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-- Anon (Anon@aol.com), February 09, 1999

Answers

The easiest thing for people to do if they want to stockpile extra meds, is to have two different family doctors, and therefore two prescriptions. Take to two different pharmacies, and have one covered by your insurance while you pay cash for the other one. If you do it now, you will help to ramp up production and there will be more for others later on.

Another option for those who usually get a one-year prescription, is to simply arrange to visit the doctor and get your prescription, in the second half of this year, then buy the full year's worth right away, (say in july) so that you will have about six months extra supply. That should also be early enough to help ramp up production.

In my immediate family, three of us must take thyroid. I intend to have enough to take care of all three of us, in case the others don't have enough common sense to prepare.

-- b (b@b.b), February 09, 1999.

OK, b, you are an excellent test case: for how long do you intend to use your stored meds ? What duration of disruption are you planning for and how did you arrive at the magic number of days/months/years ?

-- Runway Cat (runway_cat@hotmail.com), February 09, 1999.

RC, why being so tough on details like this? What's the point? When is healthy awareness becoming unhealthy?

b. is absolutely right to stockpile as much as possible. There's 10 months to go to roll-over, plus a year or 2 of stockpiled meds is a long and healthy time ahead. Do you have a crystal ball to see what will happen after that stockpile has ran out? Meds could just as well be available as not by then.

I don't understand you on this RC, are you proposing that they should just curl up and die now or something?

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), February 09, 1999.

In my case, I want to have a six month supply for three people, I think that will get us past the worst time. In our case, if we run out of thyroid, we won't die, we'll just be tired, cold and constipated. Those whose conditions are lifethreatening or who are very dependent on foreign drug manufacturers should have more than that, in my opinion. As to how much more, should be their business as long as they buy now instead of waiting.

If you look at Larry Sanger's review of yesterday, there is an article where the National Retail Federation supports the idea of consumers stockpiling now.

-- b (b@b.b), February 10, 1999.

I don't think this can ever be made to work, unfortunately. (I'm a licensed physician, but don't practice. I write medical software).

At least in Minnesota, I don't think the Board is in the business of granting or withholding permission to physicians to start practices. They're there to ensure that physicians licensed to practice are qualified to do so.

So at least here in Minnesota one could start such a practice. But there is the problem of the standard of care which is definitely NOT to prescribe to patients sight unseen. Presumably eventually one would be called before the Board for failure to adhere to the standard of care.

I don't think there would be a problem with the Board prescribing to patients that one actually saw. But there is a big liability issue - eventually someone is going to get sick, and use one of the antibiotics that has been prescribed, and he'll pick the wrong one, and have a bad outcome. A malpractice attorney would love to have a case like this one.

Yes, it's a CYA problem, but that's reality.

-- Ned (entaylor@cloudnet.com), February 10, 1999.