Ban on assault rifles in U.S. will save lives
Q: Mass shootings are a horrible public health issue, which is why I’m asking YouDocs, how do we stop this insanity and preserve our Second Amendment rights at the same time? — Justin B., Duluth, Minnesota
A: There are 17 kids, teachers and coaches in Parkland, Florida, who no longer have their Second Amendment rights or any rights because they were massacred by a disturbed 19-year-old with an AR-15 style assault rifle.
The solution to this type of killing may start with a simple first step. Dr. Mike believes Australia may have the answer: Ban individual ownership of semiautomatic and automatic assault rifles. For folks who love to shoot these weapons, we say make them available only at rifle ranges, so they can rent one and blast away. If you want to shoot something, take your 30-06 hunting rifle or bow out to the woods for regulated hunting.
An assault rifle ban was implemented in 1996 in Australia and the results are in: No mass shootings since then!
The ban came after a 29-year-old with a history of psychological problems massacred 35 people at a popular tourist site — a colonial prison on Tasmania — using a semiautomatic rifle. Public outcry was so sustained that the National Firearms Agreement was made law. It prohibits the import and sale of automatic and semiautomatic assault rifles, tightened licensing rules, established a 28-day waiting period for gun purchases and created a national gun registry and buyback program.
Three years ago Tony Rundle, Tasmania’s former premier said getting to the National Firearms Agreement wasn’t easy, but “I told people all over the country, in town hall meetings, we don’t want to go down the path that America has traveled.”
And that path has a name. As Sarah Chadwick, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who lost several close friends, put it, “We should change the names of AR-15s to [a U.S. senator who accepts donations from the NRA] because they are so easy to buy.”
Q: The Japanese are fasttracking a drug that KOs the influenza virus in one day. Since so many people here in the U.S. have died from the flu this season, why can’t we have it available here? — Anderson C., Ypsilanti, Michigan
A: Good question, and we want people to know why the Food and Drug Administration takes a wait-and-see approach. First, the drug called Xofluza won’t be available to consumers in Japan until their national insurer sets a price in May. (We wager it’ll sell for more in America.)
As for making it available to use in emergency situations here? Although a single dose of Xofluza eradicates the flu three times faster (in 24 hours) than the FDAapproved anti-viral called Tamiflu (five-day, two-doses-per-day regimen), if an elderly person is in the hospital with influenza, pneumonia and a compromised immune system (the typical profile of those who succumb to the flu), a dose at that late stage might not help.
Also, Xofluza works by denying the influenza virus an enzyme that it needs to replicate. Do we know what else happens to your immune system or your overall health when that enzyme is affected? No, and neither does the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry of Japan, which fast-tracked Xofluza. They approved it in just four months.
We’ll know more about the drug by next year’s flu season, and if it doesn’t present risky side effects, it could be available in the U.S. in 2019. Switzerlandbased Roche (they sell Tamiflu) already has acquired the license to sell Xofluza in the U.S. It also could turn out to be a valuable advance against many viral diseases.
The flu season isn’t over yet, so your best bet is to practice good hygiene, wash your hands frequently, cover your mouth when you cough and stay up on your vaccinations. Anyone over 6 months of age who’s eligible for a flu vaccine should get it even now — and then again in October for the 2018-2019 season.
Mehmet Oz, M.D. is host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” and Mike Roizen, M.D. is Chief Wellness Officer and Chair of Wellness Institute at Cleveland Clinic. Email your health and wellness questions to Dr. Oz and Dr. Roizen at youdocsdaily@sharecare.com.