To be sure, there is no doubt that in the annals of history, Big Medicine and Big Pharma have teamed up to be so very wrong on so very many issues that one better come in with some skepticism and a wary eye. On the other hand, whether one starts with Jonas Salk, the sterile operative field, or antibiotics, so many developments have saved so many lives that it is still best, by far, to start in a position where one trusts that doctors and even the big drug companies would rather cure you and keep you healthy than purposefully make you sick. At least starting in that position allows someone to evaluate the science as it comes in with the appropriate eye. If you begin with the assumption that the American Psychiatric Society and Purdue Pharma are trying to make you sicker you’ll sound like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is sure that he’s found the secret to health – and that health is to be found in getting off lifesaving medicine (Trust him, he’s not a doctor), and eating food that is not processed in a mass-modern manner with all the chemicals to go with it. He makes it sound so good and reasonable, as if his point must be based on scientific findings, and yet once you try it you get sick anyway – that’s the predictable result when you start by supposing that modern medicine isn’t at least trying to do the right thing.
But again, Robert Kennedy seems to presume that he has stumbled onto a deep truth and, despite the fact that his kids are vaccinated and despite the fact that he’s made a ton of money off lawsuits against drug companies and sketchy claims to cure things, we’re to believe that he’s both found a secret to good health and he’s the one who is willing to share it to your benefit, and never mind the APA and Purdue, because they’re in it for the money, even though he’s in it for the money, too. Kennedy gave his first speech to HHS yesterday, his new department, stuffed with people who actually do know what they’re talking about, and he sort of pretended to tread lightly, saying that he’s more than willing to be wrong, but then got real aggressive in promising that absolutely everything was on the table for his review. According to a report in The New York Times:
“Let’s all depoliticize these issues and reestablish a common ground for action, and renew the search for existential truth with no political impediments and no preconceptions,” he said, adding, “I promise to be willing to be wrong.”
Sounds great. You’re 100% wrong on vaccines, which represent one of science’s greatest achievements – how’s that? The report goes on:
In a signal of how he plans to use his new authority, Mr. Kennedy also made clear that he would prod the department, and the “Make America Healthy Again” commission established by President Trump that he will lead, to prioritize topics he cares about but that he said were “formerly taboo or insufficiently scrutinized” by mainstream scientists.
How about just continuing the commitment to President Biden’s cancer moonshot? As to “insufficiently scrutinized” that would apply to all treatments for any condition that doesn’t require daily medication into perpetuity, something as simple as a new generation of antibiotics? These are actually the things to which Big Pharma is unwilling to invest – sure, they could make money off it, but the goal is Prozac – the gold standard, prescribed to everyone, for everyone to take daily for the rest of their lives. The only problem with using Prozac as the ultimate boogeyman is that it has also saved millions of lives, the one key fact that takes RFK’s otherwise somewhat sympathetic view and makes it part of the problem, not solution. Yes, big Pharma has made a killing off SSRIs and yes they are over prescribed – that doesn’t mean that they haven’t done a sh*t ton of good and saved countless lives! These are not mutually exclusive and yet Kennedy continues to act as though they are!
And by the way, Robert, if you are willing to be wrong, that’s something you prove before you get the big job – because they’re all wrong sometimes. But at least when the science is wrong, it’s wrong because of a hole in the science, some factor lurking unseen. When you’re wrong, you are just exposing the hole that’s been there from the beginning, because you’ve done no science. Whatever else modern medicine might be, it’s all based on science, good science or not, at least the studies and peer review are there, which is not a perfect system but it’s more perfect than any alternative.
I did find one thing with which Kennedy could help:
“Both science and democracy flourish from the free and unimpeded flow of information,” Mr. Kennedy said.
Hold that thought for when Elon comes rolling through your departments, bro. And here it is, here is where Kennedy could help:
But Mr. Kennedy’s goals for transparency may collide with those of the pharmaceutical industry and academic institutions, which take money from the federal government but keep their work secret for competitive reasons. The F.D.A., for example, has strict rules governing the sharing of “non-public information.”
Anyone who develops anything while funded by taxpayer dollars forfeits their right to keep their work secret. It always belonged to the taxpayer. That’s the deal. If you want to patent your anti-cancer drug and become richer than Elon, fine – but research with wholly private funds to get to that point. If you accept public money, you accept that the public always owned the fruits of that research. If Kennedy can help enforce this commitment, then he may well be worth it. Until then…
Until then, nothing is out of bounds. Why does one get the sense that he’s putting all real medicine on the table for attack and not putting himself up there with nothing out of bounds?
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Friends, donations have dried up this week and we haven’t gotten any new subscribers. If you’ve already helped, thank you so very much. If you can help a bit, it would be appreciated. We are in a slough of despair with the generalized Democratic depression on top of Q1 revenue rates being the lowest of all year. Thank you. Ursula
There is absolutely no reason why insulin should be as expensive as it is. The discoverer gave away the patent. I suspect that RFK thinks diabetics should cure their disease by avoiding processed foods. Got news for you, Bobby Booby, my husband is underweight for his height. He is still diabetic and needs insulin. Go Ef yourself.
What is scary as he’ll is that most Secretaries of HHS have not been doctors. THAT is just wrong The Department should be run by someone who knows the subject matter. It doesn’t have to be a doctor. A biochemist, a public health Ph.D., A hospital administrator would work. But not a lawyer or a politician or even a bureaucrat. How can you hope to run a department whose subject area you know nothing about?
RFK is a disaster in a suit, an ignorant, anti&ladder exe addict lawyer.