Tuesday, 8 June 2010
World Health Organization using Big Pharma Shills as Advisors
What happens when medical science is influenced by the big money from big Pharma? The head of the World Health said Tuesday that her decisions about swine flu were not influenced by advisers with links to pharmaceutical companies, which were pointed out in an article this month in the British Medical Journal.
Chan was then defended by Michael Osterholm, Who is the Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), and also the director of the NIH-supported Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance within CIDRAP. Wow! Imagine that he gets his funding from the National Institutes of Health. Let's not forget the the NIH was the government Pharma shill that touted the Tozzi study as proof that vaccines are safe. So we have another NIH funded doctor defending other big pharmaceutical company funded doctors who influence and develop the policy that affects our lives and pocket books. What a sweet heart deal they must have! Wonder which of the big Pharma give Osterholm funds for his research?
Don't remember Margaret Chan? She as the Director of Health of Hong Kong handled the 1997 H5N1 avian influenza outbreak and the 2003 SARS outbreak. After the first victim of the H5N1, Chan first tried to reassure Hong Kong residents with her infamous statements like, "I ate chicken last night" or "I eat chicken every day, don't panic, everyone". When many more H5N1 cases appeared, she was criticised for misleading the public. In the end, she was credited for helping bring the epidemic under control by the slaughter of 1.5 million chickens in the region in the face of stiff political opposition.
Her performance during the SARS outbreak, which ultimately led to 299 deaths, attracted harsh criticism from the Legislative Council of Hong Kong and many SARS victims and their relatives. She was criticised by the Legislative Council for her passiveness, for believing in misleading information shared by the mainland authority, and did not act swiftly. On the other hand, the SARS expert committee established by the Hong Kong Government to assess its handling of the crisis, opined that the failure was not Chan's fault, but due to the structure of Hong Kong's health care system, in which the separation of the hospital authority from the public health authority resulted in problems with data sharing.
Pathetic.
How long before the public gets a response defending WHO and Chan from the Science Based Medicine Pharma Shills? Counting down 3, 2, 1...
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