Thursday, June 16, 2005

Please Don't Accuse our Advertisers of Poisoning Babies. It's Bad for Business.

ABC Bosses Tell ABC News "Kill The Interviews With Robert Kennedy Jr.!"

Here is the Salon story where RFK Jr. talks about the buried research and the role Big Pharm has with the doctors and politicians. What is interesting to me is who put the pressure on ABC to kill the interviews? Could it be one of the big DRUG manufacturer who advertise? Nah. Too obvious. They will do it through a third party and make some lame claim that they didn't think the science was strong enough. Maybe the canceling of the interview will draw MORE attention to the issue. I know it got me to notice. Good for you ABC!

And it's nice to hear that Republican lawmakers want to protect their children (I never doubted they did, but it seems like an issue has to touch them DIRECTLY before they are willing to do the right thing -- gay children not withstanding.)

Even many conservatives are shocked by the government's effort to cover up the dangers of thimerosal. Rep. Dan Burton, a Republican from Indiana, oversaw a three-year investigation of thimerosal after his grandson was diagnosed with autism. "Thimerosal used as a preservative in vaccines is directly related to the autism epidemic," his House Government Reform Committee concluded in its final report. "This epidemic in all probability may have been prevented or curtailed had the FDA not been asleep at the switch regarding a lack of safety data regarding injected thimerosal, a known neurotoxin." The FDA and other public-health agencies failed to act, the committee added, out of "institutional malfeasance for self protection" and "misplaced protectionism of the pharmaceutical industry."

--- From Salon article By Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Drug companies put a cost on human lives. They don't want to admit it, but they do. They are, after all, out to make a buck. If a multiple injection vial is cheaper but you might have a few kids with autism or speech disorders, well that is sad but they have a responsibility to shareholders and besides, they are HELPING by providing vaccines! Making vaccines is hard work! And since the government won't protect them from lawsuits like they have asked them to (by trying to get blanket coverage slipped into 9/11 spending bills) what do you expect them to do? Admit they calculated that the cost benefit ratio INCLUDED X% of kids who will become autistic? Hell no! The public doesn't want to hear that! Certainly not the "culture of life" crowd. They can't let go of Teri Schiavo do you think they would be okay with the details of covering up the thimerosal problem?

No, not until they get that all important free pass. THEN and only then can they say, "Wow this data is more conclusive that we thought. We are changing the formulation now, but WITH OUT ADMISSION OF ANY GUILT and moving on, sorry folks, it's those damn lawsuits. If it wasn't for the lawsuits we would TOTALLY have done the right thing."

The people who should be doing oversight for big Pharm need to be held accountable.

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