It Seems We Are Having Another Moment Of Noticing Adolescence Is A Tricky And Complex Transition!

I do have to say that this is rather a repeating insight – with only the level of complexity and degree of observability changing over time. Growing up is a challenge for all and few slip into adulthood without at least some “disturbance in the Force” ( for the want of a better description ).

The transition from child to adult is a universal experience I reckon, only the level of disruption that results varies as well as how long it lasts!.

Adolescents, it’s time to take back your brains

Yes, you should use your phone. It’s a central part of life. It’s fun, entertaining, central to school and social life. But don’t let it own you.

MATT RICHTEL

5:00AMJuly 12, 2025.

Dear adolescents,

The technology industry wants to own your brain. It wants to suck every second of your life into the machine and spit out money to investors. This doesn’t mean you can’t spend time online and get what you want out of the situation. You just need to be aware of what’s really going on.

Here’s what’s really going on: You are in a bad relationship. With your phone. It’s like a bad romantic relationship where you’re getting the raw end of the deal and you don’t really realise it until after the break-up, months or years later. And you’re like: What the hell? I was totally taken advantage of. I’ll never do that again!

Time to fix the relationship.

I’ll tell you a story of what they say behind your back. Then I’ll tell you why these knuckleheads are so good at taking advantage of you.

Adolescents, it’s time to take back your brains.

Love, Matt.

Your wellbeing is in the hands of industries that want to suck as much time out of you as they can. They’re so good at it. And it’s not because they’re particularly smart. No, they’re just selling something that’s largely irresistible. Dopamine squirts.

I know how good it feels to get squirted.

At the time of the introduction of the iPhone, I noticed a shift in my own behaviour when it came to these devices. I was having trouble putting my phone down. It beckoned to me with magnetic powers. I was particularly curious about my use of the phone when I was driving. I could watch the freaking stupidity in my behaviour as I glanced at my phone while piloting a half-tonne vehicle – an accident waiting to happen.

The trouble is these devices play to your deep neurological wiring and can be so compelling as to be addictive. The games and social media interact with the reward systems in the brain. They provide adults and youths alike with a constant source of stimulation and our craving for social connection, squirts of dopamine from information that is new, scary, bad – all of which play to different primitive impulses.

Imagine that you are a caveperson sitting at a fire and you feel a tap on the shoulder. Could you avoid turning around to look? No, because you wouldn’t know if the tap is friend, foe, enemy, potential mate. When your phone buzzes, it is like a tap on the shoulder from anyone, anywhere in the world.

On top of that, these devices act like slot machines, sometimes paying off for our attention and other times providing less interesting stuff. But, oddly, the science shows, this makes the devices more powerful because you never know which ping is going to be a good one. You must check each time.

The entire business model of companies involved in building the phones and apps is to keep people online as much as possible. They are trying to ensnare our attention and they are amazing at doing it.

This is even more challenging for adolescents. The reason has to do with your brain development. You are wired to explore and, as a result, to have less inhibition. The control centre of your brains are less developed than adults’. So, asking you to ignore the device is asking you to use a part of your brain that isn’t fully developed.

Furthermore, and maybe most importantly, the information you are getting on these devices is social in nature. It is coming from your peers. You could hardly invent a recipe more likely to appeal to an adolescent brain. Bottom line: mobile devices and the social media deliver are a near-perfect delivery system of neurochemicals to the developing brain. This can create some serious problems by hijacking the time of an adolescent, who needs lots of different physical, emotional, and interpersonal experiences for the brain to develop in a healthy way.

Also, your device can be like a drug. Just like a drug, it can distract you and help you escape from what you’re feeling. Is this good? Sometimes, maybe, sure. Is it bad? Also, sometimes. The reason is because how we grow up is partly by learning to live with our real emotions, sensations, experiences, feelings. Escaping those all the time makes it hard to learn how to just exist.

Does this mean you shouldn’t use a phone? No. Meaning: Yes, you should use your phone. It’s a central part of life. It’s fun, entertaining, central to school and social life.

But own that shit. Don’t let the knuckleheads own you. Take time to decompress. Use social media, and all the rest, on your terms.

Here’s one simple way to do it that will give you an even greater sense of reward than you usually get. Put the phone down for 30 minutes, or an hour. Let the messages build up, put off the next level of the game, let the anticipation grow as you do something else. Then, return to the gadget and get extra pleasure from the delayed gratification.

Make that phone your tool, instead of being its tool. Make it your slave, don’t let it enslave you.

Dear parents

It would be really nice, were it true, to be able to say that the rise in mental health distress is a direct result of heavy use of social media. It’s just not that straightforward; there are other factors at play.

Adolescence is, by evolutionary design, a period of risk-taking and diversification. That is true of adolescence across time. But this generation is experiencing a twist.

For centuries, adolescents were not looking so closely inward. The territory being explored was physical, the world outside, the place where enemies might gather, or terrain, weather, and other conditions might prove opportunistic for growing or hunting food, building shelter, and so forth. Those times weren’t all that long ago. It was a harsh physical world, not permitting the luxury of inward exploration.

Then, over the past century or more, we did look more inward as a species, taking a particularly hard turn in that direction in the 1960s. This is especially true in Western societies, those that put a premium on individual expression and discovery. Each generation has explored more deeply. It has expanded the territory of human consciousness, the way explorers and pioneers once looked for new lands.

I refer to this newer group of young people as Generation Rumination. They are looking inward at all kinds of things: What is gender anyway? What is a boy? What is a girl? Are they more than social and personal constructs? Which am I? And they are being urged in this direction by forces well beyond their control – biology and neurobiology on one side and a changing environment on the other.

Generation Rumination is growing up in the realm of the mind and psyche. Asking why some are struggling is like asking why some adolescents of yesteryear skinned their knees and broke their bones while trekking over a mountain to explore new terrain.

Just like the physical exploration of unknown lands in centuries past, this probing is not without risks. In the physical world, there could be wounds to the body, natural elements that are hostile and dangerous. This includes physical risks like teen pregnancy, drunk driving injury and death, dangers of binge drinking and smoking.

But those risks have fallen over the past two decades and experimentation and risk-taking in the physical world turned to exploration of the virtual world. This had its own challenges.

The inward-looking explorer can become obsessed, ruminative, and succumb to pressures – real and imagined. This is not everyone. But an overwhelmed mind can be one that is at risk. And this exploration and probing is happening in a particular environment: the Information Age, where the number of ideas, options, opportunities, paths and threats are as loud and voluminous as at any time in history.

There’s not just more opportunity, there’s more threat.

The internet has opened the world, while also transforming the environment in such a way that it contributed to the emergence of a mental health crisis among a generation of adolescents. White noise, competitive information, judgment, lies, and false promises bombarded teenagers and played a role, science shows, in increased feelings of anxiety and depression. Generation Rumination didn’t just look inward, it could become obsessed with dark matters.

A rapidly evolving environment is not the only change impacting adolescence. There is another factor undergoing radical change: the adolescent brain. Adolescence is not only lasting longer, it’s starting earlier. And that’s because of a profound shift in neurobiology.

There has been a significant change to the adolescent brain: the age of puberty is falling.

Two hundred years ago, puberty hit as much as four years later for girls than it does today, and boys experienced roughly the same change. There are a handful of reasons puberty has fallen but a big one is the rise in nutrition; food was once scarce, and thin, undernourished bodies could not handle making a baby and taking care of it. But as food became more readily available, the puberty rate dropped, signalling to bodies that they could make and sustain a new life.

As hormonal changes set in earlier, the transition is causing some adolescents to become highly sensitive to the point of being effectively emotionally paralysed. So much of their time is spent on devices, leading to a collision of a brain under development with technology designed to be addictive and moving at a breakneck pace, and an industry that profits from devouring attention.

What all this leads to is one crucial revelation for some modern adolescents: some are dealing with a neurological mismatch. This is a mismatch between the capabilities of the maturing adolescent brain and the demands of the environment.

Yet adolescents are also like start-up companies in a world that requires new ideas. Their approaches, challenging as they might be to our system, are how individuals survive, and the species perseveres in an uncertain, unpredictable, changing, sometimes hostile environment. Their stories, by definition, are filled with suspense. Each has an ending that feels unpredictable, and most end well. Still, the journey feels perilous right up until it resolves.

I am optimistic about how this all plays out, and the future – even the present – of adolescence. What appears to be a period of chaotic tumult and rebellion appears instead to be a period of life that, by design, helps crack the status quo and push all of us into new directions. The tension they experience internally and bring to society has profound purpose.

This is an edited extract from How We Grow Up: Understanding Adolescence by Matt Richtel, published in Australia by HarperCollins on July 8 (ebook) and July 16 (paperback).

Here is the link:

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/health/mental-health/adolescents-its-time-to-take-back-your-brains/news-story/74322eac52f8d384367d053af49145f5

Looks like a useful contribution to our understanding of growing up – along with ever so many others!

However, remember we all pass though this phase so sit back and observe with interest if you cam. A little benevolent help along the way never hurt!

Davod.

It Seems To Me The Error Prevention Mechanisms In IVF Providers Should Be At The Aeronautical Level Of Integrity And Safety.

If ever there was an area of medical practice that should get things right 100% of the time IVF Service Providers would have to be right up there – not that I am encouraging mistakes elsewhere!

The following reveals perfection is a pretty high bar to reach!

‘Weird and icky feeling’: Anxiety for parents after Monash IVF embryo bungles

Two embryo mix-ups by Monash IVF have shaken confidence in the assisted reproductive technology sector. What does it mean for the future of IVF?

Stephen Lunn

5:00AMJune 13, 2025

Radio host Jase Hawkins may have summed up the feelings of many parents or prospective parents this week when he spoke about the latest embryo mix-up by leading fertility clinic Monash IVF, its second reported bungle in the past two months.

After telling listeners he and his partner had conceived their youngest child, Archie, with the help of Monash IVF, Hawkins opened up about hearing news of the error.

“As someone who’s gone through it (IVF), like, it was such a personal experience,” he told his audience on Nova 100 FM. “And whatever company you go through … there’s that trust you have. And yesterday was just that weird, just that icky feeling in your guts.”

Putting yourself in the hands of a fertility clinic to help have a child is a big step, likely born of previous disappointment and heartache. Hope, faith, trepidation, anxiety, daring to dream.

And then the process itself can be gruelling. Injections to stimulate ovaries to help the production of eggs. Egg retrieval. Sperm samples. It’s hard to imagine a health service more intimate.

“In reproductive care, trust is everything,” University of South Australia bioethicist Hilary Bowman-Smart says. “Patients entrust clinics with embryos that may represent their only opportunity to have children.

“This (latest) mix-up – the second reported incident at Monash IVF – risks shaking confidence, not just in one provider but across the entire fertility sector.”

So what exactly has happened?

On Tuesday morning Monash IVF, a listed company and one of Australia’s biggest fertility operators, informed the Australian Securities Exchange it had implanted the wrong embryo in a patient.

The statement said the company had mistakenly transplanted the patient’s own biological embryo back to her, rather than her carrying her partner’s embryo, which was what the couple had requested in their treatment plan. The error occurred on June 5 at a clinic in Clayton in Melbourne’s southeast.

Inquirer understands that it should have been picked up through an electronic checking process but wasn’t due to the two women having the same surname. It is understood the electronic process was designed for heterosexual couples.

The distressing error compounded another heartbreaking mistake Monash was forced to make public just two months ago, where a woman in Brisbane had carried and then given birth to a child conceived through IVF before learning she had been mistakenly implanted with another couple’s embryo.

The tragic mix-up was uncovered when the birth parents requested the transfer of their remaining frozen embryos to another assisted reproductive therapy provider and the clinic found there were more than there should have been.

It is understood the baby was conceived in 2023 and the parents were informed of the mistake in February this year, meaning they had cared for the baby for several months. Monash IVF didn’t report the matter to the ASX until it became public through the press in April.

Both sets of parents are understood to be devastated about this botched transplant.

The baby’s future has not been made public. But under family law provisions it is the birth parents who are considered the legal parents of the baby, meaning the biological parents have no legal claim. Whether that is the situation that has played out in this case is not known.

Monash IVF has apologised to the affected families in both incidents and has included the latest Melbourne issue in the scope of an independent review already being conducted into the Brisbane matter. After the first incident it described the mix-up as an isolated incident and the result of “human error”.

But that has not been enough for the company’s shareholders or its board. The two embryo mix-ups come after a mishandled genetic testing program that led to Monash IVF last year paying $56m to settle a class action brought on behalf of more than 700 people. The program was suspended in 2020 after it was discovered that faulty results might have meant healthy embryos were unnecessarily discarded.

The company’s share price sat at $1.42 in August 2024, dropped from $1.08 to 67c on the day the first embryo bungle was reported, and dropped again from 75c to 55c after the second mix-up was declared.

On Thursday the company notified the ASX in a brief statement that the board had accepted the resignation of its chief executive, Michael Knaap, effective immediately. He had been in the role since 2019.

“Since his appointment in 2019 Michael has led the organisation through a period of significant growth and transformation, and we thank him for his years of dedicated service,” the statement said.

That may well not be the end of the matter, as governments are not happy either. State and federal health ministers urgently included the regulation of the assisted reproductive technology sector on the agenda of their meeting on Friday and the Victorian government has ordered its own investigation.

“These cases are just shocking, deeply distressing, and undermine confidence in the system,” federal Health Minister Mark Butler told ABC radio on Thursday.

“As governments, we’ve got a responsibility to see whether there are better levels of regulation that should be put in place and to inject some confidence back into a system that delivers such joy to so many thousands of families every year.”

Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas said families should be confident they were receiving the highest standard of fertility treatment and “it is clear Monash IVF has failed to deliver that, which is completely unacceptable”.

Thomas said Victoria’s Health Regulator would be conducting its own investigation into the latest incident.

The ministers’ discussion will focus on whether IVF, currently subject to nationally consistent clinical standards but regulated through state and territory laws, should be moved to a nationally consistent federal framework.

Government and company investigations are one thing, human responses another. The fertility community is large. There were around 100,000 IVF cycles carried out in Australia in the past year alone. It includes prospective users thinking about their options, patients with embryos awaiting transplant and parents with children born through IVF who put their faith in the system. And it includes the many medical, technical and nursing staff in the industry.

The experts will point to how incredibly rare events such as this have been across the four decades of assisted reproductive technology helping people become parents. That is true. And they will talk about the Australian system being extremely robust on international comparisons.

But people are people. And two incidents reported within two months of each other, both at the same company, will have anxiety levels rising.

“The reaction was very quick and very strong from both my clients and also my followers on Instagram, just: ‘Oh my gosh, how does this happen again?’ ” former clinical embryologist and IVF patient advocate Lucy Lines told the ABC.

“(It ranged) from people who’ve completed their families with IVF, who are at home with their children and now feel anxious about whether they need to do DNA testing, through to people who are currently having treatment, maybe they just had a transfer or they’re about to have a transfer, feeling very anxious about that.

“I’m not trying to be dramatic but I’m like, I don’t trust (our frozen embryos) sitting in that freezer at the moment … It just made me think last night, well, I think we need to speed up that conversation about what we want to do with them because at the moment I don’t trust the current situation”

“And even people who are looking down the barrel of doing IVF, already feeling anxious about it as it is, and now that anxiety has been ramped up a whole lot of levels.”

Hawkins says his trust has been shaken. “I’m not trying to be dramatic but I’m like, I don’t trust (our frozen embryos) sitting in that freezer at the moment … It just made me think last night, well, I think we need to speed up that conversation about what we want to do with them because at the moment I don’t trust the current situation.”

Swinburne University of Technology senior lecturer of health promotion Evie Kendal also raises the issue of trust in the current system.

“By introducing more areas of human intervention into reproduction, such technologies also introduce the potential for human error, as has been seen in these cases,” Kendal says.

“Previous safeguards are clearly not up to the challenge of protecting clients against such incidents, and urgent ethical and policy guidance is needed to prevent such mistakes from occurring again.”

Consultant obstetrician Alex Polyakov says it is important to remember that IVF clinics in Australia “operate within some of the most highly regulated and scrutinised environments in medicine”.

“Australia’s assisted reproductive sector is internationally recognised for its rigorous oversight and quality control,” Polyakov says.

“In over 40 years of IVF practice in Australia, these events remain statistical outliers – still extraordinarily uncommon. However, their emotional and ethical implications are significant, and concern among patients is entirely understandable.”

Practitioners are battling privately with ethical and practice challenges in the wake of these errors.

Inquirer understands that questions have been raised about whether the obligations of Monash IVF, a listed company, to notify the ASX of events that may affect its share price have overridden the ethical obligation of a doctor to provide appropriate care and welfare of their patient, including confidentiality where necessary.

While the families involved in these incidents have not been named publicly, seeing the matter raised in the public domain in any event would be emotionally difficult, medical practitioners say.

Monash IVF was criticised in April for not reporting the Brisbane incident to the ASX in a timely manner and was much quicker to report the latest Melbourne error.

A further conundrum for specialists in this field is whether they should now include the remote possibility of an embryo mix-up as part of their informed consent process.

Monash IVF’s embryo mix-ups clearly have dented trust across the assisted reproductive technology sector, and in such an emotionally charged area winning it back will be hard. It is vital that work is done. The hopes and dreams of so many families depend on it.

Here is the link:

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/health/medical/weird-and-icky-feeling-anxiety-for-parents-after-monash-ivf-embryo-bungles/news-story/c38c936b82a6421d73b160c75d2d730d

We all know being 100% error free is a very high bar, to say the least, but avoiding errors must be pretty much certain or the industry will loose its social license!

This just means that both the systems and the people involved have to try really hard and get the error rates as close to zero as possible, and all the supportive tricks needed to make systems reliable need to be implemented and monitored.

To achieve this all the techniques of error prevention need to be brought into play and vigorously applied with everyone understanding the responsibility they carry! A tall ask but the best we can do, being human! Careful study of airline systems would be a good place to start!

David.

AusHealthIT Poll Number 802 – Results – 13 July 2025.

Here are the results of the recent poll.

Should Elon Musk Stick To Making Tesla Cars And Stay Out Of US Politics?

Yes                                                                     15 (50%)

No                                                                      15 (50%)

I Have No Idea                                                    0 (%)

Total No. Of Votes: 30

A totally split vote with no abstainers! Amazing!

Any insights on the poll are welcome, as a comment, as usual!

Not bad voter turnout – question must have been decent. 

0 of 30 who answered the poll admitted to not being sure about the answer to the question!

Again, many, many thanks to all those who voted! 

David.

We Really Need To Develop An Understanding Of The Reason(s) For This!

This appeared a day or so ago:

Millennial mental health claims help push life insurers to $2.2b crisis

Insurers say stress, burnout and bullying at work - especially among young people - are among the reasons claimants give for being unable to return to work.

Lucy Dean Wealth reporter

Updated Jul 9, 2025 – 12.30pm, first published at 12.08pm

Almost $1 in every $2 paid out by life insurers is linked to mental health problems in what sector leaders say is a crisis that is about to get worse, as more young people claim they are unable to work because they have developed severe anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Life insurance companies paid a record $2.2 billion in claims related to mental illness last year, up from $1.2 billion five years ago.

Stress, burnout and bullying at work are among the leading reasons claimants give for being unable to return to the workforce, along with divorce, financial strife, traumatic experiences and mood disorders such as depression.

Christine Cupitt of the Council of Australian Life Insurers, Kent Griffin of Acenda and Damien Mu of AIA have said the life insurance sector is struggling under the weight of surging mental health claims.  Bethany Rae

Kent Griffin, the chief executive of Acenda (formerly MLC Life Insurance) and co-chair of the Council of Australian Life Insurers (CALI) has said he is especially concerned about the rise in young people making total and permanent disability (TPD) claims for mental health reasons.

One study showed permanent disability claims by those in their 30s increased 732 per cent between 2013 and 2022, and now make up 36 per cent of all claims. However, people aged 50 and older still accounted for the majority of claims.

“This unprecedented increase not only highlights the growing burden of mental illness, but also raises concerns about the long-term financial sustainability of life insurance products designed to provide this support,” Griffin said.

Of all $5 billion in payouts in 2024, 44 per cent were linked to mental ill health rather than a physical condition or injury, compared to 25 per cent in 2019, according to Council of Australian Life Insurers figures released for the first time.

That is a 19 per cent rise over five years that has sector leaders warning of a “crisis of sustainability”, the outcome of which will be higher premiums, radical changes to eligibility criteria and many more claims being denied.

The same problem has created a political storm in NSW, where the government is attempting to narrow the scope of its workers compensation scheme. But the move so far has been stymied by heavy opposition from the Greens, Unions NSW and the Coalition.

Damien Mu, the chief executive of life insurer AIA, said the situation was alarming.

“Twenty-five per cent of the cause of claim for those under 25 is now mental health, and for those under 40, 30 per cent of the claims we get are for mental health,” he said.

About 80 per cent of retail mental health claims made at AIA were lodged by white-collar workers, Mu said, with anxiety, stress and PTSD the leading causes for a claim.

These were often the results of workplace bullying, burnout, excessive workload or a business failing, along with personal factors or exposure to traumatic incidents.

The second leading cause for mental health claims were mood disorders, such as depression and bipolar affective disorder.

But Mu said some claims were being lodged over an issue dating back 10 to 15 years ago.

“That makes it very difficult to assess … especially in the area of mental health, which is often the secondary [impact] of another health event. If we look at other insurance industries, there’s usually a time frame for which a claim needs to be put in.”

Mu said one option AIA was considering in an attempt to make the system more sustainable was limiting the time window in which claims could be made – possibly to a maximum of six or seven years after the incident.

“Looking at a six- or seven-year time frame makes sense, and will help reduce the cost and also make people more aware of the need to get claims in quicker,” he said.

TPD policies are paid out as a lump sum when a claimant can no longer work at all, either in their own job or any job, depending on the policy type. Claimants must prove they are totally and permanently disabled.

Payouts are in a lump sum ranging from $30,000 to millions of dollars, depending on the policy.

It is difficult to find figures on TPD premiums because they are not collected by a central body. However, financial adviser Trish Gregory of Hayes and Co Insurance Services said annual increases had been in the double digits and as much as 50 per cent, while Griffin said premium increases – which vary greatly depending on the customer’s risk profile and product – had ranged from 5 per cent to 40 per cent in recent years.

The increases were partly because of the rise in mental health claims, according to CALI chief executive Christine Cupitt.

“While we can’t draw a straight line [between the two], there is a very clear correlation between this increase in TPD claims for mental health, and premium increases,” she said.

The CALI figures cited above are for claims outside of superannuation. This type of coverage is usually arranged through a specialist broker or adviser.

However, Cupitt said a similar trend was playing out for life insurance claims made for coverage within super.

While TPD cover was paid out in a lump sum, Mu said a new model, which paid out smaller lump sums periodically based on someone’s work capacity, might need to be considered for mental health claims. This was because mental illness or injury posed a different recovery trajectory to that for a physical illness.

Mu gave the example of a dentist who lost a hand – they would probably never work in their primary occupation again. But a worker with PTSD may eventually be able to return to their primary occupation with the right support, limiting the need for large TPD payouts.

One model would be for a hypothetical customer claiming TPD due to PTSD to receive a smaller lump sum in the first year of claim if they could not work in their current job, said Mu. But in the second year of claim, that lump sum would be paid only if the claimant could not work in a related field, and in a third year the money would be paid only if they could not work at all.

Mu said early intervention was also essential. He noted AIA had developed programs giving people access to affordable psychology and rewarding people for good habits such as exercise and sleep. It had also developed a scheme that allowed access to subsidised psychologist appointments.

At Acenda, TPD claims related to mental health have increased by 339 per cent since 2020. Mental health is now the leading cause of TPD claim, at around 40 per cent.

In NSW, for compensation schemes for state workers, the number of psychological injury claims compensation schemes has doubled since 2019. Premier Chris Minns wants to raise the threshold for injury required to access compensation, and impose stricter limits on the payment of lifetime benefits.

The plan has been met with strong opposition from unions and the Greens, who argue that some measures – such as lifting the impairment level required to be eligible for long-term payments – make it effectively impossible for people to claim.

Griffin said life insurers were experiencing a similar pinch, caused both by increasing prevalence of mental illness and outdated product design. “Arguably, you’re going to see life insurers doing the same thing,” he said.

Here is the link:

https://www.afr.com/wealth/personal-finance/millennial-mental-health-claims-help-push-life-insurers-to-2-2b-crisis-20250627-p5mart

This sounds to me like a pretty worrying and rather immanent crisis, where many will not receive the care they need without major system modification. We need a major effort in “root-cause” analysis to work out why the incidence of mental illness is rising so dramatically and what early interventions may help!

Does anyone have any ideas as to what might be done to help?

David.

This Is Very Bad News For One Of Our Vital Industries!

This appeared a few days ago:

‘Screw over’: Truth about Donald Trump’s plan to impose crippling 200 per cent tariffs on Australian pharmaceuticals

Donald Trump blindsided Australia with plans to slap brutal new tariffs on a $2b industry. Insiders have spilled on the true impact of the trade war move.

 Samantha Maiden

July 9, 2025 - 12:08PM

US President Donald Trump’s plan to drop a 200 per cent tariff bomb on Australian pharmaceuticals is set to “screw over” the sickest and most vulnerable in the United States suffering rare and life-threatening conditions including burns patients.

As the Albanese Government scrambles to secure more information about the US government’s latest plans, Australian officials are sounding the alarm given that pharmaceutical exports are worth over $2 billion a year.

All plasma products collected in Australia stay here and are not exported to the US.

Instead, the export issue relates to vaccines and blood products collected overseas and sent to Australia for processing before being returned to the US.

President Donald Trump has threatened to introduce 200 per cent tariffs on pharmaceuticals – one of Australia’s biggest exports to the US.

Speaking to the media before a cabinet meeting, the President suggested the “very, very high” levies on pharmaceuticals would not go into effect immediately, saying he would give drug manufacturers “about a year, year and a half” to respond and relocate their operations to the US.

“They’re going to be tariffs at a very high rate, like 200 per cent,” Mr Trump told reporters.

“We’ll give them a certain period of time to get their act together,” he added, seemingly referring to drug manufacturers bringing back manufacturing into the US.

Australia is subject to a 10 per cent “baseline” tariff, which was the minimum rate imposed on all US trading partners by Mr Trump earlier this year.

Australia’s plasma exports to the US

One of the biggest sections of the market includes blood products such as plasma products including exports linked to CSL Plasma which collects blood plasma in the United States.

In 2023, Australia exported $1.42 billion of vaccines, blood, antisera, toxins and cultures, making it the 20th largest exporter of 208 in the world.

Blood collection is a commercial operation in the United States, with plasma donors typically paid for their blood.

CSL Plasma operates one of the world’s largest and most sophisticated plasma collection networks, with nearly 350 plasma collection centers in the US and elsewhere.

The blood products are mostly processed in the US but some are sent back to Australia to manufacture therapies for a variety of rare and life-threatening conditions.

These conditions include primary immunodeficiencies, bleeding disorders like hemophilia, neurological disorders, and critical care needs like those arising from trauma or burns.

One Australian official predicted that demand for the products would continue but the tariffs would “screw over” patients relying on the notorious US healthcare system.

Vulnerable patients will be hit with cost increases because the tariffs are paid by importers, not Australian exporters.

CSL has a factory in Melbourne

Biotech giant CSL has a plasma fractionation facility in Broadmeadows in Melbourne.

The impact of the threatened tariffs relates to the commercial arm of CSL. which uses US blood products which are sourced in America and then processed in Australia before being sent back.

“Plasma manufacturing is a really fragile supply chain because it starts in a human vein,’’ an industry source said.

“It’s not a tap that you can turn on or off. You need people to vote with their feet to go into a facility that is enabled to collect plasma, and the demand for plasma products is growing globally each year.”

“Tariffs on pharmaceuticals impact the end user.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers “very concerned”

The Treasurer said on Wednesday that Washington’s latest announcement was “very concerning”.

“These are obviously very concerning developments,” Mr Chalmers told the ABC, adding that it had “been a feature of recent months that we’ve had these sorts of announcements out of DC”.

“It’s still early days. Obviously, we’ll make a more detailed assessment of what’s come out of the US in the usual way.”

“Our pharmaceuticals industry is much more exposed to the US market, and that’s why we’re seeking - urgently seeking - some more detail on what’s been announced.

“But I want to make it really clear once again … our Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme is not something that we’re willing to trade away or do deals on – that won’t change.”

“We’ve made it very clear that we think these tariffs are bad for the US, bad for Australia and bad for the global economy.” Mr Chalmers said one of the things the Albanese Government was “most concerned” about was in addition to the direct impact on Australian workers and industries caused by this tariff, was the “impact on global demand more broadly”.

“That’s why we’ve been … at every opportunity, making the case that these tariffs are unjustified, they should be removed in line with our free trade agreement,” he said.

The Prime Minister has described the taxes on Australian exports to the US as an “act of economic self-harm”.

“Tariffs are a penalty on the country that is imposing them, because what they require is for goods to be purchased with a tax on top, and the US has made that decision,” the Prime Minister said.

How plasma exports are used to help patients

CSL Behring uses a process called plasma fractionation to separate the collected plasma into different components, such as immunoglobulins, coagulation factors, and other proteins.

One example is helping people with bleeding disorders, with doctors utilising coagulation factors that are used to help patients with hemophilia and other bleeding disorders.

Plasma-derived products are also used in emergency situations like severe trauma, burns, and shock to replace lost blood volume and proteins.

For now, Australian officials concerned about the impact on blood product exports don’t have full clarity on how it will impact the supply chain process.

Here is the link:

https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/australian-economy/screw-over-truth-about-donald-trumps-plan-to-impose-crippling-200-per-cent-tariffs-on-australian-pharmaceuticals/news-story/7fa176470a73f2795de4cd2dce31c788

Trump is really becoming a serious menace!

David.

If Ever There Was A Problem That Needed To Be Better Addressed This Could be It!

This appeared last week:

Silent killer: older Australian men are experiencing loneliness more than ever

A group of Australians at special risk of experiencing loneliness is older men. Yet most people – doctors included – don’t recognise the huge effect it is having on their lives and health.

Steve Robson

There’s a condition that can take years off your life and set you up for a raft of medical problems. Older men are most at risk for the condition and, at the moment, we’re in an escalating epidemic of it. Yet most people – doctors included – don’t recognise the huge effect it is having on our lives and health.

That condition is loneliness.

There is strong evidence that Australians are experiencing loneliness more than ever. A group at special risk is older men – with the decade from age 55 to 64 being a time of special risk according to recent statistics from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

The institute’s figures point to almost one Australian adult in six experiencing prolonged loneliness. This is very similar to findings from countries such as Norway and the United States.

Indeed, so concerning is the global trend to loneliness that the World Health Organisation has described the situation as a major public health concern.

For these reasons the Australian organisation Ending Loneliness Together is calling for a national strategy to address the problem.

Aside from the health and compassionate concerns society should have about the “epidemic” of loneliness, economic research from Australia suggests that the health effects of loneliness may cost the economy as much as $2.7bn every year.

All of us need human connection not only to thrive but also to survive. Loneliness is the sometimes intense feeling of being alone or separated from others. While social isolation is closely related, it is possible – indeed common – to be lonely in the midst of many people.

Loneliness can be miserable for people to experience, but ill health flowing from being lonely can make everything worse.

It is startling to realise that long-term loneliness increases your chance of an early death by 26 per cent – the same effect as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

So concerning are the health effects of loneliness that the US National Academies of Sciences has warned that “social isolation presents a major risk for premature mortality, comparable to other risk factors such as high blood pressure, smoking, or obesity.”

Loneliness now has been linked to illnesses such as heart disease and stroke, diabetes, mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety – even suicidality – as well as alcohol misuse and other additions. Dementia and other cognitive problems also are known to flow from long-term loneliness.

Why are we seeing such a wave of loneliness and health consequences flowing from it?

There is no doubt that the pandemic increased social isolation for many people, but loneliness was an issue before Covid-19 took to the stage. Part of the reason is that Australians are ageing and many of us are relying on digital connection rather than direct human contact.

Things that can have a powerful effect on causing loneliness including loss of mobility and difficulties in moving around. Untreated problems with vision or hearing are major contributors as people lose confidence in connection and communication.

Living in isolation has become an increasing trend in Australia. This is made worse if people have problems accessing transport or if they lack social support with getting out of their home. Cost-of-living issues are seeing many older Australians forgoing trips out and social events or joint meals.

The loss of a life partner – either their death or a need for care in a hospital or other care setting – can be very isolating. Divorce and relationship breakdowns can have a severe effect both on mental health and other friendship groups.

People already experiencing failing health, and those with a disability – especially Australians living in rural areas – may be at particular risk. People without children are another increasing trend, and those who have problems with social media connection.

Accepting that loneliness is a common problem for many people in our community, and that it has enormous potential effects on individual health and the broader economy, it may surprise you to learn that the medical research on what to do about loneliness is scant indeed.

Recognising these risks, it is vitally important that if you are experiencing loneliness that you let your doctor know. There should be no shame in talking about how you feel and how loneliness is affecting you. Your doctor needs to know.

That said, much of the solution clearly is beyond the realm of medicine alone. The US National Institute of Ageing has some excellent tips on managing loneliness. The critical first step is recognising the problem, understanding that is it common, and that it puts you at risk.

It is easy to neglect self-care when you’re lonely. As basic as these things seem, focusing on sleep, gentle physical activity, and eating healthily are an important start. Make sure you work with your doctor on this if you have been neglecting your health for a long time.

Re-connecting can be a challenge for many lonely people – it is very easy to lose confidence.

Volunteering can be a powerful way of giving yourself back a sense of purpose and meeting and building relationships with like-minded people. In fact, there is research to support the effects of volunteering in boosting your mood and strengthening your mind and body.

Recognise that everyone – all of us – seeks human connection. Make the time to call, text, or even write to family, friends or neighbours. So often you’ll be surprised how people will respond.

Think about joining a walking club, a church or other faith-based group, and check with local community organisations.

If you’re an older Australian man then you’re in a risk group for this most pernicious of conditions. Loneliness can affect anyone at any age, though. It can be tough to admit it has entered your life, but recognising it can save your life.

Steve Robson is professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Australian National University and former president of the Australian Medical Association. He is a board member of the National Health and Medical Research Council and a co-author of research into outcomes of public and private maternity care.

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This column is published for information purposes only. It is not intended to be used as medical advice and should not be relied on as a substitute for independent professional advice about your personal health or a medical condition from your doctor or other qualified health professional.

Here is the link:

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/health/mental-health/silent-killer-older-australian-men-are-experiencing-loneliness-more-than-ever/news-story/4ce2ac566b2e21d536c1ab95ea79394d

I am not sure this is a problem confines to men – but whoever it affects on would hope for some quality help – especially to make the older years more contents and rich!

There is little doubt e are not doing enough at present and that there is decent room for improvement.

There are a lot of lonely people out there sadly…..

David.