As Breast Cancer Awareness Month nears its end and the election looms, healthcare is top of people's minds. It became a focal point during Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court hearings as the Affordable Care Act waits for another day in court.
As the CEO of Susan G. Komen, Paula Schneider, a breast cancer survivor herself, told Cheddar's Opening Bell, "People need to care that their healthcare is one of the most important rights that they should have."
During the same interview, journalist Katie Couric, founder of Katie Couric Media, also called healthcare an essential right saying, "if you have a system that isn't open to people, it's just blatantly, terribly, un-American."
The National Cancer Institute estimates that as of January 2019, there are 16.9 million cancer survivors in the United States. This represents approximately 5 percent of the population, and that number of cancer survivors is projected to increase by nearly 30 percent, to nearly 22 million, by 2029.
Now amid the pandemic, people are delaying screening and routine care with a sharp drop in screenings and cancer diagnoses this year. According to a recent JAMA study, breast cancer diagnoses alone saw a 51.8 percent dip in March and April compared to previous years. According to Schneider, some reports show that drop being as large as 80 percent when it comes to breast cancer. "That doesn't mean it's not happening," she said. "It just means it's not being diagnosed, and therefore it's not being treated."
"Ladies get your mammograms."
As for Couric, she has faced the heartbreak of cancer within her own family. Her first husband Jay and her sister Emily both died following their battles with cancer. She said that one of the most important things a support system can do for a cancer patient is just to be there. "When Jay was sick he said having cancer is the loneliest experience in the world," Couric said.
That's part of the reason she partnered with pharmaceutical giant Merck for a new project called Your Cancer Story. The program provides information and support to cancer patients from diagnosis to treatment to survivorship. Couric said she wishes she had access to this kind of program for her own family years ago.
"You can see people talking about what they're going through. You can get advice. You can get guidance. You can get support," she explained. "Other survivors and other caregivers can talk about some of the things they wish they had known."
Actors Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, and James Hong joined Cheddar News to discuss their new science fiction family drama, "Everything Everywhere All At Once," featuring a Chinese American family. "I really hope that people will come out of this film feeling a little bit of healing and also inspired to love the ones you're with a little bit harder in this very moment in this life right now," said Hsu. The film also stars Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis.
This June marks the 25th anniversary of the infamous 1997 "Bite Fight”, the iconic boxing rematch between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield when Tyson shockingly bit a piece of his opponent’s ear off. As a macabre tribute to the incident, the boxing legend’s line of cannabis products, Tyson 2.0, has released “Mike Bites", edibles in the shape of an ear complete with a bite mark. Tyson, the chief brand officer and co-founder, along with CEO Adam Wilks joined Cheddar News to talk about the unique gummies. "I just think this is just me owning what I did. I'm owning my responsibility. I've done that. That was pretty bad at the time, but I turned it over to make it pretty good," the former heavyweight champion said.
Donna Letier, CEO and Co-Founder of Gardenuity, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how gardening can improve your wellbeing, and why businesses are using this as a way to keep employees happy.
U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Famer and former Olympian Nancy Kerrigan spoke to Cheddar News about joining Ice Dreams, a national skating tour that connects legends of the sport with its next generation. Kerrigan spoke of the lessons she learned from the sport and how grateful she is for the opportunity to give something back. “I mean skating has taught me some of the greatest things in in my life," she said. "You know, you fall down, things get hard, but you get back up and you keep on trying. And if you're performing and doing something you love, I think you would actually do even better.”
Cheddar's Michelle Castillo reports on the activations for the streaming wars between HBO Max, Prime Video, Disney+, and Paramount+ from South by Southwest 2022 — and returns with a souvenir.
The White House launches covid.gov, Meta is spreading rumors about TikTok, and Disney's got the hottest Easter drink - for adults only. Here is all the news you Need2Know for Thursday, March 31, 2022.
After two years of living in the pandemic, people are gearing up to travel for their summer vacations in 2022. Leigh Barnes, the chief customer officer for adventure tours company Intrepid Travel, joined Cheddar News to talk about the year’s top travel destinations and tips on how to prepare. Regarding COVID restrictions, Barnes discussed needing to do your own research to make sure you should be hitting a destination at all. "I think that the last thing is, making sure that where you're going is, the communities want you there. Because I think one of the things that we're seeing from possibly a Western lens is vaccine equity," he said. "We've got high vaccine rates across a lot of the Western nations. They may not have that same COVID normal that we're experiencing. So you've got to look for places that do want tourists to come in or ways that we can support vaccine equity."
If you have a minute, Protégé thinks it might be enough to get your talent noticed by stars and industry movers like DJ Khaled. Jackson Jhin, co-founder and CEO of the platform, talked to Cheddar about how the services might better democratize access to performing arts like music and acting. "You have 60 seconds to send a video to the best experts in each industry and send it to people who otherwise would have been inaccessible," he noted. For a wide-ranging fee, applicants can submit their work to garner feedback from folks like Jason Alexander or Scooter Braun — with a money-back guarantee, according to Jhin.
