Neptune Reports Fiscal First Quarter 2023 Financial Results
Neptune Reports Fiscal First Quarter 2023 Financial Results
PR Newswire
LAVAL, QC, Aug. 15, 2022
Fiscal Q1 2023 revenue totaled $16.3 million, an increase of 61% year-over-year
Sprout recorded $8.2 million in revenue, its largest net sales quarter …
Neptune Reports Fiscal First Quarter 2023 Financial Results
PR Newswire
LAVAL, QC, Aug. 15, 2022
Fiscal Q1 2023 revenue totaled $16.3 million, an increase of 61% year-over-year
Sprout recorded $8.2 million in revenue, its largest net sales quarter on record
Personal Care and Beauty recorded $5.1 million in revenue, the highest in over two years
Company will host a conference call at 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) Monday, August 15, 2022, to discuss these results
LAVAL, QC, Aug. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Neptune Wellness Solutions Inc. ("Neptune" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: NEPT) (TSX: NEPT), a diversified and fully integrated health and wellness company focused on plant-based, sustainable and purpose-driven lifestyle brands, today announced its financial and operating results for the three-month period ending June 30, 2022.
Statement from Neptune Management and Board of Directors:
"The results Neptune achieved in the first quarter of fiscal 2023 reflect the impacts of strategic decisions we have made over the past year to become a leading consumer packaged goods company. We reported revenue of $16.3 million, an increase of 61% year-over-year, led by Sprout, which had its largest net sales quarter yet, and our personal care and beauty products, which generated the largest quarter of revenue in two years."
"We are also continually striving to reduce expenses. Since our strategic review in late 2021, and including our most recent payroll reductions at cannabis and corporate, we have now reduced expenditures by approximately $18 million. This figure includes $7.6 million of reduced payroll expense across corporate and business units, with total headcount decreasing from 170 to 56, a 67% reduction. While it has been a year of tough strategic decisions, we are laser-focused on a path to growth and profitability and believe we are well-positioned to create value going forward."
First Quarter 2023 Financial Highlights:
- Fiscal first quarter 2023 revenue totaled $16.3 million, as compared to $10.1 million or an increase of 61% for the same period in fiscal 2022.
- Reported fiscal first quarter 2023 gross profit loss of $2.9 million compared to a gross profit loss of $2.3 million for the fiscal first quarter 2022.
- Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP)1 loss for fiscal first quarter 2023 was $9.8 million compared to an Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP)1 loss of $12.9 million for fiscal first quarter 2022.
- Reported first quarter net loss of $6.5 million compared to a reported net loss of $18.9 million in the prior comparable period in fiscal 2022.
First Quarter Business Highlights:
- Launched a new CPG-focused strategic plan to profitability, including divestiture of cannabis business.
- Announced appointment of Raymond Silcock as Chief Financial Officer.
- Announced the addition of Philip Sanford as Audit Chair of Neptune's Board of Directors.
- Launched a new line of CoComelon co-branded organic snack bars.
- Announced the completion of a share consolidation.
- Closed a US$5,000,000 Registered Direct Offering Priced At-the-Market Under Nasdaq Rules.
Subsequent Events and Business Updates:
- Announced Amendment and Expansion of Sprout Secured Promissory Notes led by Morgan Stanley to expand the facility from US$22.5 million to a maximum of US$37.5 million.
- Provided a Sprout Organics Distribution Update and discussed potential expansion into new product categories beyond Baby Food Aisle.
Conference Call Details:
The Company will host a conference call at 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) on Monday, August 15, 2022, to discuss these results. The conference call will be webcast live and can be accessed by registering on the Events and Presentations portion of Neptune's Investor Relations website at www.investors.neptunewellness.com. The webcast will be archived for approximately 90 days.
____________________________ |
1 This is a non-GAAP measure. For further information on non-GAAP measures, please refer to the "Non-GAAP Measures" section of this news release. Please also refer to the tables in this news release for a reconciliation of this Non-GAAP measure to the most directly comparable GAAP measure. |
NEPTUNE WELLNESS SOLUTIONS INC.
Condensed Consolidated Interim Balance Sheets
(Unaudited) (in U.S. dollars)
As at | As at | ||||
June 30, | March 31, | ||||
Assets | |||||
Current assets: | |||||
Cash and cash equivalents | $6,231,968 | $8,726,341 | |||
Short-term investment | 18,715 | 19,255 | |||
Trade and other receivables | 6,182,876 | 7,599,584 | |||
Prepaid expenses | 2,865,974 | 3,983,427 | |||
Inventories | 14,056,514 | 17,059,406 | |||
Assets held for sale | 21,834,039 | — | |||
Total current assets | 51,190,086 | 37,388,013 | |||
Property, plant and equipment | 1,412,323 | 21,448,123 | |||
Operating lease right-of-use assets | 2,046,835 | 2,295,263 | |||
Intangible assets | 21,013,953 | 21,655,035 | |||
Goodwill | 22,093,222 | 22,168,288 | |||
Total assets | $97,756,419 | $104,954,722 | |||
Liabilities and Equity | |||||
Current liabilities: | |||||
Trade and other payables | $21,296,277 | $22,700,849 | |||
Current portion of operating lease liabilities | 626,928 | 641,698 | |||
Deferred revenues | 351,551 | 285,004 | |||
Provisions | 1,229,462 | 1,118,613 | |||
Liability related to warrants | 3,167,947 | 5,570,530 | |||
Liabilities directly associated with assets held for sale | 3,537,176 | — | |||
Total current liabilities | 30,209,341 | 30,316,694 | |||
Operating lease liabilities | 1,873,919 | 2,063,421 | |||
Loans and borrowings | 11,881,589 | 11,648,320 | |||
Other liability | 12,931 | 88,688 | |||
Total liabilities | 43,977,780 | 44,117,123 | |||
Shareholders' Equity: | |||||
Share capital - without par value (7,614,434 shares issued and outstanding as of | 318,921,917 | 317,051,125 | |||
Warrants | 6,079,890 | 6,079,890 | |||
Additional paid-in capital | 56,346,589 | 55,980,367 | |||
Accumulated other comprehensive loss | (10,605,642) | (7,814,163) | |||
Deficit | (327,466,047) | (323,181,697) | |||
Total equity attributable to equity holders of the Corporation | 43,276,707 | 48,115,522 | |||
Non-controlling interest | 10,501,932 | 12,722,077 | |||
Total shareholders' equity | 53,778,639 | 60,837,599 | |||
Commitments and contingencies | |||||
Subsequent events | |||||
Total liabilities and shareholders' equity | $97,756,419 | $104,954,722 |
NEPTUNE WELLNESS SOLUTIONS INC.
Condensed Consolidated Interim Statements of Loss and Comprehensive Loss
(Unaudited) (in U.S. dollars)
For the three-month periods ended June 30, 2022 and 2021
June 30, | June 30, | |||||
Revenue from sales, net of excise taxes | $15,968,098 | $9,821,640 | ||||
Royalty revenues | 284,189 | 236,067 | ||||
Other revenues | 19,941 | 20,802 | ||||
Total revenues | 16,272,228 | 10,078,509 | ||||
Cost of sales other than loss on inventories, net of subsidies | (16,086,578) | (12,401,043) | ||||
Impairment loss on inventories | (3,079,997) | — | ||||
Total Cost of sales | (19,166,575) | (12,401,043) | ||||
Gross profit (loss) | (2,894,347) | (2,322,534) | ||||
Research and development expenses | (214,687) | (259,666) | ||||
Selling, general and administrative expenses, net of subsidies | (10,553,734) | (16,014,634) | ||||
Impairment loss related to property, plant and equipment | (815,661) | (529,732) | ||||
Net gain on sale of assets | 85,002 | — | ||||
Loss from operating activities | (14,393,427) | (19,126,566) | ||||
Finance income | 1,424 | 7,339 | ||||
Finance costs | (916,522) | (358,116) | ||||
Loss on issuance of derivatives | (2,126,955) | — | ||||
Foreign exchange gains (losses) | 1,407,285 | (1,287,387) | ||||
Change in revaluation of marketable securities | — | (12,212) | ||||
Gain on revaluation of derivatives | 9,523,700 | 1,933,330 | ||||
7,888,932 | 282,954 | |||||
Loss before income taxes | (6,504,495) | (18,843,612) | ||||
Income tax expense | — | (12,098) | ||||
Net loss | (6,504,495) | (18,855,710) | ||||
Other comprehensive (loss) income | ||||||
Net change in unrealized foreign currency (losses) gains on translation of | (2,791,479) | 1,976,562 | ||||
Total other comprehensive (loss) income | (2,791,479) | 1,976,562 | ||||
Total comprehensive loss | $(9,295,974) | $(16,879,148) | ||||
Net loss attributable to: | ||||||
Equity holders of the Corporation | $(4,284,350) | $(16,907,628) | ||||
Non-controlling interest | (2,220,145) | (1,948,082) | ||||
Net loss | $(6,504,495) | $(18,855,710) | ||||
Total comprehensive loss attributable to: | ||||||
Equity holders of the Corporation | $(7,075,829) | $(14,931,066) | ||||
Non-controlling interest | (2,220,145) | (1,948,082) | ||||
Total comprehensive loss | $(9,295,974) | $(16,879,148) | ||||
Basic and diluted loss per share attributable to: | ||||||
Equity holders of the Corporation | $(0.72) | $(3.56) | ||||
Non-controlling interest | $(0.37) | $(0.41) | ||||
Total loss per share | $(1.09) | $(3.97) | ||||
Basic and diluted weighted average number of common shares | 5,958,266 | 4,744,685 |
Adjusted EBITDA1 reconciliation, in millions of dollars
Three-month periods ended | ||||
June 30, | June 30, | |||
Net loss for the period | $(6.504) | $(18.856) | ||
Add (deduct): | ||||
Depreciation and amortization | 1.039 | 1.344 | ||
Revaluation of derivatives | (9.524) | (1.933) | ||
Net finance costs | 1.635 | 1.638 | ||
Equity classified stock-based compensation | 2.706 | 3.080 | ||
Non-employee compensation related to warrants | — | 0.093 | ||
Litigation provisions | (0.263) | 0.116 | ||
Business acquisition and integration costs | — | 1.048 | ||
CEO D&O insurance | (3.154) | — | ||
Signing bonuses, severances and related costs | 0.390 | — | ||
Write-down of inventories and deposits | 3.080 | — | ||
Impairment loss on long-lived assets | 0.816 | 0.530 | ||
Change in revaluation of marketable securities | — | 0.012 | ||
Income tax expense (recovery) | — | 0.012 | ||
Adjusted EBITDA1 | $(9.779) | $(12.916) |
1 The Adjusted EBITDA is not a standard measure endorsed by US GAAP requirements. |
ADJUSTED EBITDA
Although the concept of Adjusted EBITDA is not a financial or accounting measure defined under US GAAP and it may not be comparable to other issuers, it is widely used by companies. Neptune obtains its Adjusted EBITDA measurement by adding to net loss, net finance costs (income) and depreciation and amortization, and income tax expense (recovery). Other items such as equity classified stock-based compensation, non-employee compensation related to warrants, litigation provisions, business acquisition and integration costs, signing bonuses, severances and related costs, impairment losses on non-financial assets, write-downs of non-financial assets, revaluations of derivatives, system migration, conversion and implementation, CEO directors and officers insurance, costs related to conversion from IFRS to US GAAP and other changes in fair values are also added back. The exclusion of net finance costs (income) eliminates the impact on earnings derived from non-operational activities. The exclusion of depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation, non-employee compensation related to warrants, litigation provisions, impairment losses, write-downs revaluations of derivatives and other changes in fair values eliminates the non-cash impact, and the exclusion of acquisition costs, integration costs, signing bonuses, severance and related costs, costs related to cybersecurity and costs related to conversion from IFRS to US GAAP present the results of the on-going business. From time to time, the Company may exclude additional items if it believes doing so would result in a more effective analysis of underlying operating performance. In Q4 2022, the Company added the costs related to the conversion from IFRS to US GAAP as an adjustment to the definition of Adjusted EBITDA. Adjusting for these items does not imply they are non-recurring. For purposes of this analysis, the Net finance costs (income) caption in the reconciliation below includes the impact of the revaluation of foreign exchange rates.
About Neptune Wellness Solutions Inc.
Headquartered in Laval, Quebec, Neptune is a diversified health and wellness company with a mission to redefine health and wellness. Neptune is focused on building a portfolio of high quality, affordable consumer products in response to long-term secular trends and market demand for natural, plant-based, sustainable and purpose-driven lifestyle brands. The Company utilizes a highly flexible, cost-efficient manufacturing and supply chain infrastructure that can be scaled to quickly adapt to consumer demand and bring new products to market through its mass retail partners and e-commerce channels. For additional information, please visit: https://neptunewellness.com/.
Disclaimer – Safe Harbor Forward–Looking Statements
This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates, and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements with respect to the Company's strategic review, expected cost savings, projected growth of Sprout and Biodroga, the success of the Company's action plan, including the divestiture of the Company's cannabis business, future increased revenues, expectations regarding expenses, cash needs, cash flow, liquidity and sources of funding, future expansion plans, initiatives and strategies of the Company, and the Company's performance, growth initiatives, profitability, future product launches and plans and gain in market share, as well as the timing for the filing of the Restated Filings.
These forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time such statements were made. Actual future results may differ materially as forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to materially differ from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors, among other things, include: the ability of the Company to successfully implement its strategic initiatives; implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Company's operations; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; changing consumer habits; the ability of the Company to successfully achieve its business objectives and cost cutting plans; plans for expansion; political and social uncertainties; inability to obtain adequate insurance to cover risks and hazards; the ability of the Company to obtain financing on acceptable terms, the adequacy of our capital resources and liquidity, including but not limited to, availability of sufficient cash flow to execute our business plan (either within the expected timeframe or at all); the ability of the Company to obtain financing on acceptable terms, expectations regarding the resolution of litigation and other legal and regulatory proceedings, reviews and investigations; employee relations; and the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions in the markets where the Company operates. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the Company believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure shareholders that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. The Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law.
Additional information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties relating to the Company's business are contained under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K dated July 7, 2022, for the year ended March 31, 2022.
Neither NASDAQ nor the Toronto Stock Exchange accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
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SOURCE Neptune Wellness Solutions Inc.
Government
The Grinch Who Stole Freedom
The Grinch Who Stole Freedom
Authored by Jeffrey A. Tucker via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Before President Joe Biden’s State of the…
Authored by Jeffrey A. Tucker via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Before President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, the pundit class was predicting that he would deliver a message of unity and calm, if only to attract undecided voters to his side.
He did the opposite. The speech revealed a loud, cranky, angry, bitter side of the man that people don’t usually see. It seemed like the real Joe Biden I remember from the old days, full of venom, sarcasm, disdain, threats, and extreme partisanship.
The base might have loved it except that he made reference to an “illegal” alien, which is apparently a trigger word for the left. He failed their purity test.
The speech was stunning in its bile and bitterness. It’s beyond belief that he began with a pitch for more funds for the Ukraine war, which has killed 10,000 civilians and some 200,000 troops on both sides. It’s a bloody mess that could have been resolved early on but for U.S. tax funding of the conflict.
Despite the push from the higher ends of conservative commentary, average Republicans have turned hard against this war. The United States is in a fiscal crisis and every manner of domestic crisis, and the U.S. president opens his speech with a pitch to protect the border in Ukraine? It was completely bizarre, and lent some weight to the darkest conspiracies about why the Biden administration cares so much about this issue.
From there, he pivoted to wildly overblown rhetoric about the most hysterically exaggerated event of our times: the legendary Jan. 6 protests on Capitol Hill. Arrests for daring to protest the government on that day are growing.
The media and the Biden administration continue to describe it as the worst crisis since the War of the Roses, or something. It’s all a wild stretch, but it set the tone of the whole speech, complete with unrelenting attacks on former President Donald Trump. He would use the speech not to unite or make a pitch that he is president of the entire country but rather intensify his fundamental attack on everything America is supposed to be.
Hard to isolate the most alarming part, but one aspect really stood out to me. He glared directly at the Supreme Court Justices sitting there and threatened them with political power. He said that they were awful for getting rid of nationwide abortion rights and returning the issue to the states where it belongs, very obviously. But President Biden whipped up his base to exact some kind of retribution against the court.
Looking this up, we have a few historical examples of presidents criticizing the court but none to their faces in a State of the Union address. This comes two weeks after President Biden directly bragged about defying the Supreme Court over the issue of student loan forgiveness. The court said he could not do this on his own, but President Biden did it anyway.
Here we have an issue of civic decorum that you cannot legislate or legally codify. Essentially, under the U.S. system, the president has to agree to defer to the highest court in its rulings even if he doesn’t like them. President Biden is now aggressively defying the court and adding direct threats on top of that. In other words, this president is plunging us straight into lawlessness and dictatorship.
In the background here, you must understand, is the most important free speech case in U.S. history. The Supreme Court on March 18 will hear arguments over an injunction against President Biden’s administrative agencies as issued by the Fifth Circuit. The injunction would forbid government agencies from imposing themselves on media and social media companies to curate content and censor contrary opinions, either directly or indirectly through so-called “switchboarding.”
A ruling for the plaintiffs in the case would force the dismantling of a growing and massive industry that has come to be called the censorship-industrial complex. It involves dozens or even more than 100 government agencies, including quasi-intelligence agencies such as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which was set up only in 2018 but managed information flow, labor force designations, and absentee voting during the COVID-19 response.
A good ruling here will protect free speech or at least intend to. But, of course, the Biden administration could directly defy it. That seems to be where this administration is headed. It’s extremely dangerous.
A ruling for the defense and against the injunction would be a catastrophe. It would invite every government agency to exercise direct control over all media and social media in the country, effectively abolishing the First Amendment.
Close watchers of the court have no clear idea of how this will turn out. But watching President Biden glare at court members at the address, one does wonder. Did they sense the threats he was making against them? Will they stand up for the independence of the judicial branch?
Maybe his intimidation tactics will end up backfiring. After all, does the Supreme Court really think it is wise to license this administration with the power to control all information flows in the United States?
The deeper issue here is a pressing battle that is roiling American life today. It concerns the future and power of the administrative state versus the elected one. The Constitution contains no reference to a fourth branch of government, but that is what has been allowed to form and entrench itself, in complete violation of the Founders’ intentions. Only the Supreme Court can stop it, if they are brave enough to take it on.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, and surely you have, President Biden is nothing but a marionette of deep-state interests. He is there to pretend to be the people’s representative, but everything that he does is about entrenching the fourth branch of government, the permanent bureaucracy that goes on its merry way without any real civilian oversight.
We know this for a fact by virtue of one of his first acts as president, to repeal an executive order by President Trump that would have reclassified some (or many) federal employees as directly under the control of the elected president rather than have independent power. The elites in Washington absolutely panicked about President Trump’s executive order. They plotted to make sure that he didn’t get a second term, and quickly scratched that brilliant act by President Trump from the historical record.
This epic battle is the subtext behind nearly everything taking place in Washington today.
Aside from the vicious moment of directly attacking the Supreme Court, President Biden set himself up as some kind of economic central planner, promising to abolish hidden fees and bags of chips that weren’t full enough, as if he has the power to do this, which he does not. He was up there just muttering gibberish. If he is serious, he believes that the U.S. president has the power to dictate the prices of every candy bar and hotel room in the United States—an absolutely terrifying exercise of power that compares only to Stalin and Mao. And yet there he was promising to do just that.
Aside from demonizing the opposition, wildly exaggerating about Jan. 6, whipping up war frenzy, swearing to end climate change, which will make the “green energy” industry rich, threatening more taxes on business enterprise, promising to cure cancer (again!), and parading as the master of candy bar prices, what else did he do? Well, he took credit for the supposedly growing economy even as a vast number of Americans are deeply suffering from his awful policies.
It’s hard to imagine that this speech could be considered a success. The optics alone made him look like the Grinch who stole freedom, except the Grinch was far more articulate and clever. He’s a mean one, Mr. Biden.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.
Government
Vaccine-skeptical mothers say bad health care experiences made them distrust the medical system
Vaccine skepticism, and the broader medical mistrust and far-reaching anxieties it reflects, is not just a fringe position in the 21st century.
Why would a mother reject safe, potentially lifesaving vaccines for her child?
Popular writing on vaccine skepticism often denigrates white and middle-class mothers who reject some or all recommended vaccines as hysterical, misinformed, zealous or ignorant. Mainstream media and medical providers increasingly dismiss vaccine refusal as a hallmark of American fringe ideology, far-right radicalization or anti-intellectualism.
But vaccine skepticism, and the broader medical mistrust and far-reaching anxieties it reflects, is not just a fringe position.
Pediatric vaccination rates had already fallen sharply before the COVID-19 pandemic, ushering in the return of measles, mumps and chickenpox to the U.S. in 2019. Four years after the pandemic’s onset, a growing number of Americans doubt the safety, efficacy and necessity of routine vaccines. Childhood vaccination rates have declined substantially across the U.S., which public health officials attribute to a “spillover” effect from pandemic-related vaccine skepticism and blame for the recent measles outbreak. Almost half of American mothers rated the risk of side effects from the MMR vaccine as medium or high in a 2023 survey by Pew Research.
Recommended vaccines go through rigorous testing and evaluation, and the most infamous charges of vaccine-induced injury have been thoroughly debunked. How do so many mothers – primary caregivers and health care decision-makers for their families – become wary of U.S. health care and one of its most proven preventive technologies?
I’m a cultural anthropologist who studies the ways feelings and beliefs circulate in American society. To investigate what’s behind mothers’ vaccine skepticism, I interviewed vaccine-skeptical mothers about their perceptions of existing and novel vaccines. What they told me complicates sweeping and overly simplified portrayals of their misgivings by pointing to the U.S. health care system itself. The medical system’s failures and harms against women gave rise to their pervasive vaccine skepticism and generalized medical mistrust.
The seeds of women’s skepticism
I conducted this ethnographic research in Oregon from 2020 to 2021 with predominantly white mothers between the ages of 25 and 60. My findings reveal new insights about the origins of vaccine skepticism among this demographic. These women traced their distrust of vaccines, and of U.S. health care more generally, to ongoing and repeated instances of medical harm they experienced from childhood through childbirth.
As young girls in medical offices, they were touched without consent, yelled at, disbelieved or threatened. One mother, Susan, recalled her pediatrician abruptly lying her down and performing a rectal exam without her consent at the age of 12. Another mother, Luna, shared how a pediatrician once threatened to have her institutionalized when she voiced anxiety at a routine physical.
As women giving birth, they often felt managed, pressured or discounted. One mother, Meryl, told me, “I felt like I was coerced under distress into Pitocin and induction” during labor. Another mother, Hallie, shared, “I really battled with my provider” throughout the childbirth experience.
Together with the convoluted bureaucracy of for-profit health care, experiences of medical harm contributed to “one million little touch points of information,” in one mother’s phrase, that underscored the untrustworthiness and harmful effects of U.S. health care writ large.
A system that doesn’t serve them
Many mothers I interviewed rejected the premise that public health entities such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration had their children’s best interests at heart. Instead, they tied childhood vaccination and the more recent development of COVID-19 vaccines to a bloated pharmaceutical industry and for-profit health care model. As one mother explained, “The FDA is not looking out for our health. They’re looking out for their wealth.”
After ongoing negative medical encounters, the women I interviewed lost trust not only in providers but the medical system. Frustrating experiences prompted them to “do their own research” in the name of bodily autonomy. Such research often included books, articles and podcasts deeply critical of vaccines, public health care and drug companies.
These materials, which have proliferated since 2020, cast light on past vaccine trials gone awry, broader histories of medical harm and abuse, the rapid growth of the recommended vaccine schedule in the late 20th century and the massive profits reaped from drug development and for-profit health care. They confirmed and hardened women’s suspicions about U.S. health care.
The stories these women told me add nuance to existing academic research into vaccine skepticism. Most studies have considered vaccine skepticism among primarily white and middle-class parents to be an outgrowth of today’s neoliberal parenting and intensive mothering. Researchers have theorized vaccine skepticism among white and well-off mothers to be an outcome of consumer health care and its emphasis on individual choice and risk reduction. Other researchers highlight vaccine skepticism as a collective identity that can provide mothers with a sense of belonging.
Seeing medical care as a threat to health
The perceptions mothers shared are far from isolated or fringe, and they are not unreasonable. Rather, they represent a growing population of Americans who hold the pervasive belief that U.S. health care harms more than it helps.
Data suggests that the number of Americans harmed in the course of treatment remains high, with incidents of medical error in the U.S. outnumbering those in peer countries, despite more money being spent per capita on health care. One 2023 study found that diagnostic error, one kind of medical error, accounted for 371,000 deaths and 424,000 permanent disabilities among Americans every year.
Studies reveal particularly high rates of medical error in the treatment of vulnerable communities, including women, people of color, disabled, poor, LGBTQ+ and gender-nonconforming individuals and the elderly. The number of U.S. women who have died because of pregnancy-related causes has increased substantially in recent years, with maternal death rates doubling between 1999 and 2019.
The prevalence of medical harm points to the relevance of philosopher Ivan Illich’s manifesto against the “disease of medical progress.” In his 1982 book “Medical Nemesis,” he insisted that rather than being incidental, harm flows inevitably from the structure of institutionalized and for-profit health care itself. Illich wrote, “The medical establishment has become a major threat to health,” and has created its own “epidemic” of iatrogenic illness – that is, illness caused by a physician or the health care system itself.
Four decades later, medical mistrust among Americans remains alarmingly high. Only 23% of Americans express high confidence in the medical system. The United States ranks 24th out of 29 peer high-income countries for the level of public trust in medical providers.
For people like the mothers I interviewed, who have experienced real or perceived harm at the hands of medical providers; have felt belittled, dismissed or disbelieved in a doctor’s office; or spent countless hours fighting to pay for, understand or use health benefits, skepticism and distrust are rational responses to lived experience. These attitudes do not emerge solely from ignorance, conspiracy thinking, far-right extremism or hysteria, but rather the historical and ongoing harms endemic to the U.S. health care system itself.
Johanna Richlin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
disease control extremism pandemic covid-19 vaccine treatment testing fda deathsGovernment
Is the National Guard a solution to school violence?
School board members in one Massachusetts district have called for the National Guard to address student misbehavior. Does their request have merit? A…
Every now and then, an elected official will suggest bringing in the National Guard to deal with violence that seems out of control.
A city council member in Washington suggested doing so in 2023 to combat the city’s rising violence. So did a Pennsylvania representative concerned about violence in Philadelphia in 2022.
In February 2024, officials in Massachusetts requested the National Guard be deployed to a more unexpected location – to a high school.
Brockton High School has been struggling with student fights, drug use and disrespect toward staff. One school staffer said she was trampled by a crowd rushing to see a fight. Many teachers call in sick to work each day, leaving the school understaffed.
As a researcher who studies school discipline, I know Brockton’s situation is part of a national trend of principals and teachers who have been struggling to deal with perceived increases in student misbehavior since the pandemic.
A review of how the National Guard has been deployed to schools in the past shows the guard can provide service to schools in cases of exceptional need. Yet, doing so does not always end well.
How have schools used the National Guard before?
In 1957, the National Guard blocked nine Black students’ attempts to desegregate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. While the governor claimed this was for safety, the National Guard effectively delayed desegregation of the school – as did the mobs of white individuals outside. Ironically, weeks later, the National Guard and the U.S. Army would enforce integration and the safety of the “Little Rock Nine” on orders from President Dwight Eisenhower.
One of the most tragic cases of the National Guard in an educational setting came in 1970 at Kent State University. The National Guard was brought to campus to respond to protests over American involvement in the Vietnam War. The guardsmen fatally shot four students.
In 2012, then-Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat from California, proposed funding to use the National Guard to provide school security in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting. The bill was not passed.
More recently, the National Guard filled teacher shortages in New Mexico’s K-12 schools during the quarantines and sickness of the pandemic. While the idea did not catch on nationally, teachers and school personnel in New Mexico generally reported positive experiences.
Can the National Guard address school discipline?
The National Guard’s mission includes responding to domestic emergencies. Members of the guard are part-time service members who maintain civilian lives. Some are students themselves in colleges and universities. Does this mission and training position the National Guard to respond to incidents of student misbehavior and school violence?
On the one hand, New Mexico’s pandemic experience shows the National Guard could be a stopgap to staffing shortages in unusual circumstances. Similarly, the guards’ eventual role in ensuring student safety during school desegregation in Arkansas demonstrates their potential to address exceptional cases in schools, such as racially motivated mob violence. And, of course, many schools have had military personnel teaching and mentoring through Junior ROTC programs for years.
Those seeking to bring the National Guard to Brockton High School have made similar arguments. They note that staffing shortages have contributed to behavior problems.
One school board member stated: “I know that the first thought that comes to mind when you hear ‘National Guard’ is uniform and arms, and that’s not the case. They’re people like us. They’re educated. They’re trained, and we just need their assistance right now. … We need more staff to support our staff and help the students learn (and) have a safe environment.”
Yet, there are reasons to question whether calls for the National Guard are the best way to address school misconduct and behavior. First, the National Guard is a temporary measure that does little to address the underlying causes of student misbehavior and school violence.
Research has shown that students benefit from effective teaching, meaningful and sustained relationships with school personnel and positive school environments. Such educative and supportive environments have been linked to safer schools. National Guard members are not trained as educators or counselors and, as a temporary measure, would not remain in the school to establish durable relationships with students.
What is more, a military presence – particularly if uniformed or armed – may make students feel less welcome at school or escalate situations.
Schools have already seen an increase in militarization. For example, school police departments have gone so far as to acquire grenade launchers and mine-resistant armored vehicles.
Research has found that school police make students more likely to be suspended and to be arrested. Similarly, while a National Guard presence may address misbehavior temporarily, their presence could similarly result in students experiencing punitive or exclusionary responses to behavior.
Students deserve a solution other than the guard
School violence and disruptions are serious problems that can harm students. Unfortunately, schools and educators have increasingly viewed student misbehavior as a problem to be dealt with through suspensions and police involvement.
A number of people – from the NAACP to the local mayor and other members of the school board – have criticized Brockton’s request for the National Guard. Governor Maura Healey has said she will not deploy the guard to the school.
However, the case of Brockton High School points to real needs. Educators there, like in other schools nationally, are facing a tough situation and perceive a lack of support and resources.
Many schools need more teachers and staff. Students need access to mentors and counselors. With these resources, schools can better ensure educators are able to do their jobs without military intervention.
F. Chris Curran has received funding from the US Department of Justice, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, and the American Civil Liberties Union for work on school safety and discipline.
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