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--:-- Georgia Howe: Move over white evangelicals. A new report shows atheists trounce other Americans in terms of political engagement. We discuss the latest trends and how religious faith affects political action. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's May 27th, and this is your Saturday edition of Morning Wire.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Doctors are warning that hundreds of generic and brand-name drugs are in critically short supply, including chemotherapies. What's behind the shortages and why is the market struggling to self-correct?
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Hospitals all across the country on a regular basis, sometimes weekly, have to review which drugs are in short supply or not available that week. And a new report ranks countries by childhood obesity, with dozens of them soaring past the U.S. You might be surprised which countries top the list.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: When it comes to tracking political activity by religious beliefs, a lot of media coverage focuses on evangelicals, in particular white evangelicals. But new data shows that religious conservatives are not nearly as active as their atheist peers. Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham joins us now to discuss.
--:-- Megan Basham: So, as John said, we hear a lot about how white evangelicals shape elections. You see a lot of polling on this group, a lot of reporting, opinion essays. There's numerous books on this. What does the new data say?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, mainly what it says is that this outsized focus on the religious right may be misplaced. Atheists have a much higher political engagement. To quote one statistician, no one gets involved in the political process to the level of the average atheist.
--:-- Megan Basham: And this data is drawn from the Cooperative Election Study. That's an annual survey put out by Harvard. And what it's found is that when asked, half of atheists say they have donated to a candidate in the previous month. Now, that's a huge percentage, though we do need to note that this research draws from a survey conducted in 2020. The results would probably be considerably different in a year without a presidential election.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But they're also the most likely to put up political signs at 27 percent. 37 percent of them have contacted a public official in the previous month. Again, that puts them at number one.
--:-- Megan Basham: And I should probably note that atheists overwhelmingly identify as Democrats at nearly 80 percent. Agnostics who are close behind them in political engagement also tilt overwhelmingly Democratic.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, you compare that to the white evangelicals that we hear so much about. They actually fell in the middle of the pack on just about every metric, around 20 to 25% on those same questions. Agnostics, Jews, mainline Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, they all ranked above them.
--:-- Megan Basham: And non-white evangelicals were at the bottom of the pack, so not very politically active at all. And if you characterize your religious beliefs as nothing in particular, then you're among the most politically disengaged.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, before we get to why there's been so much misperception about evangelicals as a political force, do we have any data on why atheists and agnostics are so engaged?
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, it's hard to pin down a specific cause, but one thing that could be contributing to it is that they tend to have fewer children. So they have a lot more disposable income. They also tend to be more educated, and that has correlated with political involvement.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But there's also the theory that their political activity sort of supplants religious engagement. I spoke to Brad Vermeulen, a sociologist at the University of Texas at Austin, who studies evangelicals.
--:-- Megan Basham: When it comes to evangelicals, I mean, they have a worldview that's full of all sorts of enchanted ideas and topics, you know, the atonement and living a life for Christ and making disciples and evangelizing. There's all sorts. It's just a very full worldview.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And when it comes to atheists, it's almost like they use political positions as a religion substitute because it almost becomes like a religion for them. So just like religious people tend to find community and social engagement in their churches, atheists and agnostics could be doing that with their political activities.
--:-- Megan Basham: Okay, so back to evangelicals. Why is there this false perception that they're extremely political? Was that historically true?
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's a very good question because no, it's not historically true, and this isn't actually new data. Social scientists have been discussing for a few years now that the conventional wisdom on this is wrong.
--:-- Megan Basham: One thing could be that there are just a lot of them. Gallup puts it at about 41% of Americans are evangelical, though other polls have put it a little lower. So atheists and agnostics represent a much smaller group, though they are growing.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Today, one in five Democrats are in that group, up eight points from 2008. And like atheists tend to be Democrats, evangelicals tend to be Republicans, especially those white evangelicals.
--:-- Megan Basham: So that could be why the media covers their political activity so much. Here's what Vermeerlin said about that.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It seems to me that the stereotype or perception of white evangelicals as politicized or overly politically active really stems from not any empirical data on political activity, which we know shows that evangelicals are very middle of the road, but just a dislike for the position that white evangelicals tend to take.
--:-- Megan Basham: So among more progressive academics, journalists, and more progressive people in the public, it almost just because something you say, like, oh, evangelicals, they're too political. One of what that really means is, oh, evangelicals, they take stances I don't like.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I don't think you need to be a political scientist to see how that's impacting our two-party politics.
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, as one of my colleagues here at Daily Wire says, all political battles are ultimately theological battles.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Megan, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Megan Basham: Anytime.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Coming up, hundreds of drugs are in critically short supply. Record drug shortages across the U.S. are delaying potentially life-saving treatments for thousands of patients around the country. Congress and the White House are scrambling to address a shortfall in hundreds of prescription drugs, including everything from painkillers to cancer treatments.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Joining us with the details is Daily Wire researcher Michael Whitaker.
--:-- Michael Whitaker: Hey, Georgia. The shortage is being most acutely felt in the generic drug market, which accounts for nearly 90% of U.S. prescriptions. According to a Senate report at the end of last year, the U.S. reached a peak level of 295 active drug shortages, although as of March, the FDA claims that there are only 130.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The American Society of Health, however, reports 301 active drug shortages as of now. Some of the medicines that have been in short supply include Adderall, Tylenol, various antibiotics, including amoxicillin, saline mixtures used in IVs, and almost two dozen kinds of anti drugs.
--:-- Michael Whitaker: That last group is especially troubling because unlike some other drugs in short supply, patients don't have a lot of alternative options for those kinds of treatments.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, how bad is the shortage? Are there confirmed deaths as a result of this?
--:-- Michael Whitaker: Well, according to one recent survey by the Society of Gynecologic Oncology, doctors in 35 different states said they had, quote, little to no supply of multiple chemotherapy drugs, including specialists at cancer centers.
--:-- Georgia Howe: According to Laura Bray, founder of the nonprofit Angels for Change, which helps microsource rare medications for patients, nine out of 10 oncologists say that the shortages have caused patient harm up to and including death.
--:-- Michael Whitaker: With less medicine and the same number of patients who need it, doctors around the country have been having many hard conversations about who does and who doesn't get their dose.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So what's causing the shortages? Is there just not much profit motive to produce these generics?
--:-- Michael Whitaker: Well, that's definitely part of the story, but the reasons run the gamut, depending on the drug. Some drugs, like Adderall and Ozempic, have been popularized for alternative uses and are seeing a huge demand. And supply just has not caught up with that.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Then there are still global supply chain delays. The numbers are a little fuzzy here. Part of the problem is that the supply chain for some pharmaceuticals is not totally transparent, to the point where regulators don't even know for sure where everything comes from.
--:-- Michael Whitaker: The FDA actually petitioned Congress for more resources to figure that out. Near as the Senate can tell, though, about 80% of pharmaceutically active ingredients, the most important part of any drug, are manufactured outside of the United States.
--:-- Georgia Howe: If these foreign sources had their economies locked down or started hoarding supplies for themselves, that could completely gut our supply chain.
--:-- Michael Whitaker: Several fingers have been pointed at China, just to pick a name out of the hat, and many lawmakers view this as a serious strategic weakness of the United States.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Right, we've actually reported on that in the past.
--:-- Michael Whitaker: Now, what about some domestic causes? Some potential domestic causes include over-prescription of antibiotics. Some say doctors have a tendency to over-prescribe antibiotics, which could lead to shortages and other issues like antibiotic resistance.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Panic buying has also been blamed, especially for over-the-counter drugs like Tylenol. A perceived shortage becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
--:-- Michael Whitaker: Something similar happened with toilet paper at the start of the last pandemic. I mean, I still keep at least 20 rolls in reserve just in case.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But while all of these immediate causes have drawn a lot of attention, some people are claiming that more basic market forces are to blame, like you mentioned earlier.
--:-- Michael Whitaker: Many generic life-saving drugs are not very profitable to make. We're talking pennies per dose. Those narrow margins discourage newcomers from entering the sector.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And if there are supply chain issues that make the product more expensive, established players are more likely to cut corners on the product or simply stop making it altogether.
--:-- Michael Whitaker: There's been an upward trend in the number of drug shortages over the last few years, while the prices of generic drugs have dropped 50% since 2016.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, if the demand is high, though, why would the prices not creep up to match?
--:-- Michael Whitaker: Well, the pharmaceutical market is atypical for a few reasons. For one thing, it's highly consolidated. While there are thousands of hospitals and pharmacies in the United States, most of them get their supplies from a small number of intermediary firms.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A review by a healthcare analytics company called IQVIA found that just three buyers purchase 90% of all generic drugs. With so few potential customers, each one of them has a lot of leverage over what kind of price they're going to have to pay.
--:-- Michael Whitaker: Speaking of leverage, the U.S. government is a major player in health care, and lawmakers have passed limits on how much companies are allowed to charge for various drugs.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The logic is straightforward enough. No one wants to get price gouged while their loved ones are dying. But prices are not arbitrary things. If Congress passed a law tomorrow mandating that Tesla could not sell cars for more than $10 a piece, every American would not suddenly be able to afford a Tesla.
--:-- Michael Whitaker: Elon Musk would go out of business.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, Michael thanks so much for reporting.
--:-- Michael Whitaker: Thanks for having me.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: A new report ranks the countries with the most childhood obesity and the U did not even crack the top 50. Daily Wire investigative reporter Mairead Elordi is here with the details for us.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Hi, Georgia. Well, this World Health Organization report ranked countries according to their rates of obesity among children under the age of five. The country that ranked first is actually Libya. Australia was second. The U.S. came in at 52nd out of 198 countries.
--:-- Georgia Howe: About 7.9 percent of American children are overweight, according to the data. Britain was much higher up and took the 22nd spot with 11.3% of children overweight.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: In Libya, which topped the list, three in 10 children under the age of five are overweight. In Australia, 21.8% of children are overweight. The next three countries rounding out the top five on the list are Tunisia, Egypt, and Papua New Guinea, followed by Greece, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, and Albania, the top 10.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Last year, there were 37 million obese children under five across the world, according to the data. That's more than four million more than around the beginning of this century.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: The World Health Organization warns in the report that, quote, the prevalence of obesity is moving in the wrong direction with no immediate sign of reversion.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Do we have any idea why children in the countries at the top are so overweight?
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Well, some data suggests that countries like Libya have recently adopted a more Western diet with lots of processed foods, and that's contributing to skyrocketing obesity in children and adults.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In general, poor diet, poor lifestyle, and lack of exercise are a common theme in the countries that have a high percentage of children who are overweight.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: One interesting factor is breastfeeding. Breastfeeding tends to lower a child's chance of becoming overweight in the first year of life, and some of these countries at the top of the list don't breastfeed as much.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Some of these countries, like Egypt, have launched government programs encouraging parents to guide their children towards healthier habits. But so far, it doesn't seem to have made much of a dent in the childhood obesity numbers.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Now, it's well documented that obesity and conditions caused by it eat up a lot of healthcare dollars. How much does our healthcare system actually spend on obesity?
--:-- Georgia Howe: Yes, that's right. Well, the CDC estimates that obesity costs the American healthcare system close to $173 billion every year.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: And of course, obesity contributes to a lot of serious health issues including diabetes, heart disease, and strokes.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And even though the U.S. was not at the very top of the list for childhood obesity under five years old, the trends here are concerning.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: According to the CDC, between 1999 and 2020, U.S. obesity prevalence increased from 30.5% to 41.9%. In 2020, 74% of American adults were either overweight or obese.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, it sounds like the rest of the world is catching up.
--:-- Mairead Elordi: Thanks for reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for listening to Morning Wire. We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation. If you love our show and you stand with our mission, consider subscribing, giving us a five-star rating, and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend. That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with an extra edition of Morning Wire.
