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So, um.... GOOD NEWS?!?!?!

2023-09-19 · letter vlog · John, Phumeza Tisile · 6:18 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Global development (also: Nerdfighteria) · mode: Advocacy & fundraising · tags: timely hook, civic or action cta, community lore, heavy topic

John reports that, after the campaign, Danaher cut its standard TB test cartridge from $10 to $7.97 with a zero-profit commitment, calls it a big win, still wants cheaper XDR cartridges, condemns threats against company staff, and recalls that Nerdfighteria's energy first showed in 2007.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The deal: Danaher's standard TB cartridge drops to $7.97 at cost, with verification and better maintenance

  • ★★★ John reports that minutes before recording, USAID, the Global Fund and the Stop TB Partnership announced Danaher's standard TB cartridge would fall from $10 to $7.97, not the hoped-for 50% cut but significant. — 00:00:00
  • ★★★ John says Danaher has committed to making no profit in poor countries from its standard TB cartridge. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ John has heard Danaher committed to regular third-party verification of its at-cost pricing, so the test price falls if manufacturing costs fall. (hedged) — 00:00:29
  • ★★ John says Danaher also agreed to improved maintenance conditions, making GeneXpert machines easier to fix when they break. — 00:00:29

00:00:58 — Why it matters: a win for the community and partners, $200 million saved over a decade

  • ★★★ John calls the deal amazing news: important progress for people living with and fighting TB, and a big win for the community and its long-time partners. — 00:00:58 · Nerdfighteria, tuberculosis
  • ★★ John credits partners, many in this fight for years: Doctors Without Borders, the Treatment Action Group and Partners In Health, among others. — 00:00:58 · Partners In Health
  • ★★★ John reckons that if Cepheid sells 10 million cartridges a year at the reduced price, the world's poorest communities will save $200 million over a decade. (hedged) — 00:00:58

00:01:31 — Phumeza Tisile's slow, wrong diagnosis and what a GeneXpert test could have spared her

  • ★★ John says it is easy to think of this in numbers or dollars, but he wants to think of it in terms of people's individual experiences. — 00:01:31
  • ★★★ John tells how Phumeza Tisile's TB took over a month to diagnose; a chest X-ray missed her drug resistance, so she got the wrong regimen and spent over three and a half years in treatment, taking over 20,000 pills. — 00:01:31
  • ★ Phumeza Tisile: In a clip, Phumeza Tisile says her lowest weight was 32 kg. — 00:01:31

00:02:31 — Mixed feelings: XDR cartridges still expensive; no name-calling or threats; keep advocating politely

  • ★★★ John says an immediate, accurate GeneXpert diagnosis could have spared Phumeza much suffering; she might not have lost her hearing or endured years of disabling illness. (hedged) — 00:02:31
  • ★★★ John says millions more available tests mean the chance to transform millions of lives for the better. — 00:02:31
  • ★★★ John has mixed feelings: he wishes the extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR) test had also come down in price. — 00:03:00
  • ★★ John hopes Cepheid and Danaher may eventually treat XDR cartridges like the standard ones, which would help patients and prevent the most dangerous TB strains. (hedged) — 00:03:00
  • ★★ John has heard that some people involved, potentially including community members, resorted to name-calling and even threats toward people who work at these companies. (hedged) — 00:03:29 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ John says name-calling and threats are unacceptable, a total violation of the community's guidelines for activism, and make everything worse. — 00:03:29
  • ★★ Addressing what he calls a tiny minority, John asks people never to name-call or threaten company staff. — 00:03:29
  • ★★ John says he has experienced such threats: they only make him feel resentment, fear and anger, which makes mutual understanding and compromise far harder. — 00:03:55
  • ★★★ John says the community should keep advocating for lower-cost diagnostics, especially XDR-TB cartridges, but politely and respectfully. — 00:03:55
  • ★★ John says advocacy should reflect that these companies have made choices that expand access to diagnostics for those who need them most. — 00:03:55

00:04:25 — The work is beginning; John at the UN this week and an NYU author event on Friday

  • ★★ John says the work is not finished; really, it is just beginning. — 00:04:25
  • ★★ John says that this week (week of 18 September 2023) he will be in New York to continue conversations about tuberculosis at the United Nations. — 00:04:25 · New York City, tuberculosis
  • ★★ John announces a free author event at NYU on Friday with some of his heroes and invites viewers, with a link below. — 00:04:25

00:04:54 — 2007 hospital stay and Stuff on Heads; Nerdfighteria's energy then and now; never underestimate Nerdfighteria

  • ★★ John recalls that early in 2007, at the start of Brotherhood 2.0, he was hospitalized for an infection between his eye and his brain. — 00:04:54 · Brotherhood 2.0
  • ★★★ John recalls Hank asking the community for pictures with stuff on their heads to cheer him up: of about 400 regular viewers, about 350 sent pictures, before the iPhone. — 00:04:54 · Hank Green, Stuff on Heads, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ Watching that video in hospital, John first thought the community had a lot of energy and wanted to do interesting things together; it felt like it could be special, and it proved so. — 00:05:23 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ John marvels that 16 and a half years later Nerdfighteria's organizational and creative talents were harnessed together to expand TB treatment and diagnostics to millions. — 00:05:23 · Nerdfighteria, tuberculosis
  • ★★ John tells Nerdfighteria he is genuinely in awe of them and they are truly made of awesome. — 00:05:23 · Nerdfighteria, made of awesome

  • ★★★ John leaves Hank with three words he has had to learn over and over in 17 years: never underestimate Nerdfighteria. — 00:06:05 · Nerdfighteria

    “Never underestimate Nerdfighteria.”

In the description and comments

  • ★★ In a comment John clarifies that the zero-profit commitment covers the main cartridge (MDR-TB, not XDR-TB); the XDR cartridge's price has not changed. — creator comment
  • ★★ In a comment John says that, assuming third-party verification, he takes Danaher at its word that $7.97 is its cost, and hopes engineering brings costs down further. (hedged) — creator comment
  • ★ Replying to a viewer who only sent an email, John says sending an email made a big difference too: it is collective action. — creator comment · collective action
  • ★ In a comment John says the result happened stunningly fast; he had a whole different video written for today. — creator comment

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Cepheid · Danaher Corporation · tuberculosis

Also: People: Phumeza Tisile

Projects: Brotherhood 2.0 · Stuff on Heads

Organizations: New York University · United Nations

Terms: made of awesome

Concepts: extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis · multidrug-resistant tuberculosis · name-calling · orbital cellulitis · X-ray

Places: New York City

Products: GeneXpert · iPhone

Only in the description or credits: collective action · Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria · Médecins Sans Frontières · Partners In Health · Stop TB Partnership · Treatment Action Group · United States Agency for International Development

Also centred on Cepheid: Barely Contained Rage: An Open Letter to Danaher and Cepheid · Talking Tuberculosis, GeneXpert, J&J, and more with MY HEROES

Also centred on Danaher Corporation: Barely Contained Rage: An Open Letter to Danaher and Cepheid · Talking Tuberculosis, GeneXpert, J&J, and more with MY HEROES · End of a Rough Year · I Own Danaher · Is It 2010? IT'S A PARTS VIDEO · I Don't Want them to Get Away With It…

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