Things in General
Did I miss the
revision to the OED which stipulated that, “From henceforth, the terms “picked
out”, “chosen”, or “selected” must be supplanted by “curated”? How friggin’
snotty! Half the persons referenced don’t even know the meaning of the word.
In like
fashion, I really don’t think the flavor of my steak is enhanced by “hand
trimming” or my cheeseburger by “hand crafting.” Similarly, I’ve seen where “hand crafted” and/or
“craft brewed” beers are made. Guess what? same stuff, same process, but in
smaller quantities and more expensive in many cases. That is all.
Let’s specify
that, for the duration of the Corona virus scare, local merchants must stop
using all the “we really care” euphemisms and simply state the obvious purpose
of their new, compassionate, commercials: “Please, please, keep buying our stuff.”
Car vending
machines? Really?
As we see more
and more drugs attempting to supplant older but proven therapies, it seems the
list of side effects, frequently described in softer faster speech, gets longer
and more severe with each new one. One such is Avandia, GlaxoSmithKline’s “new”
type two Diabetes drug which is exemplary. There has been an oral Glucose inhibitor
(Metformin) available for more than 20 years but, ever anxious for a market
share, GlaxoSmithKline pushed for approval of Avandia. The results? Avandia's
side effects proved to include heart attack (reported by the FDA) and increased
risk of heart failure. Bladder failure was another. In 2010, Avandia was placed under strict
restrictions owing to reports of tens of thousands of people who were
inflicted with stroke, heart diseases and heart failure.
However, by a
30 to 1 vote of an FDA panel, the restriction was removed by in 2013. (lobbyist
influence, anyone?) In May 2010, GlaxoSmithKline settled over 700 lawsuits with
nearly $60 million out of court in relation to claims brought against it. In
July, it also settled over 10,000 lawsuits with over $460 million.
Any guesses as
to how GlaxoSmithKline will recoup these annoying financial side effects? How
about 2019 profits (not sales, but net profits!!), of $6.71 BILLION?
This was driven by their new Shingles vaccine, Shingrix. Not to worry, though,
Shingrix won’t kill you, but it can cause: muscle pain, headache, shivering, fever,
nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness, or, if you hit the jackpot, angioedema, swelling
of the tongue, mouth, or throat, trouble breathing and/or low blood pressure. NIH
funding contributed to published research associated with every one of the 210
new drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration from 2010–2016.
As the taxpayers who fund the NIH, when should we expect our profit sharing checks?
Apparently, Donald
Trump isn’t he only moron using unproven medications to combat/ward off Covid.
In Iran, a majority Shiite Muslim nation where, as a matter of religious doctrine,
drinking alcohol is forbidden, insanity has, apparently, prevailed. I only
dwell on this because it is a result of bad science and ignorance reminiscent
of creationism.
Nearly 300 Iranians have been officially reported
as deceased and over three times as many are severely ill due to ingesting
methanol because they wrongly thought it would shield them from catching coronavirus.
This was reported by Iranian news outlets and reprinted in the WaPo today (Friday,
3/27).
Numerous Iranian social media users have been
touting and sharing false claims that a British schoolteacher and several others
cured themselves of the virus by ingesting whiskey and honey, according to an
Associated Press report. Others suggested
that drinking high-proof alcohol kills the virus. In fact, the proper Ethanol
high proof alcohol might make one care less about the virus, but methanol, or
wood alcohol as it is also known, while differing from fine Scotch by only one Carbon
and two Hydrogen atoms (and some delicately nuanced flavorings), is far more
toxic.
The deaths are
an exemplary result of a spate of fake remedies spread across social media, since
many Iranians are suspicious of the government’s efforts to combat the spread
of the virus that they initially downplayed. Sound familiar? One Iranian actual
medical doctor, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the AP that the death
toll from drinking methanol was actually more like 500, with 2,850 people made
ill. With more than 29,000 confirmed cases of the virus and more than 2,000
related deaths, Iran has the largest death toll in the Middle East.
Lest you think
only Trump senior is a doofus, read this:
Donald Trump Jr., promoted a story in (the
ultra-conservative) Breitbart News with the headline “WHO Spread False Chinese
Government Propaganda: Coronavirus Not Contagious Among Humans.” Don’t tell
Iran, Italy, Spain, France or anyone else with half a brain.
That's about all I can stomach this morning.
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