Pharmaceuticals

Fun fact: Drugmakers may legally advertise pharmaceuticals on television in only 2 countries, New Zealand and the United States. Now under new proposed rules, drugmakers may be forced to disclose in their TV ads how much their drugs cost. [1] [2]
A new federal rule has been drafted by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar that would require drug manufacturers to disclose in television ads the list price for a 30-day supply of any drug that is covered through Medicare or Medicaid and costs more than $35 a month. [2]

When you buy supplements, you expect them to contain the advertised ingredients, right? And I’m sure you certainly don’t expect them to contain any pharmaceuticals, such as Viagra. But a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) analysis published in JAMA Network Open reveals that hundreds of dietary supplements actually contain pharmaceutical drugs. And yes, that includes Viagra, a drug that treats erectile dysfunction (ED). [1]

Most doctors are wonderful people and consummate professionals who truly want the best for their patients. But a recent study suggests much of the blame for the opioid crisis lies squarely on the shoulders of doctors who write prescriptions for hard-hitting opioids when other simpler pain-relieving methods would suffice.
The study shows that as recently as 2015, doctors were still prescribing the addictive and potentially deadly painkillers even for minor injuries in great numbers.

A member of the family that owns Purdue Pharma – the same company that makes OxyContin – has been awarded a patent for a treatment for opioid use disorder. [1]

As it is presently constructed, the American health care system is predicated on the pernicious idea that good health care is a privilege. Meanwhile, medical students, residents, and other interlopers regard observing patients’ doctor’s visits to be their right, regardless of whether or not the patient’s consent has been obtained. This dichotomy embodies the egregious inequality inherent in the two-tier system, and is indicative of a complete inversion of the way any humane health care system must be ideologically oriented.

Nothing better illustrates the disaster of Britain leaving the EU than Donald Trump. Once we’re no longer able to enjoy the huge benefits of the European single market we will be compelled to try to arrange favourable independent trade deals with other countries, the largest of which will almost certainly be the USA. Having to rely on the US for our primary trading partner is the truly nightmare scenario of Brexit, and one example of why this is so was provided last week.

America’s corpocracy, or what I call the Devil’s marriage between dominant corporate and subordinate government America, is a vast domain of thousands of colluding corporations and government agencies.1 While the corpocracy’s rampant and successful wrongdoing is what makes the corpocracy so powerful, it still must depend on customers to survive and thrive. Customers?

Oh, what fun it truly was to experience the “bomb cyclone” in January in New England: the snowfall gave a sense of peace and calm, the winds were less strong than predicted, and the snow, while heavy, was not dense enough to take down trees and power lines in most areas. The following period of intense cold through February and March in the eastern half of the US, on the other hand, seems a harbinger of climate instability which will most likely worsen in upcoming years.

A society of socially engineered individuals who cannot identify their own anthropological dissonance is a depraved society.
Its depravity is further established by its managers who do not experience profound discomfort in the face of the state’s domestic and foreign perpetual mass crimes.
Here, I explore the role of so-called health care in maintaining Canadian societal depravity. Canada is a satellite state of the USA, which defines itself as a jurisdiction with public medical services.