China's FDA solution

Posted: 6/26/2007 - Commentary by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger

I'm no proponent of the death penalty, especially since it is almost always applied in a racist manner in the United States, but there are times when high crimes against the people can seemingly justify permanently removing someone from society. China did precisely that in executing its top FDA official for accepting more than $800,000 in bribes from drug companies to approve unsafe drugs. Yet bribery is routine in the United States drug approval process. In fact, the official FDA policy right now is that FDA decision panel experts -- the people who decide which drugs to approve or reject -- can currently accept up to $50,000 in bribes from drug companies and still serve on such decision panels.

This policy, by the way, is brand new. Until recently, there was no limit on the amount of money these FDA decision makers could accept from drug companies. In fact, there was no requirement whatsoever that these decision makers even reveal their conflicts of interest! They could take hundreds of thousands of dollars from the very drug companies impacted by their votes, and yet sit on the decision panel and cast votes. (See the CounterThink cartoon Conflicts of Interest for a humorous depiction of this.)

None of the FDA leaders saw any problem with this policy of tolerated corruption. In fact, they still resist the idea that Congress is passing new laws to place restrictions on such obvious conflicts of interest. Corruption is so endemic in the FDA that the agency is incapable of even recognizing corruption. The agency thinks it is above the law (much like the White House) and that it must answer to no one. This is the view of its leaders, at least. Many of the people who work inside the agency see the corruption all around them. The problem is, when they try to speak up about it, they get fired or blackballed... or even threatened with legal action by the agency's top "enforcers."

The FDA is more dangerous to Americans than terrorism

China executed its top FDA official for corruption. I believe the U.S. should arrest and prosecute top FDA officials. And while I would not support actually killing them (although many would say that is quite justified, given the enormous number of Americans killed by FDA-approved pharmaceuticals), I would strongly support requiring them to make a public apology and testify to the atrocities they have committed against the people. Modeling an FDA apology after the post-Apartheid South African amnesty arrangement might be worth exploring. We need to know the truth far more than we need to punish or kill FDA officials.

Of course, killing corrupt officials in the name of justice also serves its own purpose: It sends a message to others that corruption will not be tolerated. But corruption is always tolerated to some extent, even in China. It's only a question of WHO gets targeted for termination based on the politics of the moment. It was in China's political interests, for example, to show the West that it was cracking down on FDA corruption following the discovery of toxic pet food proteins and toothpaste products exported by Chinese manufacturers. So the execution of its top FDA official served a convenient political purpose, too.

That doesn't mean the execution wasn't justified on its own. Some might say that any official who knowingly accepted $800,000 in bribes from drug companies while running the country's top drug approval agency was engaged in such an egregious crime that it clearly crossed the line and deserved a swift and aggressive response. I'm just wondering why the U.S. Food and Drug Administration didn't offer the guy a job and secretly smuggle him out of China. If he can run a corrupt regulatory agency, and he's used to taking money from drug companies, he'd fit right in with the American FDA! They could use another evil bureaucrat like that around here!

As usual, the press misses the real story

It's all hogwash, of course, and the mainstream media is part of the problem because it refuses to print the truth about the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In an honest society with a truly free press, the Washington Post should be calling for a massive FDA investigation and prosecution effort. After all, investigating a corrupt agency responsible for killing 100,000 Americans each year (which is a conservative estimate of the number of Americans killed each year by FDA-approved prescription drugs) should obviously be a very high priority for a free press. It's the story of the decade. And yet there's no interest whatsoever in conducting such an investigation or publishing an editorial calling for the arrest and prosecution of U.S. FDA officials. The mainstream media is asleep at the wheel on this one.

A State of fear

Incredible. What has America come to if people won't stand up against a corrupt, tyrannical government? The answer is simple: An enslaved nation that will devolve into a tyrannical dictatorship. The FDA already operates a medical dictatorship, complete with censorship, oppression of information and intimidation campaigns against those who attempt to speak out against the agency. (Just ask Dr. David Graham.) This pattern of tyranny permeates American government today. And it has left us with a nation where the people are diseased, afraid and bankrupt.

This is why I predict the nation will not last for one more generation. The United States of America is a nation on a course of self destruction. When the people are too afraid to speak out against their own government, the future of that nation is not in doubt. Read your history on the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party to find out what happens next.