Comment on Snake oil
Spotted_Lady@wolfballs.com 2 years agoYeah, and others doing similar didn't help. Like William Hearst wanting to monopolize the printing industry. He entered into an exclusive contract with a chemical company. This used chemicals to pulp out the wood to make paper. Hemp was the only thing that could compete with that. So something had to be done. His nephew wanted to get into politics and Hearst pulled strings to help start a new federal agency and get his nephew into it. The agency was the Bureau of Dangerous Drugs or something, nowadays known as the DEA. The term "yellow journalism" came out of this time period, either due to the lies/propaganda that was printed, or what the chemically-produced paper did as it aged.
There are many bad things in terms of health that the government allowed or rubber-stamped. A shortlist includes Aspartame/NutraSweet, GMOs, specific vaccines (Polio, MMR, and COVID), chemically-manipulated fats/oils, etc.
I remember the story about a brave woman who was an FDA director. She was under pressure to approve a drug that was said to prevent morning sickness, among other possible benefits. She did something that the company didn't want, and that was to read the actual research. She was disturbed by the animal studies, where newborn animals were born without legs or other body parts. So she refused to allow the drug (Thalidomide) to be approved. The manufacturer was determined to get their drug approved, so they played politics and had her removed from her position. However, by the time they were about ready to get approval in the US, the news was exploding in the UK with heartwrenching stories of deformed babies and how the company used their influence to try to silence the press about the issue. So that killed off any chance of approval in the US. So had the FDA director not stood her ground, this nightmare would have happened in the US too. She didn't exactly stop them, but she delayed them until places that had already approved the drug were showing problems. At that point, they stopped pushing for approval because they were already being sued over the drug. That FDA director eventually was given the Civilian Medal of Honor or whatever it was called, which is the highest-ranking medal that the government gives to civilians.
masterofballs@wolfballs.com 2 years ago
Cool story. Wish the same would happen with the covid vaccines
Spotted_Lady@wolfballs.com 2 years ago
Me too. And sadly, she didn't completely stop some of this disaster in the US, as there were clandestine trials. Being a holdout, she prevented a much larger disaster in the US. We need more politicians and regulators to have some "balls."
Maybe I'll eventually discuss DES, a synthetic estrogen drug. In that case, it wasn't the drug itself that was really the problem as much as scientists and doctors not understanding it or knowing when it was appropriate to use. The FDA banned that one. This would be better to discuss in another community where gender identity and women's issues are relevant or occasionally discussed.