since that time,” Jones said. “Is that the science of pain care how opioids work, where they’re effective, where non-opioid medications and where non-pharmacological treatments or non-medication treatments are effective, the science has advanced.”

Opioid painkillers can be addictive — even when used under doctors’ orders — and were identified as a big reason for a rise in U.S. drug overdoses that began more than two decades ago. 

Other drugs have overtaken opioid painkillers in overdose statistics, and illicit fentanyl is now the biggest driver of deaths.

The Hill White House columnist Niall Stanage characterized the relaxed guidelines amid an explosion of fentanyl in America’s neighborhoods as a persistent problem.

“I think the optics are obviously rather difficult because it goes straight to the idea that public health bodies are too cozy with the pharmaceutical industry if not in bed with it,” Stanage said.

Jones said the pharmaceutical industry had no input in the development of the guidelines.

“This was done through an open and transparent process where CDC experts engaged with outside scientific experts, as well as other agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services, who are experts in pain care as well as addiction,” Jones said.

The previous guidance succeeded in reducing inappropriate and dangerous prescribing, some experts say. But they also were seen as a barrier to care.

Jones said the guidelines really reserve opioids for when there is a clear-cut case that the patient is likely to benefit and that you’re paying attention to the potential risks.

“In many cases,” Jones said. “Non-opioid medications or non-medication treatments actually do better. And that’s one of the key messages that we’re trying to put out with the guideline.”

Watch the complete interview with Dr. Christopher Jones in the video player at the top of the page and the “Dangers of Fentanyl” segment from “Prime” with Niall Stanage in the video player below.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Imagine a domestic scene. It’s six o’clock and a family has just sat down to dinner when their youngest member comes rushing in. She informs them that the house is on fire. The father and mother confer and agree that something must be done — right away!

From where they are sitting they can confirm that the house is indeed on fire. They can see down the hall that the bedrooms and bathroom are in flames but note with relief that the kitchen and dining room remain intact. They calculate that they probably have until seven o’clock to do something about it before the entire house is consumed by flames.

So they decide to wait until after dinner to act. They set what they believe to be aggressive targets for 6:30 and 6:45. Those targets include calling the fire department, gathering important belongings (what’s left of them by then, of course) and rushing over to the neighbour’s house for safety.

Naturally saving the children is important too. Saving the children goes without saying. Meanwhile they toast one another over dinner because they have recently become pregnant and will shortly add an eighth child to the family. They congratulate themselves on how wonderful that all is and how clever they are in their plan to save the family and the house from the coming all-consuming flames.

Three of the children at the table think the parents are overreacting and say as much. They look at their youngest sibling, the one who sounded the alarm, with mistrust. They recall that she can sometimes be a bit histrionic. While they can see the flames and smell the smoke they are unimpressed. They think the fire will probably go out by itself. They acknowledge that it’s sad that the house is on fire and that some part of it will be lost, but they nevertheless insist that it’s all part of the natural order of things.

The parents agree that both sides of the proposition need to be considered. Father joins the three children in chastising the youngest for being so alarmist, while mother takes the side of the other three children and agrees that a more moderate position should be adopted. Mother further declares that the youngest, while cute and naive, is nevertheless to be commended for her bold and brilliant declaration of this very serious family emergency. She should be held up as an exemplar of good family citizenship.

So they take a vote as a family and agree that 6:30 is too aggressive a target for action and 6:45 is too late. They concur on a target of 6:37, which is more or less in the middle. Some quibble about the extra thirty seconds they are owed but are shouted down for being petty. So the motion is carried and most are happy and all but the youngest are reasonably satisfied. They can now settle in and enjoy the remainder of their dinner where both their consciences and appetites can be appeased. The End.

Today’s little melodrama was brought to you by human stupidity. Father and mother were played by world governments. The children were played by a mix of conservatives and moderate liberals. The youngest daughter was played by Greta Thunberg. Music was composed by the late Bernard Herrmann. The screenplay of our little drama was written by the late Rod Serling and directed by the late Alfred Hitchcock. The story was filmed, on location, in the Twilight Zone.

The post A modest allegory appeared first on Palmer Report.

Australia’s Labor government said it will move a parliamentary censure motion against former Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison this week after an inquiry found his secret appointment to multiple ministries undermined trust in government.

Morrison, who lost power in a general election in May, secretly accumulated five ministerial roles during the COVID-19 pandemic: health, finance, treasury, resources and home affairs.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday said a motion of censure would be introduced to the Labor-controlled House of Representative this week by either the leader of the house or the attorney general.

“This wasn’t about a relationship between the former prime minister and his ministers. It’s not a personal relationship between two mates over what happened down the pub,” Albanese said during a news conference.

“This is about accountability of our democratic system, and whether the parliament was functioning properly.”

An inquiry led by former High Court judge Virginia Bell last week made six recommendations for reform after finding the appointments likely hurt public confidence in government.

Having committed to all six changes, Albanese said legislation to require public notification of ministerial appointments will be introduced this week.

Regulatory changes that don’t require legislation have already been made, he added.

China reported a fifth straight daily record of 40,347 new COVID-19 infections on Nov. 27, of which 3,822 were symptomatic and 36,525 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Monday.

That compares with 39,791 new cases a day earlier – 3,709 symptomatic and 36,082 asymptomatic infections, which China counts separately.

Excluding imported infections, China reported 40,052 new local cases, of which 3,748 were symptomatic and 36,304 were asymptomatic, up from 39,506 a day earlier.

There were no deaths, compared with one the previous day, keeping fatalities at 5,233. As of Nov. 27, mainland China had confirmed 311,624 cases with symptoms.

Infections rose as hundreds of demonstrators and police clashed in Shanghai on Sunday night as protests over China’s stringent COVID restrictions spread to several cities.

Mega-cities Guangzhou and Chongqing, with thousands of cases, are still struggling to contain outbreaks while hundreds of infections were recorded in several cities across the country on Sunday.

China’s capital Beijing reported 840 symptomatic and 3,048 asymptomatic cases on Sunday, compared with 747 symptomatic and 3,560 asymptomatic cases the previous day, local government data showed.

Financial hub Shanghai reported 16 symptomatic cases and 128 asymptomatic cases, compared with 11 symptomatic cases and 119 asymptomatic cases a day before, the local health authority reported.

Guangzhou, a city in the south of nearly 19 million people, reported 199 new locally transmitted symptomatic and 7,166 asymptomatic cases, compared with 146 symptomatic and 7,266 asymptomatic cases a day before, local authorities said.

Chongqing reported 238 new symptomatic locally transmitted COVID-19 infections and 9,447 asymptomatic cases, compared with 194 symptomatic and 8,667 asymptomatic cases the previous day, local government authorities said.

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(NewsNation) — Sunday, two of the top House Republicans appeared together to talk about their support for Ukraine, as well as the continued support they wish to see the U.S. provide to the country.

There has been serious speculation that once Republicans take power in the House, the American aid and weapons being funneled into Ukraine could stop. Some high profile house GOP members, like Marjorie Taylor Greene and others, have called for that directly.

Others have questioned whether defense officials really know how every dollar is being used.

Sunday, the top House Republican on the intelligence committee, Michael Turner, and the top House Republican on the foreign affairs committee, Michael McCaul, took questions together in a rare joint appearance about the issue.

They say they believe there are enough Republicans who wish to continue supporting Ukraine but with much more scrutiny about where American money is going.

“The Republicans have a voice now and we’re going to do this in an accountable way with transparency to the American people. These are American taxpayer dollars going in. Does that diminish our will to help the Ukrainian people fight? No,” he said.

Knowing audits on the money and weapons sent to Ukraine are likely coming, the Biden administration is now working on a full accounting of what’s been sent.

U.S. monitors have only conducted in-person inspections on about 10% of the 22,000 weapons sent to Ukraine, according to a report from The Washington Post.

The Pentagon and the State Department are putting together their own individual plans aiming to make sure American weapons don’t end up in the wrong hands once they get to the battlefield.

Collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX remains the subject of “an active and ongoing investigation” by Bahamian authorities, Bahamian Attorney General Ryan Pinder said on Sunday, as he praised the Bahamas’ regulatory regime and swiftness with which it responded to the crisis.

FTX, which had been among the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, is headquartered in the Bahamas. The firm, whose liquidity crunch forced the company to declare bankruptcy on Nov. 11, is the subject of investigations by Bahamian and U.S. authorities. In mid-November, the Royal Bahamas Police said that government investigators in the Bahamas were looking at whether any “criminal misconduct occurred.” read more

“We are in the early stages of an active and ongoing investigation,” Pinder said on Sunday, according to prepared remarks for the speech. “It is a very complex investigation.” He said it involved both civil and criminal authorities.

Pinder said that the Bahamas Securities Commission, Financial Intelligence Unit and the police’s Financial Crimes Unit would “continue to investigate the facts and circumstances regarding FTX’s insolvency crisis, and any potential violations of Bahamian law.”

Pinder also defended the Bahamas’ regulatory regime and said that its Securities Commission had moved quickly “because of the strength of the legislative framework.”

Bahamas securities regulators had revoked FTX Digital’s license and began involuntary liquidation proceedings the day before the U.S. bankruptcy case kicked off. read more

“Any attempt to lay the entirety of this debacle at the feet of the Bahamas, because FTX is headquartered here, would be a gross oversimplification of reality,” Pinder said, adding that the Bahamas Securities Commission had moved with “remarkable” speed in response.

Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, founded FTX in 2019 and rode cryptocurrency boom to a net worth that Forbes pegged a year ago at $26.5 billion. Bankman-Fried resigned as FTX’s chief executive officer the same day as the firm’s bankruptcy filing.

The liquidity crunch came after Bankman-Fried secretly moved $10 billion of FTX customer funds to his proprietary trading firm, Alameda Research, Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the matter.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, led by veteran securities fraud prosecutor Damian Williams, in mid-November began investigating how FTX handled customer funds, a source with knowledge of the probe told Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission also opened probes.

FTX’s demise comes after a string of meltdowns that have taken down other key players including Voyager Digital and Celsius Network and led some global investors to question the viability of the cryptocurrency sector.

China will launch the Shenzhou-15 spacecraft to its space station at 11:08 p.m. (1508 GMT) on Nov. 29, the China Manned Space Agency said on Monday.

The astronauts of the spacecraft are Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu, the agency said.

Stocks and oil weakened on Monday as rare protests in major Chinese cities against the country’s strict zero-COVID policy raised worries about management of the virus in the world’s second-largest economy.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) was down 0.6%, after U.S. stocks ended the previous session with mild losses.

Australian shares (.AXJO) lost 0.47% while Japan’s Nikkei stock index (.N225) was down 0.37%.

South Korea’s KOSPI 200 index (.KS200) retreated 1.35% in early trade and New Zealand’s S&P/NZX50 Index (.NZ50) was off 0.4%.

In China, demonstrators and police clashed in Shanghai on Sunday night as protests over the country’s stringent COVID restrictions flared for a third day.

There were also protests in Wuhan, Chengdu and parts of the capital Beijing late Sunday as COVID restrictions were put in place in an attempt to quell fresh outbreaks.

The dollar extended gains against the offshore yuan , rising 0.74% and focus shifts to the open of China’s markets later in the Asian morning.

The COVID rules and resulting protests are creating fears the economic hit for China will be greater than expected.

“A growing list of cities, including those with large populations, have imposed strong restrictions on movement because of a surge in infections, there will inevitably be a negative impact on economic activity from the restrictions on movement,” CBA analysts said on Monday.

“Even if China is on a path to eventually move away from its zero-COVID approach, the low level of vaccination among the elderly means the exit is likely to be slow and possibly disorderly. The economic impacts are unlikely to be small.”

China’s case numbers have hit record highs, with nearly 40,000 new infections on Saturday.

Fears about Chinese economic growth also hit commodities in Asia trade.

S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures both fell, pointing to possible declines in Wall Street later in the day.

U.S. crude dipped 0.25% to $76.08 a barrel. Brent crude fell 0.16 to $83.48 per barrel.

Both benchmarks slid to 10-month lows last week and declined for a third consecutive week

“Mobility data in China is showing the impact of a resurgence in COVID-19 cases,” ANZ analysts wrote in a research note Monday. “This remains a headwind for oil demand that, combined with weakness in the U.S. dollar, is creating a negative backdrop for oil prices.”

Yields on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes rose to 3.6905% from its U.S. close of 3.702% on Friday. The two-year yield , which tracks traders’ expectations of Fed fund rates, touched 4.467% compared with a U.S. close of 4.479%.

The dollar rose 0.22% against the yen to 139.4 . It remains well off its high this year of 151.94 on Oct. 21.

The euro was down 0.2% on the day at $1.0371, having gained 4.94% in a month, while the dollar index , which tracks the greenback against a basket of currencies of other major trading partners, was up at 106.3.

In the United States, a speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in Washington on Wednesday to the Brookings Institute on the economic outlook and the labour market will be closely watched by investors.

Gold was slightly lower. Spot gold was traded at $1750.49 per ounce.

Global miner Rio Tinto Ltd (RIO.AX) has reached a restitution agreement with an Aboriginal group whose rock shelters in Western Australia it destroyed two years ago for an iron ore mine, the groups said on Monday.

The destruction of the Juukan Gorge sites that showed evidence of human habitation stretching back into the last Ice Age 46,000 years ago caused deep distress to the traditional owners, the Puutu Kunti, Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) peoples.

It also fueled a global uproar, cost three senior leaders and two board members their jobs, a parliamentary enquiry and an overhaul of the mining industry’s agreements with Indigenous Australians.

Financial terms were not disclosed by either party at the request of the PKKP, the parties said.

“Nothing can compensate for or replace the loss suffered at Juukan Gorge, so this is an outcome orientated legacy to ensure something positive will come from it for years to come,” PKKP Aboriginal Corp Chairperson Burchell Hayes said.

The Juukan Gorge Legacy Foundation will focus on education and training opportunities, financial independence through business development, preservation and an increased voice over heritage, culture and land, the PKKP said in a statement.

The two groups are in advanced talks about a co-management of mining agreement, the PKKP added.

“We fell far short of our values as a company and breached the trust placed in us by the PKKP people by allowing the destruction of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters,” Rio Tinto Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm said.

“As we work hard to rebuild our relationship, I would like to thank the PKKP people, their elders, and the Corporation for their guidance and leadership in forming this important agreement,” he said in a separate statement.

As well as the legacy foundation, remedy discussions have centred on ongoing rehabilitation of the rock shelters and their surrounds at Juukan Gorge, Rio said.

Australia said last week that it would strengthen laws to better protect Aboriginal cultural heritage following the enquiry, although it did not offer a time frame for completion. read more

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