The Death MERxCHANTS

August 12th, 2006, originally published online at A View From the Street

    Dr. David Graham is a research scientist that works for the Food and Drug Administration. He's the guy that researched the problems with Vioxx, the arthritis pain killing drug.  Dr. Graham told a senate investigating committee that his research indicated that Vioxx caused up to 160,000 hearth attacks and strokes! 

    Vioxx was responsible for an additional 27, 785 deaths from heart ailments from 1999 to 2003.  The FDA which seems to be an employee of Big-Pharma-Government (one word) except for Dr. Graham, tried to intimidate him and other reviewers when they had the audacity to point out safety concerns, that Vioxx might do more than kill the pain.  It was killing patients.  By the thousands!!

    Now if your name was Joe Blow, and you sold a product that killed a couple hundred thousand people, don't you think the government might be looking for you? Do you think you might be accused of being the worst mass murderer since Hitler?  Wouldn't FOX news be on 24 hour court watch?  Oh yeah!

     Well...what the hell happened at Merck Pharmaceutical company?

     The FDA, our alleged government watchdog, defended itself regarding Vioxx citing its "well documented and long-standing  commitment to openness and transparency in its review process."

     HUH?  Is that what happened here, an open and transparent process from a government agency that allowed the murder of thousands?

     Merck's CEO, at the time, Raymond Gilmartin, told the senate "in fact, my wife was taking Vioxx up until the day we withdrew it from the market."  My detective's mind knows that is a crock!  I'd like to put his wife on a lie detector.

     Insult your intelligence by checking out their website where you will find, "free and unbiased health information."  Considering what happened with these corporate marauders, that's a damned lie!  I'm quoting Mr. Gilmartin here, "Our ethical standards are the foundation of our company.  We strive to ensure that every Merck employee knows that meeting high ethical standards is at the heart of how we do business. Ethics is among the reasons why Merck has consistently been recognised as one of the world's most ethical companies."

     This is Nazi style propaganda at its best.  Lie and deny, then do it some more! 

    We heard this same propaganda from General Electric when they abandoned Hanford Nuclear Site, which is left as a nuclear sacrifice zone.  Nothing can live there for the next thousand years, and the Northwest's citizens are left with an astounding rate of Multiple sclerosis disease.  The same story from WORLD.COM and from ENRON.  "We are good and reputable corporations with miles of ethics written somewhere in our protocol."

     Every corporate raider has a thick folder containing the company code of ethics which means it is what the bosses wave in everyone's face when the body count becomes unacceptable.  It is what the CEO's quote when they appear in front of senate investigating  committees. Remember when the tobacco executives lined up and said one after another that cigarettes were not addicting?

     Remember this folks:  The government that is supposed to protect us, the very Senators and their investigating committees, owe their political future to the tobacco executives, the pharma-executives, the big oil executives and the bomb makers.

     So your job is to cooperate.  Be a humble victim.  Believe all you are told.  Pay close attention to all the TV commercials and "be sure and ask your doctor, if it is right for you."

By Don DuPay

ABSOLUTELY NO PORTION OF THIS EDITORIAL MAY BE REPRODUCED OR DISSEMINATED WITHOUT EXPRESS PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR, DONALD LEE DUPAY, UNDER PENALTY OF COPYRIGHT LAWS!!