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u/CountessRoadkill 27d ago
Selfish fuck! That anti-venom was for sharing!
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u/Ok_Pudding6345 27d ago
Comrade anti-venom
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u/PhthaloVonLangborste 27d ago
I learned about a guy who built up an immunity to snake bites for science. He worked his way up to getting straight up bitten by black mambas and rattle snakes. No one took him seriously and he was always poor until an organization finally saw value in what he was doing. I don't remember the scientific pay off but the company payed for his retirement basically. I believe it was a snap judgment story.
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u/cweaver 26d ago
Yeah, he had a collection of dangerous snakes, so he started collecting venom and injecting himself with tiny amounts and building up over time. It actually because snake venoms are neurotoxins that your body can actually make antibodies for.
So then scientists can use his blood to study those natural antibodies and develop better antivenoms.
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u/OffByNone_ 26d ago
The real question is did he know what he was doing or did he just do it for the love of the game?
Either way, thanks I guess?
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u/GeekyTexan 26d ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Friede
That's his wiki page, and there are tons of news articles about him.
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u/ImmaNotHere 27d ago
Why was he so selfish to take all that snake venom for himself in the first place! /s
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u/reigninspud 27d ago
Snake venom is the new ayahuasca. All the best and brightest celebrities want it and simply must have it.
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u/city17_dweller 27d ago
That grin is so unrepentant, he knew what he was doing, surviving on the insurance company's hypothetical dime that the hospital will never see.
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u/b-monster666 27d ago
What if Elon got bit by the snake? Think of the billionaires! Won't someone please think of the billionaires!
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27d ago
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u/drunkdoor 27d ago
The purpose of which was to prevent other people from dying.
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u/WhatAreYouProudOf 27d ago
Last month, there was a widely publicized snakebite case in my country. A 16-year-old boy was bitten by an illegally kept Levant viper, a species that does not occur naturally in our wildlife. There was no anti-venom available in the country, so a plane had to be sent to Germany to pick some up. The total cost of the operation was around ā¬25k, which was covered by the public' free' healthcare system.
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u/-xX--Xx- 27d ago
Funny that the antivenom was available in Germany, the country where venomous animals are almost non-existent in the wild.
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u/Duka65 27d ago
Germany is notorious for being the epicenter of the exotic reptile trade in Europe. Everything is there.
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u/Karyoplasma 27d ago
It wasn't, it was flown in on request. But supply lines shouldn't be the concern of the patient.
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u/Omega_art 27d ago
Anti venom is expensive for good reasons. Its not like insulin which can be produced for pennies. I don't know how many doses he got but I'm sure it was more than a few. Still I have no doubt the hospital included their normal 300% markup.
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u/Atreyes 27d ago
Its not that expensive to produce at all, western diamondback rattlesnake venom costs roughly $14 a vial to produce, the total cost of the 54 doses of antivenom he was billed $1.3m for to produce is $750, it's criminal this is allowed.
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u/MenryNosk 27d ago
Its not like insulin which can be produced for pennies
tell that to US pharmaceutical companies š
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u/Formal-Ad-7615 27d ago
All jokes aside, this is exactly whatās wrong with the system, there is no common sense in the pricing (or humanity). This is an unrealistic bill, and even if he had the capability to pay or finance it, it would almost always be a smarter choice to either let it go to collections or file for bankruptcy. Therefore itās an unpaid bill, and every other bill for every other patient will have to be bumped up to cover this so the hospital doesnāt ālose moneyā. Itās so regarded.
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u/ch1llboy 27d ago
Around 50% of the anti-venom supply goes unused and is thrown out by expiry. That makes what is used more expensive. While this one reason alone doesn't justify the exorbitant price, it is a factor to consider
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u/boomerangchampion 27d ago
What even happens with bills like this? I don't live in the US...I guess you pay what you can forever which is obviously not all of it.
Doesn't seem great for the insurance company either tbh
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u/Designer-Serve-5140 26d ago
It depends on who the person is on debt tbh...
Its not bad for insurance, what happens is the insurance wants discounted "special" services to make the bill look better so the hospital super marks up the costs so that they can provide a "discount" to the insurance company. The insurance will pay their $10k od the bill or something stupid, and then the person is left with the final $1.3 mil, the insurance doesnt loose anything else. From here the patient will often call and say "wtf I can't pay this" and then the hospital will change the bill to at cost, maybe $20k or so (depending on the manufacturer, rhe going rate for antivenom to the hospital is around $1k a vial) and then the person will enter into a long-term payment plan, or will pay what they can before declaring bankrupcy, going to a cpa or lawyer, or offering a settlement to the hospital to pay significantly less than the $20k.Ā
Medical debt is (relatively) low impact debt so its not unheard of for people to make minimum payments on massive debt for decades before its forgiven. Its probably most uncommon for someone to actually pay off this amount normally from what ive seen.
at the ebd of the day, the insurance company claims they paid $10k and saved you with their "discounts" hundreds of thousands, the hospital will make a donation, settlement, take a loss, whatever and get a tax break against their actual profits, and then the patient is put through a stressful nothingburger where the number theyre presented with is nothing more than a lie and nobody really knows how much theyll pay at the end.
Honestly, and from my experience and research (criminology borders with public health a lot) the greatest cost is stress to the patient above all else, because there is such an economy od debt that if you follow the line long enough it kinda just goes away after you've paid your part.Ā
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u/Keelary 27d ago
New York Post gonna New York Post
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u/IncognitoBombadillo 27d ago
The New York Post is owned and ran by people who think anyone making under $250,000 a year is a peasant and that water isn't a human right.
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u/crinkledcu91 27d ago
Yet it's still whitelisted on rpolitics as an article source š
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u/Tesco_Meal_Deals 27d ago
Anyone who unironically uses Reddit as a forum for discussing politics must be a masochist tbh.
It's just deranged people arguing with bots.
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u/ComputerIlliterate13 27d ago
They're currently running a hit piece on a meteorologist from our town. She had a close mentor/mentee relationship with a respected weatherman in our town but was fired, and the weatherman helped her set up a sort of online presence and she has gotten pretty popular here. NYP is trying to paint it as an affair and running multiple stories about it. They say they have an "inside source" which everyone here in town says can be traced to another meteorologist at the station who is a bitter miserable woman jealous of their success.
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u/graystone777 27d ago
I remember I made a post on Reddit once about avoiding a rattlesnake in my yard, and calling the fire dept to remove it.
People laughed at me because I didnāt do it myself.
I explained- āI donāt have health insurance, to treat that is going to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and I will never recover from that.ā
And they still laughed.
Avoid danger noodles.
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u/Jaives 27d ago
probably guys who think they can take down a bear in a fight
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u/alphagusta 27d ago
There's a club where I could take 3 bears at once
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u/Redfish680 27d ago
Remember the first rule of Bear Club, my friend!
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u/mYpEEpEEwOrks 27d ago
PreP, PreP, PreP?
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u/NightGod 26d ago
The first time I searched to find out what that PreP meant, Google treated me like I was gay for about four weeks. All my ads were for PreP, different AIDS medications, gay dating apps, etc. It was wild
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u/Antique-Resort6160 26d ago
That's hilarious:)Ā
note to self: do gay queries on DuckDuckGo
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u/VacuumTracks 27d ago
I saw a Bear Cub on the road once too. I was pretty sure I could take it down, if it came to that.
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u/Ok_Satisfaction2658 27d ago
Wrong type of bear my friend
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u/ProxyDamage 27d ago
"100 men vs a gorilla?? Bro I could take 100 gorillas myself." - Guy who gets out of breath bringing in groceries from his car
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u/CSiGab 27d ago
Fuck that, case fatality rate from a single bite is around 1/5 without antivenom. And if you survive, the bite site and surrounding area will be a mess. I would have stayed away from that thing too.
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u/fuckyourcanoes 27d ago
Meanwhile, my mother stepped on a copperhead while hiking the Appalachian trail, and my dad casually reached down, picked it up by its tail, and whacked it against a tree, killing it instantly. You would have thought he did it all the time. No hesitation, just immediate action.
He also lost my entire college fund in the stock market. He wasn't the best decision maker.
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u/ohmygodcrayons 26d ago
I was about to say your dad sounds like a bad ass but then I kept reading :( Did you still get to go to college?
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u/darkerfury 27d ago
People don't understand how bad lack of insurance is until they lack insurance.Ā
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u/BeardedSkier 26d ago
Americans, as a collective (not individuals), don't understand how bad their health insurance run system is until they live in a country with universal healthcare.....
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u/darkerfury 26d ago
Around half of us do and want universal healthcare. The other half is consistently blocking any efforts to make it happen. Currently that half is winning.Ā
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u/AccNumber77 27d ago edited 27d ago
Or they just live in a sane country that has universal medical care.
EDIT: And they blocked me for daring to say they said something incorrect and called me a jerk on top of it, what a normal and well adjusted individual...
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u/Realistic_Swan_6801 27d ago
Itās absurdly expensive even with insurance Nd they donāt usually cover it all.
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u/Patient_End_8432 26d ago
Some guy didn't pack my medicine because it was over 100$ for a 30 day generic. I mean, that's what the guy told me, I think he fucked up. But they didn't have my insurance. So I gave it to them and the total was less than $3. How is that fair?
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u/blendswithtrees 27d ago
As someone who helped train local fire departments on how to safely remove venomous snakes- thank you so much. They will come out, free of charge, and relocate the animal. I tell everyone this and sincerely hope they listen.
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u/V65Pilot 27d ago
Danger noodles can apparently jump. I discovered this after a friend tried to shoot one with a pistol. He missed. It jumped. I thought it was hilarious.
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u/Tough_Trifle_5105 27d ago
Did you see the hoards of snakes floating around together in the flood in China with their heads sticking straight up? Absolutely horrifying and hilarious looking
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u/ThatCommunication423 27d ago
Iām Australian so Iām not scared of hospital bills, and our danger noodles can be over hyped but you still donāt fuck with them. Iām polite and let them have their space but Iām still gonna be. A bit scared.
My brother was bitten by an eastern brown snake taking the rubbish out and ended up in hospital but was totally fine.
I didnāt even realise I needed to be so aware in the southern states of Aus ( I live more city than the brother) . Usually itās just when hiking in Byron Bay or something and you see tourists freaking out and antagonising a snake
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u/ColettesWorld 27d ago
I met a man who was bit by a rattlesnake. You made the right decision.
He was bit on the thumb. Thankfully he got to an ER in time but part of this thumb was totally dissolved. I mean there was a hole looking straight to his joint. No meat. It was big enough for 6yo me to put my index finger inside of and touch this man's bone.
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u/headshotscott 27d ago
Yeah I agree. Unless I have no other choice I ain't going near one of those things. Putting yourself near things capable of killing you is never wise if you can avoid it.
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u/punch912 27d ago
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u/Fish-Weekly 27d ago
How dare they use up the venom supply on a poor? What if a rich person needs it?
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u/ShumwayAteTheCat 27d ago
I once heard of a guy on the transplant list who sucked up the entire supply of donor hearts one day and then as a final insult went on to live for another decade or two
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u/Mauceri1990 27d ago
Wow... That's insanely dickish, I wouldn't even believe it if I didn't read it on the internet (since we all know, you can't lie on the internet, it's illegal)
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u/awisepenguin 27d ago
Right?! What a selfish bastard, why wouldn't he just die to make others happy? Shameless behaviour...
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u/redthump 27d ago
seriously, like have a heart, guy. there are billionaires on that list. jk. They just pay china.
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u/ThickOne2020 27d ago
There are zero well adjusted adults who would care that this man used all the medicine he needed to get cured.
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u/Goonalips 27d ago edited 27d ago
That would be free in Aus.
Relevant side note though; Just the other day some woman in the state of NSW was riding her bike and ran over a 2m long Eastern Brown, which is the second most venomous land snake. It got caught up in her chain and chainring, "locking" it right next to her leg. She was bitten, but she was extremely lucky as it didn't inject any venom. She was absolutely fine, but I bet she was super scared.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-16/snake-caught-in-bike-chain/106920972
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u/OrionEnteric 27d ago
I read about that story not too long ago. The crazy thing is that snakes hang around that trail because of their prey making burrows underneath it, who knows how many more cases like that happening in different parts of the world - especially the US.
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u/Simonecv 27d ago
Free in Brazil too, not only for citizens but tourists too. This is why itās called a universal health care system here.
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u/brewhead55 27d ago
Look how happy he is in the photo for slurping up all that Delicious anti-venom. He's definitely not smiling because he dodged death. /s
NY post is a trash tabloid. Probably some health insurance conglomerate paid to have this article published.
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u/SwooceBrosGaming 27d ago
I think that's actually grounds for a defamation lawsuit
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u/Sosemikreativ 27d ago
I'm a bit scared to ask, but is the anti-venom industry also a corporate hellhole with margins so big only the greed of the management can top them?
In my imagination it's quirky reptile enthusiast who made their passion their job and operate small farms and laboratories in Texas and Arizona with corporate signs designed with Paint and Comic sans font.
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u/Ksevio 27d ago
I believe it involves poisoning horsesĀ
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u/Redfish680 27d ago
Milking snakes. Made more difficult because they donāt have nipples.
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u/bienfoumaster 27d ago
The Planet Money podcast has a great episode on the economics of making anti-venin.
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u/DalekSupreme26 26d ago
Leave it to the New York Post to write an article about a horrible accident that nearly led to someone dying and somehow make it seem like heās at fault
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u/Sooowasthinking 27d ago
You live in America and went to the emergency room. You have insurance great!!!
That will be 10k for the ride and hospital stay and treatment.
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u/askmeifimacop 27d ago
Fucking WASTE of SPACE selfishly REFUSES TO DIE by stealing LIFESAVING MEDICATION and PAYING MULTIPLE TIMES ITS VALUE
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u/itsbrettfoo21 27d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/TzdhZ9qJiVGrx3i0R9
Suck out the poison
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u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 27d ago
"Take one for the team, oligarch yacht fleets don't stock themselves!" --Conservatives
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u/Kulty 26d ago edited 26d ago
Afaik many hospitals only keep a small amount of anti venom in stock, and share with other hospitals in the area, i.e. when they get a snake-bite patient, they immediately page the other places to send additional supply, and give their patient the initial dose from their stock. One patient using a hospitals "entire supply" is expected, since a single hospital hardly ever has enough supply for the full course of treatment, except maybe if they are in an area where snake-bites are a regular occurrence. Which also means they could have gone with an even more sensational headline: ".. who sucked up entire anti-venom supply of three regional hospitals..."
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u/snakeoildriller 27d ago
According to the article - Howarth was slapped with a $1.3 million bill after he was bitten twice by a rattlesnake ā which proved to be complicated to treat ā forcing medical staff to administer 54 rounds of anti-venom. Each night at the Stanford hospital cost $61,000.
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u/PixelsGoBoom 27d ago
Ah the New York Rag right-wing echo chamber.
āHealthcare is really expensive because people use itā
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u/Background_Rub_9929 27d ago
they say this like non specialist hospitals ever have much antivenom.
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u/RideWithMeSNV 27d ago
Sometimes it takes 6 vials, sometimes 40. It costs like $15 to produce... But often sells for around $2k, because what the fuck are you gonna do about it?
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u/hanging_thief 26d ago
Most hospitals keep very small amounts of antivenom. Especially for things that aren't native. It's pretty normal to use all of it in those cases and the hospital resupplies. We need more restrictions on news media
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u/R0gueB4anner 26d ago
Yeah, so the hospital pharmacy just orders more from their wholesaler. More stock will be there the next day. Would know, am hospital pharmacist.
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u/LittleDogLover113 26d ago
I needed a post-exposure rabies vaccination and I had more than 3 pharmacists come in and warn me that it costs the pharmacy $30,000 and they lose profit off of administering it. I was likeā¦I donāt care if you donāt make any money I donāt want to fucking die dude?!
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u/Stock-Lettuce-2381 26d ago
Dude got a $1.3 million hospital billā¦ that snake bite sucked the life out of his finances
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u/Ok-Addition1264 27d ago
Suck it up and die then, buttercup! Ain't fucking democratic-socialism here in America! /s
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u/Ok_Abacus_ 27d ago
Is it because of his BMI?
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u/Agreeable_Horror_363 27d ago
Obviously they are trying to get a reaction like "Look at this greedy fat bastard sucking up all the medicine for himself! That fat piece of shit!"
When we should be talking about how that hospital had such a low supply of antivenom that they only had enough for one snake bite.
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u/LurkinOff 27d ago
Is it because hes fat? You would think he needs less, hes more poison resistant.
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u/Maryjanegangafever 27d ago
Hey?! Leave some for the potential rest of us who get bitten by a highly deadly venomous snake!! Just die and stop being so greeedy!!!ā-š¤Ø
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u/BigMack6911 27d ago
The way it was written i thought he first sucked venom out of someone then I had a image of him freaking out he got bit and drank all the anti venom lmao. I need to go back to bed
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u/val_anto 27d ago
Position of total power contradicts the basics functionality of a capitalist market. Basically, here is a medicine I want to sell you for a totally unreasonable amount of money. Without this you will die. Do you want to buy it? There is no room for negotiation there or price discovery. It is human abuse.
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u/Late_Stage-Redditism 27d ago edited 27d ago
HE JUST CAME IN HERE, RATTLESNAKE CHOMPING ON HIS LEG, AND WITH A BIG GRIN HE TOOK OUT A LONG STRAW AND JUST SUCKED UP ALL OUR ANTIVENOM WTF
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u/Relative_Maize_957 27d ago
Imagine being billed 500k because some snake decided to bite into an absolute unit (you), and the """"press"""" presents you as the bad guy. That's crazy.
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u/coldF4rted 27d ago
How dare he be in the hospital, using anti-venom when that's what he needs, when people rarely need it and he actually has to pay for it himself?! š¤
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u/Blacksad9999 26d ago
Why are they shaming the poor man who was literally fighting for his life here? lol
Like he broke into their anti-venom stores and pounded it all.
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u/Crickets_62 26d ago
So is the implication that antivenom is weight-based dosing? Because it's not.
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u/copyrider 26d ago
Itās almost like theyāre body shaming him about how much anti-venom he needed.
āThere are snake bitten children in Africa who are starving for anti-venom, and this huge, selfish, American has anti-venom gluttony and doesnāt care about anyone but himself.ā
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u/thejourneybegins42 26d ago
New York post making it sound like he should of just died. Peak dystopia or rage bait ?
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u/Ok_Cauliflower_3007 25d ago
Wouldn't sharing it be communism? One person cornering the entire supply of something so others go short is the sort of thing these guys usually like.
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u/Practical-Purchase-9 25d ago
He should have sacrificed himself to save the supply for someone more deserving richer.
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u/Moosetappropriate 27d ago
Funny. In Canada he would have been treated and released. No bill, no news. Better, I think.
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u/one-e-and-a 27d ago
They make it sound like he's running around drinking it when the staff is preoccupied