Tag: Healthcare

How The One Big, Beautiful Bill Impacts the Disability Community

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By Tracy Waller, MPH, Esq.

On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed The One Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) into law, after it narrowly passed both chambers of Congress. While most presidents bring changes that can be controversial, President Trump’s signing of the OBBB led to a major economic overhaul that will have long-term effects on the disability community. Vice President J.D. Vance cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to send the bill to the House of Representatives to be voted on. On July 3, 2025, the bill narrowly passed through the House with a vote of 218-214 and was signed into law on July 4, 2025.

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Text: The Paradoxical Perspective on Paxlovid Purple Background with The National Center for Disability, Equity, and Intersectionality logo

The Paradoxical Perspective on Paxlovid

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By Tracy Waller, Esq., MPH

“If it’s COVID, Paxlovid.” Or is it? Pfizer launched its most recent commercial for Paxlovid in February 2023 and has gone full throttle into its advertisement of the drug. Pfizer first received Emergency Use Authorization (“EUA”) for Paxlovid in December 2021 and then received a revised EUA in February 2023. The commercial touts the drug as a “miracle” drug of sorts. On November 6, 2022, the Office of Veterans Affairs released a study showing that Paxlovid can reduce the risk of symptoms of long COVID. Pfizer includes in its commercial for the drug, as required, that certain classes of people are excluded from taking Paxlovid based on negative drug interactions; however, the gravity of the number of people who are ineligible to take the drug is not readily apparent and leaves large swaths of the United States’ (“US”) and global populations without access to this life-saving drug. The lack of access to Paxlovid for the people most vulnerable to COVID-19- the elderly, people with disabilities, and other immunocompromised people – emphasizes the need for pharmaceutical companies to focus on developing treatment options that meet the needs of so many of those left behind.

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