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that doesn’t just bury the lede, it abandons it altogether?

Read this Guardian article about poor Latino workers in California who buy an over the counter supplement that claims to reduce joint pain and inflammation from overuse injuries.

Spoiler alert: it works. It works so well they take it daily for months until they start getting symptoms of endocrine illnesses. That’s because the supplement (packaged in *not the United States*) incudes unlabeled amounts of prescription steroids and anti-inflammatories. Great stuff, but not every day, forever.

The article has the usual litany of stuff medical and regulatory types are trying to do to persuade the mostly Spanish-speaking users and bodega owners to not use it or stock it. A quick primer on how the FDA works and doesn’t work with respect to supplements. Quotes from current users on how they’re just going to be more careful, and from former users on how their doctor said their knees/hips/feet are just going to hurt forever until they have reconstructive surgery, and they sure wish they could have that supplement back, if it wasn’t going to kill them long term.

Not a word about how all the users do hard physical labor (they’re mostly female house cleaners) and they’re all going to be homeless if they don’t just keep working forever, because wages suck, housing is unregulated, and there’s functionally no health care.

Sure, one interviewee mentions she’ll be in the street if she doesn’t keep working, but it’s an aside. It’s not the focus of the article.

So I will rewrite the hed and lede so the reader can instantly understand the problem: “Workers are poisoning themselves to stay solvent and housed in California.”