Continued drug shortages, increased fungal disease

Supply shocks after shocks

Today is my mom’s birthday =D !! Happy birthday mom !

Today is going to be partially different. I am just one person, and no matter how much time I put in, it is nigh impossible for me to write and cover all the papers that I read, especially how I like doing it, in-depth, I usually have to be selective, aim at the “problems of our time”.

So sometimes I will take the liberty to write a round-up of whatever I find interesting, with some breakdown of the subject, there is too much important information out there that at least needs some eyes. I will skip this round-up for today and if you have a creative name I am all-ears.

The other half, the first order of the day to tackle is one of the many “side-projects” I had, or perhaps still do have. Drug shortages.

Drug shortages and supply shocks

Ever since I created my other publication, I now keep things separated for the most part, any health, science-related subject here, anything else I want to write about there, except for any subject or information I think is of importance. Two of my last articles in BMO were on the potential impact and real implications of the Houthi’s disruption in the Red Sea.

In case you aren’t aware, 20% of the world’s maritime logistics goes through the region, it is one of the world's most important choke points, followed by the Panama Canal which has been facing, a now months-long drought. The “trick” part of these disruptions is the trickle-down (or my favorite term, cascade effect) isn’t immediate, it always takes a few months for us to see the impact on cost and prices.

Ironically I wrote that for the first couple of weeks, nothing happened. Well, things happened and escalated quickly in Yemen, the region the Houthis operate from. Iran attacked American vessels and deployed their elite guard in the country. Besides the enormous stupidity of spending 10 billion dollars on an “Operation” to give safe passage to ships in the region, merely a few days and that operation is dead in the water. Pun intended.

There are no easy ways out of this. Escalation will create even more spillover and this all started because of the Israel-Palestine conflict (perfect excuse for anyone, if you ask me), not responding, will create a feeling of unsafety and it will impact global trade and inflation. So, in that respect, I will now update you on the drug shortage, which is highly complex, multifaceted, and as I forecasted last time, wouldn’t get any better if nothing bad happened.

I want you to bear in mind that drug shortages are always a game of hot potato. Pharmacies blame demand, and often manufacturers and manufacturers blame suppliers, both blame the government, the government blames first the manufacturer, then the suppliers, and lastly, the public.

The FDA has a page that is updated frequently if you want to keep track of it, almost the entire list containing 140 compounds and drugs is facing shortages, most for months now. The UK faces a similar trend, going from 50 drugs in shortage in 2022, to almost 100 by the end of 2023.

One of the worst shortages and the reason I cover every few months was, and most likely will be both expensive and especially generic drugs for cancer treatment. Another important drug in shortage, thanks to Pfizer is Penicillin, one that the company forecasts a possible end at some point in mid-2024. The FDA temporarily allowed the import of penicillin from a French company, and some other drugs, to tackle the demand.

There are too many moving parts to blame just one aspect of a complex global supply chain, but at least my readers all know where this began. At first, the higher demand came from 2020, but after, clearly it can be tracked by the vicious cycle of mRNA-induced immune suppression, followed by pathogen-induced immune paralysis. Now with hyper-mutated variants, demand won’t cease any time soon.

This creates another problem, if people don’t have access to drugs to treat their diseases, they will most likely attempt to find alternative treatments, putting pressure on demand, and prices on alternative treatments. Supplements. They are a market that health agencies and certain NGO’s around the world are trying very hard to turn into a non-option, or a doctor-approved and prescribed one (hahahaha).

Besides taking care of your health, I am very aware there are many readers, or family members that need drugs, and you can’t quite control when someone will have an emergency, so once again I ask you. If possible, stock some drugs you think may be useful in an emergency.

Many of the drugs in shortage on the FDA list are used to treat different types of infections, including bacterial and fungal leading me to the next section.

The coming sepsis "pandemic"

While I don’t do what I call “Morbid Covid coverage”, meaning tallying up all death that may be related to post-vaccine adverse effects, I do attempt to keep track of some as signals that I interpret in the data. There are many recent ones, but two come to mind.

A 38-year-old woman who complained of stomach pain for months, and the NFL player Mike Williams, from dental-related sepsis. As I wrote quite a few times in 2023, dying from sepsis is horrible, families experience a lot of pain, but surviving or even going through sepsis and not being aware is worse because it sends the body into an endless immuno-dysfunctional cascade. 3 types of infections can cause sepsis. Viral. Bacterial. And fungal. And if you recall, both the virus and the vaccine mess with your immune response against the last one (different mechanisms).

Global incidence and mortality of severe fungal disease

Using data from 2010 to 2023, combining over 85 papers both on individual countries and global disease burden, the group behind this paper found that

Using data from 2010 to 2023, combining over 85 papers, it estimates the incidence and mortality of various fungal diseases from 2019 to 2021.

• Invasive Aspergillosis: Over 2,113,000 people develop this condition annually, primarily in the context of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, intensive care, lung cancer, or hematological malignancy. The estimated annual mortality is 1,801,000 (85.2% of cases).

• Chronic Pulmonary Aspergillosis: The annual incidence is estimated at 1,837,272, with 340,000 deaths (18.5% of cases).

• Candida Bloodstream Infection or Invasive Candidiasis: About 1,565,000 people are affected each year, with an estimated 995,000 deaths (63.6% of cases).

• Pneumocystis Pneumonia: Affects 505,000 people annually, with 214,000 deaths (42.4% of cases).

• Cryptococcal Meningitis: Affects 194,000 people each year, with an estimated 147,000 deaths (75.8% of cases).

• Other Major Life-Threatening Fungal Infections: Affect about 300,000 people, causing 161,000 deaths (53.7%).

• Fungal Asthma: Affects approximately 11.5 million people and might contribute to 46,000 asthma deaths annually.

In total an annual incidence of 6.5 million invasive fungal infections and 3.8 million deaths, of which about 2.5 million (68%; range 35–90) were directly attributable to the fungal infections. Fungal infections are complex to diagnose, many are often persistent, sometimes hard to deal with, and consequentially in part of Long Covid patients, they play a role in the persistence of symptoms.

While I am trying to be more positive on my overall message, deep down I am a realist, and while I personally do not see global war in the very near-future, I do expect more disruptions. Given the information presented here, make a informed choice.


Had some technical difficulties recently, but mostly solved by now. Long Covid article up by the weekend.

If you supported me at any time or chose to support me, thank you very much !