"Medicating Normal"

 This full-length, award-winning documentary unearths the shattering truth that millions of people worldwide are injured by prescribed psychiatric medications. Interweaving stories of harm with expert testimony, the film reveals how a profit-driven industry hides the risks of long-term use. This untold story is a compelling call to examine the consequences of medicating normal human suffering.

Featuring Experts:

-Anna Lembke, MD, Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University Medical School, Author, "Dopamine Nation"

-Peter Gøtzsche, Danish physician and medical researcher, Co-founder of the Cochrane Collaboration, Director, Institute for Scientific Freedom

-David Cohen, PhD., researcher, Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Development at Luskin School of Social Work, University of California Los Angeles, Co-author, "Your Drug May Be Your Problem"

-Robert Whitaker, Science Journalist, Author, "Mad in America" and "Anatomy of an Epidemic."

-Allen Frances M.D., Psychiatrist, Professor and Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, co-chair of DSM-IV Task Force, Author, "Saving Normal"

-Mary Vieten, PhD., Psychologist, Executive Director of Warfighter ADVANCE, Chairman of the Board of Directors for the International Society for Ethical Psychology & Psychiatry, ISEPP

-Ellen Vora, M.D., psychiatrist and author, "The Anatomy of Anxiety"

For more information, visit https://www.medicatingnormal.com

Medical Terminology Concerto

Classical musical humor teaches doctors how to speak medicalese and keep patients from understanding what they’re saying.

Source

The Cost Of Vaccinating Against Sexually-Transmitted Diseases

By Marcella Piper-Terry

VaxTruth

Over the last few days there has been a lot of discussion about Texas’ Governor Rick Perry and his mandate that all girls in Texas receive the HPV vaccine. For those who don’t know, the HPV vaccine is supposed to protect against cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is not a big killer in the U.S. It is very treatable with early detection and the best protection is to get regular pap smears. The vaccine has not been tested with regard to its effect on reproductive health. It has also not been shown to work they way it is advertised to work. The only sure thing about the HPV vaccine (brand names Cervarix and Gardasil) is that since being licensed in the U.S., more young girls and young women have been injured or killed by the vaccine than the number of women who die from cervical cancer in this country during a typical year. This is a clear example of an instance where the “cure” is most definitely more damning than the disease it is meant to prevent. Given these facts, why would Governor Rick Perry mandate the HPV vaccine for all young girls in Texas? One simple word: Money. Governor Perry is strongly connected with Merck, the drug manufacturer that produces Gardasil.

Guess what? Governor Perry is a contendor for the republican nomination for president in 2012. Part of the “attraction” to Rick Perry is what he (and his predecessors) has done for the economy in Texas over the last 21 years. (Governor Perry is taking credit for Texas’ “economic strength” – but when you really look at the data, you can see that the trend was started long before he took office.) What governor Perry has achieved in Texas comes largely at the expense of the most vulnerable citizens in the state. Texas has a very high percentage of children without health insurance, and the environmental quality of the state sucks. Funding for schools is terrible, and Texas ranks right there with Mississippi for the percentage of its citizens working for minimum wage. The reason Texas is in such great shape financially is the same reason Indiana is in “good” financial shape, compared to our neighbors. Our governors have sold us out while courting big business and giving those who pollute our states carte blanche to do so. But this post is not about the environment. It’s about the cost of vaccinating against sexually-transmitted diseases. Governor Perry apparently believes Texas is in such great shape that the state can afford the cost of vaccinating every female child living below the poverty level with three doses of a vaccine that has not been shown to be effective, and which carries a price tag of more than $300 per person. Just imagine what could be done with that money.

The rest of this post was written several months ago. This is not just about the HPV vaccine; it also contains information about the Hepatitis B vaccine. I propose we do away with both. Actually, I propose we do away with lots more than just these; however, for the sake of argument, let’s just do away with Hep B and HPV vaccines. If we did that, we wouldn’t have a debt crisis.

Read on…

Do you know how much money we are paying (as U.S. taxpayers) to vaccinate infants and children against sexually-transmitted diseases?

I spent some time looking at the numbers. Here is what I found:

In 2008, there were 4,247,695 births in the United States according to the National Vital Statistics report (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr59/nvsr59_01.pdf ).

Nationally, in 2008, the percentage of children between the ages of 19-35 months of age who lived below the poverty level (and therefore qualified for government-funded vaccinations) was 28.7 (http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/stats-surv/nis/nis-2008-released.htm ).

Assuming the percentage of children born in 2008 and living below the poverty level is similar to the percentage of other preschool children in the U.S. who are living in poverty, we can estimate the number of government-funded vaccinations for children born in 2008 by multiplying the total number of births (4,247,695) by the percentage rate (.287). This gives us an estimate of 1,219,088.

According to data gathered by the CDC, among those children whose vaccinations were funded through the Vaccinations For Children (VFC) program (government-funded vaccines), 95.1% received all three Hepatitis B Vaccinations (http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/stats-surv/nis/nis-2008-released.ht ).

This means that 1,159,353 American children were vaccinated in 2008 against Hepatitis B (three times each) at tax-payers’ expense.

What does this mean?

According to the CDC’s Vaccine Price List, the cost of the Hepatitis B Vaccine (CDC cost per dose) is $10.25 (http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/programs/vfc/cdc-vac-price-list.htm )

Three doses (as recommended in the 2010 Childhood Schedule) would cost $30.75 (3 x 10.25) (http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/schedules/downloads/child/2010/10_0-6yrs-schedule-pr.pdf )

So, the United States’ taxpayers paid a total of approximately $35,650,105 to vaccinate infants against a sexually-transmitted disease. IN ONE YEAR!

Our government spent more than thirty-five million dollars (our tax dollars) vaccinating children against hepatitis B. IN ONE YEAR!

Hepatitis B is a sexually transmitted disease. It is spread through sexual contact and sharing of infected needles, just like HIV/AIDS. Recent studies reveal that ANY immunity conferred through vaccination is GONE in 2-5 years. So, those children who have been vaccinated as infants will no longer have ANY immunity from vaccination by the time they become sexually active (unless they are crib-hopping in the hospital nursery!).

This is a complete waste of money. However, this is money that has already been spent. What we may want to ask ourselves at this point is, what do we have to look forward to in the future?

The Hepatitis B vaccine is a vaccine that is designed and marketed as protection from a sexually-transmitted disease. Another vaccine that has been recently developed and heavily marketed as protection against a sexually-transmitted disease is the HPV vaccine, known as Gardasil or Cervarix. Assuming that our government will continue to fund vaccination according to the recommended schedule for all U.S. children living at or below the poverty level, we can expect our taxpayer dollars to fund the vaccination of these children against HPV in the future.

The current cost (12/2010) of Gardasil (CDC cost per dose) is $108.72.

The current cost (12/2010) of Cervarix (CDC cost per dose) is $96.08.

Splitting the difference, we can expect to pay AT LEAST $ 102.40 per injection. At three injections, that means we (the U.S. taxpayers) will spend approximately $307.00 per child to vaccinate against HPV.

At $307.00 per child, it will cost us (the United States’ Taxpayers) $374,260,016.00 to vaccinate the children born in 2008, and living at or below the poverty level, against HPV virus. Of course, by the time children who are born in 2008 reach the age where they are required to receive the HPV vaccination in order to attend school, the cost of the vaccine may be much higher than it is now.

This is nuts.

The only ones who are benefiting from this are the vaccine manufacturers and the government officials who support them and benefit from them. Meanwhile, more and more children are dying from the vaccines, which are not only expensive, but have never been proven to be safe or even effective.

WE ARE FOOTING THE BILL WHILE THE GOVERNMENT IS KILLING OUR CHILDREN!

Why are we allowing this to happen?

http://vaxtruth.org/2011/08/the-cost-of-vaccinating-against-sexually-transmitted-diseases/

Selling drugs as scholarly opinion

By Nancy Banks MD and Clark Baker
OMSJ
Office of Medical and Scientific Justice

Would you buy a home loan from a Countrywide loan rep? Would you invest your life savings with Bernie Madoff? Would you ask Casey Anthony to babysit your children? Probably not. So why should anyone believe David Ropeik when he says you need a vaccination?

Drug Company Marketing Shill

Although the Times vaguely identifies David Ropeik as “an instructor at Harvard University,” Harvard’s websites identify the former TV news reporter as Director of Communications for the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis (HCRA).

According to SourceWatch, Public Citizen and the Integrity and Science Project, HCRA has been funded by a who’s who of petrochemical, biotechnology and vaccine companies that include AstraZeneca, BMS, GSK, Hoffman-LaRoche, Janssen, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Novartis, Parke-Davis, Pfizer, Pharmacia, Roche Pharmaceuticals, Schering-Plough Corporation, Wyeth-Ayerst and Eli Lilly – companies that were responsible for products that have killed, crippled or injured millions of Americans since 1990.

In his “opinion piece” published last week by the Los AngelesTimes, Ropeik calls for new laws, incarceration and economic hardships against parents who refuse to vaccinate their children. To lend credibility, the Times identified Ropeik as “an instructor at Harvard University.” 

By using the “Harvard brand,” the Times editorial staff knew, or should have known, that the division that employs Ropeik offers no-credit open-enrollment courses, professional development seminars and certificates.

The Times also failed to disclose that Ropeik and his cohorts specialize in “risk communication,” a skill designed to make consumers feel better about products and services that kill and injure more than a million Americans annually. With credentials that once earned him a position as a local TV news reporter, calling Ropeik a “vaccine expert” is akin to calling Capt. Kirk an astrophysicist.

In an opinion both Orwellian and unscientific, Ropeik declares that parents who do not vaccinate are as dangerous as drunk drivers and smokers, but fails to disclose that:

• The CDC and vaccine manufacturers pay him, directly or indirectly, to promote their marketing campaigns.
• The resurgence of eradicated diseases has arisen in populations that have been more than 95% vaccinated. 
• Recent outbreaks of common diseases like measles occur in highly vaccinated populations, making the vaccinated population a greater risk to the unvaccinated – the exact opposite of what he proposes on behalf of vaccine promoters. 
• Ropeik’s clients are prohibited by law from making the false claims that they pay Ropeik to make.

Criminal Enterprise

Since 2004, the pharmaceutical industry has paid more than $9 billion to settle thousands of criminal and civil complaints related to the illegal marketing of drugs that kill or injure more than a million Americans EVERY YEAR. To stay in business, drug giants like Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) routinely create shell companies to admit guilt and fold, leaving the parent companies intact and the injured uncompensated.

Although the Federal Government requires vaccine manufacturers to disclose the deadly effects of their products to consumers, drug companies circumvent these laws by hiring public relations experts to promote their products without full disclosure in the print and television media. 

In this case, the Times allowed Ropeik & Associates to post their pharmaceutically-funded ad as a credible public policy opinion. It’s hard to say how much pharmaceutical advertising the Times will receive for promoting Ropeik’s marketing campaign.

Legendary reporter John Carroll spoke of demise of the media in 2006;

“(There was a time) when there were rules that strictly governed and protected journalistic integrity and accuracy, and rewarded original and innovative important journalism… What dominates the news industry now… is marketing, public relations, and money.”

Pharmaceutical Ads

Celebrities sell drugs the same way.

In her book Our Daily Meds [2009], former New York Times reporter Melody Petersen describes how actresses like Lauren Bacall and Debbie Reynolds promote drugs like Visudyne and Detrol but are never required to warn viewers that the drugs cause blindness and dementia or that they were both paid by drug companies to promote these drugs. And while basketball great Magic Johnson pushes HIV drugs and tests in black neighborhoods, few know that Abbott Labs paid him $60 million to do it.

Like these pitchmen, Ropeik makes his living not by protecting the public, but by convincing Americans to believe what his corporate clients pay him to say. He’s not required to disclose payments made by vaccine makers to his consulting firm or those made for the use of Harvard’s name to sell his promotion as a credible opinion piece.As Petersen explains, when shills like these sell drugs and vaccines, “consumers don’t even know that a sell has taken place.”

Selling Panic and Hysteria

Ropeik cites “global outbreaks” of measles that have sickened 118 in the US this year, but fails to disclose THOUSANDS of vaccine-related injuries and deaths that are reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) every year in the US. He also claims that there is “overwhelming evidence” that vaccines do not cause autism, while the overwhelming evidence produced by independent researchers unaffiliated with the pharmaceutical industry strongly suggests they do.

More than 3,000 new cases of autism were reported in California in 2006, compared with 205 in 1990. In 1990, 6.2 of every 10,000 children born in the state were diagnosed with autism by the age of five, compared with 42.5 in 10,000 born in 2001. The numbers have continued to rise since then.

In fact, vaccines injure and kill so many people each year that parents are no longer allowed to sue vaccine manufacturers in court. Instead, parents must follow special rules and submit claims to special masters. So even if the vaccine doesn’t cripple or kill you, the claims process probably will.

While the financial cost of caring for an autistic child is estimated to be greater than $2 million, Congress has capped most claims at $250,000. And while it is impossible to imagine the pain endured by parents whose decision to vaccinate results in the crippling or death of their own children, “Manufacturers are not liable for failure to provide warnings directly to the injured party…” Homeland Security Act of 2002.

According to former FDA Director David Kessler MD, only about ONE PERCENT of all serious adverse drug events (reactions) are ever reported; which means that the actual number of vaccine casualties is probably closer to one to three million Americans annually. To underscore this fact, the American Medical Association (AMA) reports that – if tracked like real diseases – adverse drug reactions (ADRs) would represent the 4th to 6th leading cause of death in the United States – a number far higher than all of the infectious disease fatalities that occur in the US each year.

When infectious diseases like measles and pertussis became statistically irrelevant in the US by 1955, drug companies continue to market fear and hysteria to sell their pathogenic snake oil. They are now so desperate to maintain market share and profit – and so alarmed that parents are refusing to expose their children to heavy metals and vaccine pathogens – that they spend twice as much on shills like Ropeik to promote their drugs than they do researching them. 

Every belief system runs its course. Eventually, shared consensus is confronted by incontrovertible evidence to the contrary. Every medical historian and honest epidemiologist (i.e. those not paid by the drug industry) who has bothered to read the data knows why the rate of infectious diseases has precipitously fallen in the West. They know the impact of public health measures like clean water, sanitation, better food, housing and education.

They understand the with social and economic improvements that benefited the nation as a whole. It had very little to do with 20th century vaccines, which unfortunately continue to be marketed to take credit for something they did not accomplish.

As OMSJ reported last month, the final patient tally attributed to the CDC’s current pertussis campaign (whooping cough) will likely be eclipsed by the number of vaccine-related injuries and fatalities that American children will unnecessary suffer this year.

For example, pertussis reportedly killed 17 Americans in 2000, the same year that vaccines killed or seriously injured 14,153 men, women and children. This means that Americans were 83,152 times more likely to be seriously injured or killed by vaccines than pertussis in 2000. In 2010, CDC reported that ten children were killed by pertussis, the same year that VAERS reported that pertussis vaccines killed 17 children. Although Ropeik’s corporate clients expect that 334 English and Welch children will spend a few weeks in bed with the measles this year, they will fare better than those who will be permanently crippled from vaccines. 

Nancy T. Banks MD (Harvard Medical School) practiced general obstetrics and gynecology for 25 years and is the author of AIDS, Opium, Diamonds and Empire (2010). Clark Baker served 20 years with the LAPD and is the founder and principal investigator for the Office of Medical & Scientific Justice, Inc.

http://www.omsj.org/corruption/selling-drugs-as-scholarly-opinion

HIV=AIDS? The science of panic

The science of panic (English) from la ciencia del panico on Vimeo.

Johnson & Johnson settles off-label Topamax claims for $81M

By Fierce Pharma

In the second off-label marketing settlement this week, two Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries have agreed to pay $81 million to wrap up a probe of their Topamax promotions. The deal involves a $6.1 million criminal fine for Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, stemming form a single misdemeanor violation, NPR reports.

The settlement stems from whistleblower lawsuits that alleged J&J had promoted Topamax--approved for treatment of epilepsy and migraine prevention--for a variety of psychiatric uses. According to the government, Ortho-McNeil paid doctors to come with sales reps on detailing calls and suggest unapproved uses for the drug. Doctors also were allegedly hired to speak at meetings and dinners about off-label Topamax use.

There has been a string of off-label marketing settlements over the last couple of years. Given the huge size of some of them--think Eli Lilly's $1.4 billion Zyprexa settlement or Pfizer's $2 billion-plus Bextra deal--this $81 million payment seems fairly small. But it does emphasize the government's drive to combat off-label marketing, and there's no sign that drive will end any time soon.

"Working with our federal and state partners, we will take action against pharmaceutical companies that promote their drugs for off-label uses," Assistant AG Tony West promises in a statement. "This type of unlawful marketing undermines the FDA's important role in deciding which drugs are safe and effective for consumers and costs the taxpayers billions of dollars each year."

- get the release from the Justice Department

- see the NPR article

- read the Reuters news

Related Articles:

NYT: AstraZeneca in $520M Seroquel settlement

Lilly to pay $1.4B in Zyprexa settlement

Pfizer takes $2.3B Bextra charge

Read more: J&J settles off-label Topamax claims for $81M - FiercePharma http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/j-j-settles-label-topamax-claims-81m/2010-04-30?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal#ixzz1FlLkcDKi

Subscribe: http://www.fiercepharma.com/signup?sourceform=Viral-Tynt-FiercePharma-FiercePharma

Healthcare fraud crackdown reveals pharmaceutical companies among America's top defrauders

By Rick Ungar

A Dept. Of Health & Human Services report out today reveals that the government managed to reclaim $4 billion dollars in health care rip-offs last year – the largest amount ever recovered from those attempting to defraud seniors and taxpayers.

Working in concert through the Health Care Prevention & Enforcement Action Team (“HEAT”), the Justice Department and HHS were able to track down the $4 billion improperly collected by a wide array of bad guys between October 1, 2009 and September 30, 2010.  As you would expect, a chunk of the fraud was the work of seedy operators turning in Medicare claims for wheelchairs that were never sold to recipients who never knew they needed mobile assistance. Then there were the run of the mill physician overcharges, billing scams, etc.

But get this – a full one half of the money ripped off was done at the hands of some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the nation.

Some examples from the past year in drug crime and civil wrongdoing of the corporate variety -

Fortune 500 company, Allergan, (AGN) paid the government $600 million to settle criminal and civil charges arising from the company selling their Botox product as a remedy for headaches – despite forgetting to get FDA approval to do so.

Novartis (NVS) coughed up $422.5 million to get rid of criminal and civil liability problems for illegally marketing some of their products.

AstaZeneca (AZN) kicked in $520 million for marketing an anti-psychotic drug for uses not approved by the FDA and for paying kickbacks to doctors.

While these companies clearly are the poster children for increasing government regulation, we shouldn’t judge the entire industry by the behavior of the few. Maybe most of the drug businesses play it by the book.

Or not.

In fact, the entire pharmaceutical industry is much, much worse when it comes to not playing by the rules, defrauding the taxpayer and illegally pushing drugs in a way that can damage or kill people.

The fines imposed on each of the 2009-2010 rogues gallery is a mere drop in the bucket when compared to what Pfizer paid into the government till in the year preceding the period covered by today’s report. Pfizer’s payment of a $1.2 billion fine for illegally promoting their drugs for uses not approved by the FDA not only established an all-time record for the pharmaceutical industry but was the largest criminal fine ever paid in our nation’s history.

And still, Congressional Republicans tell us that over-regulation of America’s industries are at the very heart of all that ails us.

Maybe they are right. Maybe a pharmaceutical industry freed of the regulatory shackles that force them to defraud our seniors and the nation’s taxpayers in order to maintain their position as one of the most profitable industries in our economy, would be a kinder, gentler, more loving industry without the government telling them what to do.

After all, this life of crime is really not their fault. They’re simply a product of their regulatory environment.

In fact, the next time you see a drug company executive walking off the 18^th green or heading into a five star restaurant, go on up and give that executive a big hug. Tell her you understand. Let that person know you feel her pain.

Why?

Because the drug companies didn’t really want to break the law – it was the devil government that made them do it.

Link.

Big Bucks, Big Pharma: marketing disease & pushing drugs

Watch also: Sicko by Michael Moore