Solidarity President and Co-Founder Chris Faddis joins The BS Show to talk about the changes in the current America healthcare landscape and what we should be on the lookout for. Read the transcript or listen to the interview below.

Bob Sansevere (00:00):

We are joined by Christopher Faddis, co-founder and president of the nonprofit Healthcare Sharing Ministry Solidarity HealthShare, which is an ethical, affordable alternative to traditional health insurance and is faithful to the moral teachings of the Catholic Church. Chris, let me ask you, because there’s a lot of discussion across the nation about shots, what you get, what you shouldn’t get. Where is solidarity health share on flu shots? I haven’t gotten mine, but I was thinking of getting it sometime today or this week.

Chris Faddis (00:29):

Yeah, I mean, I think this is one of those definitely sort of a, I guess a personal decision. The way we see it is, look, if you want to get the flu shot, there’s definitely some measure that it is preventative towards the flu. There’s also a lot of data out there that would suggest it’s not as preventative as it should be, and many people farewell without it. But we tend to say that’s really up to the individual and we recommend people work with their doctor on that.

Bob Sansevere (00:57):

See, I’ve never had an adverse reaction to the-

Chris Faddis (00:59):

It’s probably less than 40% of our members probably are getting the flu shot. Generally. I think a lot of those folks are, a lot of people do I, we’ve talked about this before, a lot of just people are doing a lot of immunotherapy type things, a lots of vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc, all of that just to prevent the flu rather than doing the flu shot. So you have your choice. I think there’s good reason to do it and there’s good reason for folks to say, yeah, I don’t know if that’s worth it.

Bob Sansevere (01:23):

Well, I’ve been getting it for a number of years and my wife stopped getting it. She did have an adverse reaction. I’ve never had a bad reaction to a flu shot, so she doesn’t. I do, and I’ve tried to get, encourage all my kids to get it. The ones that are now old enough, I have forced my younger ones, and you’d think one of ’em at 16 wouldn’t crumble into a jelly mess when she has to get a needle of any sort. But she still does. Still does. Alright. Well, anyway, so I mean, I am a believer in the flu shot. I know there’s some, even JFK’s group says, get a flu shot. So if he’s behind,

Chris Faddis (02:01):

Yeah, I think RFK Jr’s got some, he’s

Bob Sansevere (02:04):

RFK, yeah-

Chris Faddis (02:04):

I think they’re working on potentially some things to help make sure that the safety and efficacy is worked on, and I think they can improve the science on it, which is good. I think there hasn’t been a lot of advances around the flu shot, and it’s certainly time to be able to look at what we can do better to make it even more effective.

Bob Sansevere (02:21):

Now, President Trump signed an executive order to basically to harness artificial intelligence AI in the fight against childhood cancers and the executive order instructs the Make America Healthy Again commission to work with the White House’s Office of Science and Technology policy to employ ai. And how do you use it to diagnose and treat childhood cancers and identify new cures? I see nothing wrong with that. I mean, I don’t know how they would identify ’em because AI is basically calling information that’s already there. But is there a downside to this? I don’t see it, but I’m wondering what

Chris Faddis (02:59):

You think. Yeah. No, I don’t think there’s a downside. In fact, I think what it does is it allows you to extrapolate and correlate data in a much faster way. So I think you think about times, we had a member a couple years ago, well, I guess it’s been about 18 months now, that their son ended up getting a diagnosis of a very, very rare form of cancer. There were only five other cases similar to his. And even in that his was still unique and they had one of those long, long names to describe the cancer brand new. And that took several weeks of the biopsy tissue being sent to multiple labs around the world really to identify it. And I think in using ai, you’ll be able to shorten that window where you can pull data from many places and you can correlate different symptoms, different signs, different tissue outcomes and things.

(03:52):

And so I think there’s really, really a lot of benefit to that. I think we’ll see a lot faster results. Now the problem is, the reality is our current model of how we approve treatments and things is so long tailed that it can take years to make something that’s actually able to be commercially available. So will they free up the red tape that allows these kind of therapies to be tested, to be used even in a temporary status to try to see if it’s effective? That’ll be the real question. Can we move fast enough in our bureaucracy to respond to ai?

Bob Sansevere (04:30):

Now, I want to switch a little bit. I mentioned a few moments ago this Make American Healthy again group, or there’s a group of ’em, but there’s also something called the MAHA Make American Healthy Again moms. And how big is this group? I mean, is it a group that can actually bring change or push their agenda? Is it one we should be promoting or be a little concerned about?

Chris Faddis (04:56):

Yeah, no, I actually think that this group is a group of, it’s really brought together women from all spectrums of the political spectrum. Very interesting. So

Bob Sansevere (05:06):

It’s not once

Chris Faddis (05:06):

Ideological divide has kind of been widened by people who are both conservative and liberal, who all see this issue with some of the things that they’ve been led to believe about healthcare for their children and they believe has harmed them. And there’s a lot to be said for that. I mean, we’ve talked about this before, that some of this bureaucratic medical establishment has really forced us into things and not listened to outcomes. They’ve squashed outcomes. The reality is whether or not vaccines are causing autism or Tylenol’s causing autism or the air is causing autism, the reality is we know that we have an endemic on our hands when it comes to autism and we need to be, and instead of anyone really looking for the truth there, we’ve been told to be quiet and we’re not allowed to talk about it. You can’t go after the vaccine maker if you think it caused it.

(05:56):

You can’t do any of that. And I think that these moms are feeling heard. They’re feeling like somebody’s listening, somebody’s actually trying to get to the answers. And I always tell people the reality is even though a lot of people see Kennedy Kennedy’s Group as a really anti-vaccine, it’s really not. I mean, Dr. Marty McCarey is one of the foremost epidemiologists in the world. He is one of the seniors there. He is absolutely supportive of vaccines, but he is supportive of it with proper testing, proper science and proper schedules. And I think these women and these families are finally feeling cur and there’s actually going to be some hope. And I think it’s a very good thing, honestly. Now, of course, you’re always going to have those on the fringe, Bob, that we’ve got to say, Hey, let’s settle down with your conspiracy theories or whatever. But a lot of the stuff that we thought was conspiracy five years ago has come to be true. So there’s something to be said for listening to that. And we should be able to look at our leaders. We should be able to encourage them to do the right thing.

Bob Sansevere (06:57):

Well, I mean, doing the right thing would be a great thing. Now I got to ask you something else about, you mentioned Tylenol. Tylenol. I mean, I remember I was working in New Jersey at the Associated Press when Tylenol changed the way we get our pills because there were some that someone was tainting, and now every pill bottle has a cap on it that you can’t open easily or it’s got that shield or plastic around it. So it changes. But Tylenol though takes such a hit and it’s really just, it’s a set of menen with a acetaminophen with a name. You know what I mean? It’s called Tylenol. But that thing is amazing to me that it’s taken the brunt of a lot of negativity, yet it’s the same thing that you can buy for a lot cheaper in generic ace acetaminophen.

Chris Faddis (07:48):

Yeah, exactly. And I don’t think it’s about Tylenol, right? It’s about the acetaminophen. It’s the active ingredient.

Bob Sansevere (07:53):

Yeah. But Tylenol’s taking the hit.

Chris Faddis (07:56):

Yeah, it is. It is absolutely. What’s interesting though, I find it funny that people started getting real defensive and mad and calling this a political thing. And the reality is, I mean, you can look on Twitter and just look up posts from Tylenol. They have posted themselves multiple times over the last several years. We do not recommend our Tylenol for pregnancy. And it’s been known that now some doctors will tell their patient it’s okay to have it. And again, that’s up to the doctor. All that the HHS did recently was to update the guidance to say, we think that there is a corollary effect here and we need to be careful. And everyone went nuts about it. But it is interesting. I’ve never seen anyone, on one hand, you have everyone going to the defense of Tylenol. On the other hand, you have people attacking Tylenol. Certainly not their fault, I don’t think. No, I think the question is, were doctors going overboard and recommending Tylenol when there were warnings against Tylenol for pregnancy? That’s really the issue, not just Tylenol. To your point, you’re right. I should say a, see there has always been warnings against use of acetaminophen for pregnancy,

Bob Sansevere (09:00):

But so many things many a pregnant woman shouldn’t be taking. So it’s on that list. And I know this, that my wife and my son, I was came out unscathed, but they both had COVID and they both had high fevers and the Tylenol helped bring it down. Now, my wife certainly wasn’t pregnant, but I mean, it does help. So I dunno, I am not going to be dogging Tylenol or acetaminophen. I think there needs to be more. So many things as you know, and we’ve seen in our lifetimes, oh, let’s just use, eggs are good for you. Eggs are bad for you, coffee’s good for you, coffee’s so bad for you. So it just depends on who’s doing it and maybe what the agenda is. Alright, now this is very important that I tell people you’ve got to check out Solidarity Healthshare at solidarityhealthshare.org. Great alternative to traditional healthcare. And I’m on the school board in Buffalo. We just went through a negotiation with one of our unions, and I know everyone is nervous and feeling like the rates are going to be going up. We’ve got this shutdown down and there’s talk of rates going crazy. Your rates are steady, you’re not going up, you’re not going crazy. So check out Solidarity HealthShare. As I said, at solidarityhealthshare.org. Chris is the president and co-founder, so check it out. Meantime, we’ll take a quick break. The BS Show’ll be right back.

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