Vioxx Scandal News
November 25, 2009
Natural News
By Mike Adams
The Vioxx scandal widened this week as new research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine reveals that Vioxx maker Merck held data for three years that proved Vioxx caused an alarming increase in the risk of heart attacks and strokes. And yet Merck chose not to release that data. In fact, it took three more years of patients dying from heart attacks before Vioxx was pulled off the market, and even then, Merck insisted the drug was not dangerous. This new study was based on a meta-analysis of several unpublished studies that Merck obviously didn’t want to see published in medical journals. Drug companies routinely engage in this subterfuge: They cherry-pick which studies they want published while burying the rest. They also choose which studies to forward to the FDA, all while claiming the whole charade is based on “evidence-based medicine.” It is, sort of. If you add the word “selective” in front of the phrase, making it: “Selective evidence-based medicine.” So how were the authors of this new study able to find these unpublished studies that Merck would much prefer remained hidden? They were disclosed in court proceedings against Merck. So many people were harmed by Vioxx, you see, that some of them decided to sue. And in that legal process, many “secret” studies were revealed. Some smart-minded researchers decided to analyze the data in those studies and that’s what reveals Merck knew Vioxx raised the risk of heart-related side effects by 35 percent and yet did nothing to warn the public about those risks. In essence, these documents prove that Merck knowingly and maliciously allowed a deadly drug to continue to be sold to patients for years. It’s a clear case of profits before patients from a drug company mired in one scandal after another. (Merck is also the maker of Gardasil, the cervical cancer vaccine.) In its defense, Merck says its own scientists couldn’t find any link between Vioxx and heart attack deaths. Understandably, it’s difficult to find anything when your profits depend on not finding it.
The Merck conspiracy
Now that this data is public, it reveals that Merck’s executives and / or employees were engaged in a conspiracy to withhold important drug safety data from the public and the FDA. The aim of this conspiracy was simple: To maximize profits through the sale of a product they knew was killing people.
Of course, only the naive are surprised to hear this. Informed NaturalNews readers already know this is the default behavior of drug companies. They’ll do anything to make a buck, including fabricating clinical trial data, withholding important evidence, misrepresenting their drugs in television ads and lobbying lawmakers to make their drugs mandatory. The idea that they would knowingly sell a deadly drug to the general public — while sitting on data for years that proved the drug was dangerous — isn’t really surprising. Not once you know how the pharmaceutical industry really works, anyway.
Many people (and many states) are fed up with the criminal behavior of drug companies. Nearly 10,000 individuals filed personal injury lawsuits against Merck over the Vioxx scandal. Most were settled for $4.85 billion in 2007, but many lawsuits remain. Eleven states’ Attorneys General have also filed lawsuits against Merck, alleging the company committed fraud in its marketing of the drug to state Medicaid programs. Those lawsuits have yet to be resolved.
More legal action against Merck is no doubt on the way, as the company has engaged in questionable marketing practices spanning many different drugs (not just Vioxx). Drug companies like Merck have operated in the shadows for years, hiding data they knew would be damaging to their profits. These actions no doubt resulted in the needless deaths of tens of thousands of health consumers who would likely be alive today if this hidden data had been made public in 2001 when it was first known by Merck.
Merck’s actions fit the legal definition of “negligent homicide.” By withholding this important information, Merck indirectly caused the deaths of thousands of people. And yet somehow Merck’s executives and employees are literally “getting away with murder” as there are no efforts under way to prosecute these people for their crimes.
I have to ask the obvious question: Why aren’t Merck’s executives being arrested and hauled off to prison for prosecution? If this were a Wall Street scandal, you’d see the head honchos in handcuffs, paraded on videos blasted across the evening news. But when it comes to pharmaceuticals, it’s just business as usual. No one is held accountable. All those dead Americans essentially have their graves spit on by the failed justice system in this country that allows murderous corporations to continue killing more people with their deadly products.
The reason for all this is simple: America values money more than it values lives. When peoples’ investments are destroyed, that’s a crime. But when peoples’ lives are destroyed by a dangerous pharmaceutical product, that’s nobody’s fault. Accountability is non-existent.
It sure puts America’s priorities into perspective, doesn’t it? Public safety has been all but abandoned by the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry — an industry ruled by nothing other than the almighty dollar. And yet, here’s something that puts it all into yet more perspective: According to Congressional testimony about Vioxx from drug safety experts, Vioxx alone killed more Americans than the entire Vietnam War.
Is that something worth investigating for potential prosecution? If you value human life, then yes, absolutely. So why do Merck’s executives all seem to be immune to the law? Why is the Department of Justice too timid to go after one of the most dangerous organizations in the country that has killed many times more Americans than all terrorists combined?
Why isn’t Merck on the FBI’s “America’s Most Wanted” list?
And why do the American people tolerate such corporate behavior on their own soil? Is killing people with chemicals any less serious than killing people with bullets? Imagine the public outcry if a car company sold a defective vehicle that resulted in the deaths of more than 60,000 people… that would be shocking headline news. But when it comes to pharmaceutical deaths, the people remain strangely silent.
And the reason? There’s no video footage of people dying. Pharmaceutical deaths are silent, whimpering deaths. No fiery crashes. No flying body parts. No explosions to splash across the evening news. Just millions of people being individually and chemically snuffed out, all around the world, after taking patented prescription drugs sold by companies that lied to them about their safety.
Click here for the full report
UK Climate Research emails Posted
November 25, 2009 by Andrew
Filed under Government
Novemeber 25, 2009
The Wall Street Journal
The following are emails we’ve selected from more than 3,000 emails and documents that were hacked last week from computers at the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit in the United Kingdom. The CRU is the data repository for much of the world’s climate research and is a major source for the judgments reached by the U.N.’s climate reports. A nearby editorial (“
Global Warming With the Lid Off“) puts the emails in their political and scientific context, but readers may want to browse for themselves to get a flavor of the thinking of scientists who are the leading advocates for the belief that global warming is man-made and that nations must re-order the world economy to stop it. We’ve removed the email addresses and phone numbers, and we’ve inserted paragraph breaks in some places. The emails are otherwise unedited. The ellipses are the authors’ own. On freedom of information rules and deleting files:
From: Phil Jones
To: “Michael E. Mann”
Subject: IPCC & FOI
Date: Thu May 29 11:04:11 2008
Mike,
Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4? Keith will do likewise. He’s not in at the moment – minor family crisis. Can you also email Gene and get him to do the same? I don’t have his new email address. We will be getting Caspar to do likewise.
I see that CA claim they discovered the 1945 problem in the Nature paper!!
Cheers
Phil
Prof. Phil Jones
Climatic Research Unit
School of Environmental Sciences
University of East Anglia
Norwich
—————————————————————————-
From: Phil Jones
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 11:30 AM
To: Wahl, Eugene R; Caspar Ammann
Subject: Wahl/Ammann
Gene/Caspar,
Good to see these two out. Wahl/Ammann doesn’t appear to be in CC’s online first, but comes up if you search. You likely know that McIntyre will check this one to make sure it hasn’t changed since the IPCC close-off date July 2006! Hard copies of the WG1 report from CUP have arrived here today. Ammann/Wahl – try and change the Received date! Don’t give those skeptics something to amuse themselves with.
Cheers
Phil
Economy’s Rebound Not as Strong as Experts Thought
November 25, 2009
My Way
By Jeannie Aversa
The economy grew at a 2.8 percent pace last quarter, as the recovery got off to a slower start than first thought.
The Commerce Department’s new reading on gross domestic product wasn’t as energetic as the 3.5 percent growth rate for the July-September period estimated just a month ago.
The main factors behind the downgrade: consumers didn’t spend as much, commercial construction was weaker and the nation’s trade deficit was more of a drag on growth. Businesses also trimmed more of their stockpiles, another restraining factor.
The new reading on GDP, which measures the value of all goods and services produced in the United States – from machinery to manicures – was a tad weaker than the 2.9 percent growth rate economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected.
Still, the good news is that the economy finally started to grow again, after a record four straight losing quarters. The bad news is that the rebound, now and in the months ahead, probably will be lethargic.
The worst recession since the 1930s is very likely over, but the economy’s return to good health will take time, Fed officials and economists say.
Growth probably won’t be strong enough to quickly drive down the nation’s unemployment rate, currently at 10.2 percent. It’s only the second time in the post-World War II period that unemployment has topped 10 percent.
Some economists think economic growth will slow to around a 2.5 percent pace in the current quarter, although others say it could clock in at about 3 percent if holiday sales are better than expected.
Most say they think the economy will weaken again next year, with growth at a pace of around 1 percent as the impact of the $787 billion stimulus package fades and consumers keep tightening their belts under the strain of high unemployment and hard-to-get credit.
New Power Source Using Wind, Solar, and Hydro Energy
November 25, 2009
Natural News
By Paul Louis
A newly formed energy group called the Tres Amigas Project has put forth a proposal to interconnect three regional areas of natural energy sources, covering wind, solar, hydro, and geothermal generated electrical energies. The project may cost 1 billion dollars and take five years to complete.
The three regional grids to be connected are the Eastern interconnection, the Western interconnection, and the Texas interconnection. The connecting high speed substation would be placed in a 22.5 square mile area near Clovis, NM. Three high voltage converters capable of converting 5000 megawatts of direct current would be installed, forming a triangle over the Clovis 22.5 square mile area.
Those three converters would be linked with direct current superconductor cables from American Superconductor. The superconductor cables are meant to be underground, which minimizes environmental and property ownership issues. The cables are also very efficient at transmitting electricity.
Their power loss during transmission is around 3 percent, while conventional overhead cables often lose more than 10 percent of transmitted power. American Superconductor creates superconductivity with a ceramic wire that is cooled with liquid nitrogen circulated around the wires.
The proposal was announced last October, 2009 by New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. Governor Richardson had previously served as the U.S. Energy Secretary. The newly forming Tres Amigas Project has its headquarters in Santa Fe, New Mexico’s state capitol.
Number of Troubled Banks Rises to 552
November 25, 2009
The Wall Street Journal
By Damian Paletta
U.S. lenders saw loans fall by the largest amount since the government began tracking such data, suggesting that nervousness among banks continues to hamper economic recovery.
Total loan balances fell by $210.4 billion, or 3%, in the third quarter, the biggest decline since data collection began in 1984, according to a report released Tuesday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The FDIC also said its fund to backstop deposits fell into negative territory for just the second time in its history, pushed down by a wave of bank failures.
The decline in total loans showed how banks remain reluctant to lend, despite the hundreds of billions of dollars the government has spent to prop up ailing banks and jump-start lending. The issue has taken on greater urgency with the U.S. unemployment rate hitting 10.2% in October, even as the economy appears to be stabilizing.
More
“There is no question that credit availability is an important issue for the economic recovery,” FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair told reporters Tuesday. “We need to see banks making more loans to their business customers.”
She said large banks — which account for 56% of industry assets and received a large share of the government’s bailout funds — accounted for 75% of the decline.
James Chessen, chief economist at the American Bankers Association, an industry trade group, said, “It’s a very risky time for any lender because the probability of loss is greater, and they are being prudent in their approach to lending. Their regulators are demanding it.”
The FDIC’s quarterly banking profile, which analyzed data from 8,099 federally insured banks, reported that 552 financial institutions, with combined assets of $345.9 billion, were on the government’s problem list at the end of September, up from 416 with $299.8 billion of assets at the end of June. That means roughly 7% of all U.S. banks are on the list and face a higher probability of failure.
FDIC officials don’t disclose the names of banks on the list, in part because it could lead to bank runs.
Many banks on the problem list are expected to return to health, but the FDIC is seeing a jump in the number of failures. Fifty banks failed in the third quarter, the most in a single quarter since the fourth quarter of 1992. Three new banks were chartered in the third quarter, the lowest quarterly number since World War II.
The FDIC said its deposit-insurance fund, which backstops trillions of dollars in deposit accounts, fell to a negative $8.2 billion at the end of September, an $18.6 billion drop from the end of June. The FDIC said one reason for the decrease was that the agency shifted $21.7 billion from the fund into reserves for bank failures over the next 12 months.
Even though the FDIC’s fund balance was negative, it still had reserves of cash. The FDIC said it had $23.3 billion in cash at the end of September to help resolve future bank failures.
China No Longer Using Electroshock to Treat Internet Addiction
November 25, 2009
Natural News
By David Gutierrez
The Health Ministry of China has issued an order banning the use of electroshock therapy for the treatment of Internet addiction, in response to a nationwide scandal that erupted after former patients of the Linyi Mental Health Hospital in Shandong province wrote in blogs and forums that they had been subjected to the practice against their will.
“This news should truly make people happy,” a Chinese Internet user wrote in an online forum run by the search engine Baidu. “After all, this kind of thing is inhuman cruelty.”
Although Internet addiction is not recognized by the Chinese government as a valid clinical diagnosis, the condition has de facto acceptance throughout the country’s health profession and government. Symptoms of Internet addiction include spending more than six hours a day online not for work or school purposes and becoming angry when unable to access the Internet. A recent estimate by the National People’s Congress estimated that roughly one in every 10 Chinese residents under the age of 18 suffers from Internet addiction.
In response to this perceived problem, a number of government-funded clinics and treatment programs have sprung up around the country, promising to cure the condition. Children are often tricked into attending by their parents.
Typical treatment at these centers was described by Infoworld.com as “a mix of military boot camp and therapy sessions.” At least one hospital, however, used electroshock therapy on top of these techniques. According to Web postings by former patients, hospital staff would tie patients down and subject them to shocks for up to 30 minutes at a time, while demanding that the patients admit to their faults. Linyi staff said that the procedure was intended to create a negative association with Internet use.
MRSA Bacteria Popping Up in American Hospitals
November 25, 2009
U.S. News
By Jennifer Thomas
Strains of antibiotic-resistant infections normally found in the community are increasingly showing up among hospital outpatients, raising the risk that inpatients could become infected, new research says.
From 1999 to 2006, researchers found a sevenfold increase in the incidence of outpatients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections. Outpatients include people treated in emergency departments or surgical centers but not admitted, or at doctors’ offices associated with hospitals.
This poses a risk to inpatients because many resources are used by both sets of patients. These include surgical centers and the doctors themselves, who often treat patients both inside and outside of hospitals.
“What this is suggesting is that outpatients are a significant source of MRSA, especially community-associated MRSA strains,” said the study’s lead author, Eili Klein, a doctoral candidate at Princeton University and a researcher at Resources for the Future, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. “This suggests the need for incentives to make sure hospitals are not only taking steps to prevent hospital-associated strains from spreading among inpatients, but preventing the spread of community-associated strains through shared resources.”
The study is published in the December issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
MRSA, which burst into the public consciousness in the 1990s, is named for its resistance to methicillin and other antibiotics. There are several strains, including those that emerged in hospitals, called “hospital associated,” and those that emerged outside hospitals and tend to spread in schools and gyms, called “community associated.”
While both types can cause serious, life-threatening illness, hospital-acquired strains are generally more virulent. The bacteria can get into wounds, causing deadly blood or lung infections. About 20,000 people in the United States die each year from the MRSA infections, according to background information in the study.
Community-associated strains have also caused some deaths in otherwise healthy people, including several children who were killed by MRSA infections in the late 1990s. Typically, however, community-associated strains cause skin or other soft tissue infections that are treatable with newer antibiotics.
AMA Not Pushing Mandatory Flu Vaccinations for Doctors
November 25, 2009
Amendment News
By Kevin O’ Reilly and Damon Adams
The AMA House of Delegates rejected a proposal to mandate vaccinations for health care professionals but approved other policy to prevent the spread of seasonal flu and influenza A(H1N1).
A resolution by the Infectious Diseases Society of America said the AMA should back universal seasonal and H1N1 flu immunizations unless health professionals have medical contraindications or religious objections. In October, New York state announced that it was requiring all health professionals to get the H1N1 immunization, but the mandate was suspended later that month due to vaccine shortages.
“It is our ethical duty to do no harm and prevent transmission of disease to patients,” said Michael L. Butera, MD, an alternate delegate who spoke on behalf of IDSA. “Despite educational efforts, we have 40% to 70% immunization rates that are woefully inadequate.” Mandates may be “the only way to achieve” the goal of universal vaccination, he said.
But delegates balked at the idea of a vaccination mandate, saying that requirements should be a last resort and can be counterproductive if implemented poorly. The house directed the AMA to study the ethical and scientific intricacies of the issue further.
Delegates said hand sanitizer dispensers should be available in well-trafficked areas and urged large gathering places to develop plans in line with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations.
Expert Warns of Pandemic Flu Mutation
November 25, 2009
Reuters
By Stefanie McIntyre
China must be alert to any mutation or changes in the behavior of the H1N1 swine flu virus because the far deadlier H5N1 bird flu virus is endemic in the country, a leading Chinese disease expert said.
Zhong Nanshan, director of the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases in China’s southern Guangdong province, said the presence of both viruses in China meant they could mix and become a monstrous hybrid — a bug packed with strong killing power that can transmit efficiently among people.
“China, as you know, is different from other countries. Inside China, H5N1 has been existing for some time, so if there is really a reassortment between H1N1 and H5N1, it will be a disaster,” Zhong said in an interview with Reuters Television.
“This is something we need to monitor, the change, the mutation of the virus. This is why reporting of the death rate must be really transparent.”
The World Health Organization warned on Tuesday that H5N1 had erupted in poultry in Egypt, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, posing once again a threat to humans.
“First, it places those in direct contact with birds — usually rural folk and farm workers — at risk of catching the often-fatal disease. Second, the virus could undergo a process of “reassortment” with another influenza virus and produce a completely new strain,” it said.
“The most obvious risk is of H5N1 combining with the pandemic … (H1N1) virus, producing a flu virus that is as deadly as the former and as contagious as the latter.”
Zhong told the Chinese media last week that China may have had more H1N1 flu deaths than it has reported, with some local governments possibly concealing suspect cases.
The doctor is known for his candor and work in fighting Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in 2003, when nationwide panic and international alarm erupted after it emerged that officials hid or underplayed the spreading epidemic.
Cover-ups by local governments in 2003 during the SARS epidemic led to the sackings of several officials. More than 300 people died in that outbreak.
Nickelodeon Advertising Under Fire – Nearly 80% of Food Ads Unhealthy
November 25, 2009
CBS News
Nickelodeon may be a kid-friendly network, but when it comes to nutrition they are serving up the wrong ads.
According to an analysis conducted by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), “nearly 80 percent of food ads on the popular children’s network Nickelodeon are for foods of poor nutritional quality.”
During an obesity epidemic in the United States, it’s hard enough for parents to control what their children are eating – and the group says airing a lot of junk food ads on Nickelodeon doesn’t help.
Although the findings show a modest drop from about 90 percent in 2005, it’s not significant enough to make a dent.
The CSPI points out that between the 2005 and 2009 studies, the food industry instituted a self-regulatory program through the Council of Better Business Bureaus, the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI).
But for junk food lovers, self-regulation doesn’t always work.
CSPI took a closer look at the practices of the food companies that participate in that self-regulatory program.
They found that “of the 452 foods and beverages that companies say are acceptable to market to children, that 267, (or nearly 60 percent), do not meet CSPI’s recommended nutrition standards for food marketing to children.”
The list includes: General Mills’ Cookie Crisp and Reese’s Puffs cereals, Kellogg Apple Jacks and Cocoa Krispies cereals, Kellogg Rice Krispies Treats, Campbell’s Goldfish crackers and SpaghettiOs, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, and many Unilever Popsicles.
“While industry self-regulation is providing some useful benchmarks, it’s clearly not shielding children from junk food advertising, on Nick and elsewhere,” said CSPI nutrition policy director Margo G. Wootan. “It’s a modest start, but not sufficient to address children’s poor eating habits and the sky-high rates of childhood obesity.”
