Tom Frieden Leaving the CDC
Following the perceived mishandling of the first diagnosed case of Ebola in the United States involving Thomas Eric Duncan of Liberia by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2014, there were calls within Congress and the media for the CDC director, Thomas Frieden, MD, to resign. It was believed that Dr. Frieden had…
The CDC is Being Influenced by Corporate and Political Interests
Concerns about the inner workings of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been mounting in recent months amid disclosures of cozy corporate alliances. Now a group of more than a dozen senior scientists have reportedly lodged an ethics complaint alleging the federal agency is being influenced by corporate and…
Nordic Cochrane Center Files Complaint About Scientific Misconduct, Secrecy in HPV Vaccine Probe in Europe
Nordic Cochrane Center, a Danish research and information center is challenging the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) 2015 report on human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines and the EMA’s position that HPV vaccine benefits outweigh the risks. After numerous reports of HPV vaccine-related brain and immune system injuries and deaths…
The Zika Breach of Public Trust: The Wealth Transfer Model From U.S. Taxpayers to Big Pharma
In less than a decade, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared four global health emergencies, starting with the 2009 swine flu outbreak. In 2012, the “wild” polio outbreak followed the flu pandemic. Both fizzled out, underperforming their hyped lethal spread. At the Sixty-Fifth World Health Assembly “Poliomyelitis: intensification of the global eradication initiative,” which convened on April 5, 2012, the Secretariat Report stated: “In the majority of countries, out-of-season outbreaks are no longer being…
Gardasil 9 Vaccine Prompts Push for National Program
U.S. government health officials continue to push hard for a countrywide mandate of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. They maintain that the cost-benefit ratio of the new nonavalent Gardasil vaccine, which contains nine HPV strains, the ticket to succeeding in their efforts to get every girl and boy in America to take the vaccine. In 2006, a 4-strain version of Merck’s Gardasil vaccine was the first HPV vaccine to be fast tracked to licensure in the U.S. and it contained two HPV strains associated with cervical…
America’s Own Overlooked Microcephaly Epidemic
Now that U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials have concluded that, without a doubt, the Zika virus is the cause of microcephaly,1 it appears they have created a permanent synonymous bond between the virus and the birth defect. When someone sees a baby with a smaller than normal head size, they will likely immediately think, “Oh, look at that poor…
How Conflicts of Interest Have Corrupted the CDC
Conflicts of interest have become more the rule than the occasional exception. Even the trusted US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) receives heavy funding from industry. How this conflict of interest may have affected the organization’s decisions is the topic of an article in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), penned by the journal’s associate editor, Jeanne…
Nominee for FDA Commissioner Has Pharma Industry Ties
If confirmed by Congress, the next commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will be Robert M. Califf, MD. Dr. Califf is currently the FDA’s deputy commissioner for Medical Products and Tobacco—a position to which he was appointed on January 26, 2015, just two months prior to the end of former FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg’s six-year term.
Does Pharma Pressure Sway FDA Drug Approvals?
For patients and physicians, the common belief is that all drugs undergo the same rigorous review, but the truth is, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which stands as the gatekeeper for the sanction of drug and device products, has flexible standards on what they approve and do not approve. Unknowingly to the public, the federal agency approves drugs based on…
Pharma-Government Conflicts of Interest Exposed
Conflicts of interest are rampant and easily made public in doctor-pharmaceutical relationships, however, they stay a little more hidden for industry and federal agencies. While it is inevitable that big pharma be present in public health agencies as individual leaders bounce from organization to organization—meanwhile maintaining past relationships, roles and…
