After years of work helping to reduce the opioid overdose epidemic, I started asking the same question about severe allergies: what is being done for people with peanut and tree nut allergies, especially as stocked epinephrine becomes more common in schools and public places?
This one is personal. My middle son has a nut allergy. Our family always carries epinephrine — but not every family does. Too often, schools, offices, restaurants, and public spaces hesitate to keep emergency epinephrine on hand because of liability concerns or cost.
There are a lot of reasons someone might not have epinephrine when they need it. Sometimes an allergy is undiagnosed. Sometimes its severity changes. And sometimes, as children grow up and start living independently, they simply forget it.
As a parent preparing to send my son off on his own, I couldn't stop thinking about the "what if."
That's why we built ARK. Modeled on the success of publicly available naloxone for opioid overdoses, it's designed to make epinephrine accessible where and when it's needed most.
We're glad to answer questions, support communities, and help make unexpected allergy emergencies less dangerous than they are today.
— Jay Wilson, Founder
