Federal health officials pushed five vaccine manufacturers to quickly produce a vaccine. They wanted a lot of it. About a quarter of the swine flu vaccine produced for the U.S. public has expired — meaning that a whopping 40 million doses worth about $260 million are being written off as trash. Why produce so much? The problem is greed. Corporate profits have become more important than honor and integrity.
July 1, 2010
May 16, 2010
May 9, 2010
February 9, 2010
The Center for Disease Control
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) (which by then controlled the Tuskegee syphilis study) reaffirmed the need to continue the study until completion (until all subjects had died and been autopsied). Considerations were limited from the start, and rapidly deteriorated. For example, to ensure that the men would show up for the possibly dangerous, painful, diagnostic and non-therapeutic spinal tap , the doctors sent the 400 patients a misleading letter titled, “Last Chance for Special Free Treatment”. The study also required all participants to undergo anautospy after death—in order to receive funeral benefits. After penicillin was discovered as a cure, researchers continued to deny such treatment to many study participants. Many patients were lied to and given placebo treatments— so that researchers could observe the progression of the fatal disease. In 1934, the Tuskegee Study published its first clinical data, and issued their first major report in 1936. This was prior to the discovery of penicillin as a treatment for syphilis. The study was not secret; it issued several published reports and data sets appeared throughout its duration.
By 1947 penicillin had become standard therapy for syphilis. The US government sponsored several public health programs to form “rapid treatment centers” to eradicate the disease. When campaigns to eradicate venereal disease came to Macon County, however, study researchers prevented their patients from participating. During World War II, 250 of the subject men registered for the draft . They were consequently diagnosed and ordered to obtain treatment for syphilis before they could be taken into the armed services.
PHS researchers prevented them from getting treatment, thus depriving them of chances for a cure, service to the nation, and gaining the benefit of the GI Bill for education, passed after the war. At the time, the PHS representative was quoted as saying: “So far, we are keeping the known positive patients from getting treatment.”
By the end of the study in 1972, only 74 of the test subjects were alive. Twenty-eight of the original 399 men had died of syphilis, 100 were dead of related complications, 40 of their wives had been infected, and 19 of their children were born with congenital syphilis.
February 1, 2010
C.I.A.
The CIA owns dozens of newspapers and magazines the world over. These not only provide cover for their agents but allow them to plant misinformation that regularly makes it back to the US through the wire services. The CIA has even placed agents on guard at the wire services, to prevent inconvenient facts from being disseminated.It’s true that the CIA have over 4000 US journalists working today. These ranged from freelancers who were paid for regular debriefings, to actual CIA officers who worked under deep cover on wall street, and every other major industry.
January 26, 2010
Ask your doctor
Big Bucks, Big Pharma” pulls back the curtain on the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry to expose the insidious ways that illness is used, manipulated, and in some instances created, for capital gain. Focusing on the industry’s marketing practices, media scholars and health professionals help viewers understand the ways in which direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical advertising glamorizes and normalizes the use of prescription medication, and works in tandem with promotion to doctors. Combined, these industry practices shape how both patients and doctors understand and relate to disease and treatment. Ultimately, “Big Bucks, Big Pharma” challenges us to ask important questions about the consequences of relying on a for-profit industry for our health and well-being.
January 23, 2010
H1N1
Free H1N1 vaccine clinics have failed to vaccinate many African-Americans, considered some of those most at risk of developing complications from the flu, public health officials said today. “I’m disappointed we have not had a higher percentage of African-Americans coming to these clinics,” The public health director, told supervisors at their morning meeting. “I don’t think it’s lack of sites available. Some surveys suggest it’s lack of willingness to come forward, and some of that is historic. It remains unclear how many African-Americans have been vaccinated countrywide. Those who wish to be vaccinated at free clinics to complete a vaccination form that includes their age, sex, race and other demographic information. ” We remember Tuskegee!
January 21, 2010
It’s all about the money
As stories on the dangers of flu viruses, contaminated foods, and contagious illnesses proliferate in the media, advertisers increasingly try to convince consumers that anti-microbial cleaning products will protect you and your family from infection
