Junk Science - Profits over People

“No legitimate scientist ever declared science to be “settled.” – Follow the Science

In September 2024, Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. ended his campaign and threw his support to fellow campaigner Donald Trump, as the two combined resources to win the upcoming election.  As a sister slogan to MAGA, Kennedy’s "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) was adopted to take on the healthcare industry.  With Americans as the highest abusers of prescription drugs, the most obese, and those who pay the most for health care, a refocus on nutrition and physical well-being will take priority in the event the Trump/Kennedy ticket prevails.  In addition to remedies for poor nutrition, the new administration will focus on the food supply, toxic chemicals, the unnatural relationship between Big Pharma and governmental agencies, and a medical system that enriches itself off the chronic poor health of its citizens. 

To address problems in the healthcare system, one must first expose the folly of the “Trust the Science” narrative.  If “the science” means the process scientists take during unbiased experimentations to uncover general scientific truths, then outcomes should be accepted.  But when that is not the case, to question the government is to make one a conspiracy theorist, a tin foil hat wearer, or a purveyor of misinformation.  Skepticism is a part of science, just as empirical data is. 

But too often today, science is without sufficient research, full of errors, manipulation, selective data, self-interest, and massive conflicts of interest.  When outcomes are predetermined by a lowering of scientific standards or simply covered up, this is nothing more than junk science. Incentives to bury bad outcomes and side effects are also not “the science”.  These instances of medical misinformation rob the public of much-needed truths to make healthcare decisions. 

Fatalities from pharmaceuticals are now the number one cause of death in America, with psychiatric drugs the third leading cause, based on an analysis of healthcare interventions by the Cochrane Collaboration, a not-for-profit organization, in 2024.  This follows on the heels of a shift in practical application from disease prevention to a singular emphasis on treatments, using prescription drugs and vaccines rather than focusing on good health.  Medical schools, too, are disproportionately focused on prescribing medicine, with their main textbook written by an international pharmaceutical giant, Merck & Co. 

In Sharyl Attkisson’s 2024 book, “Follow the Science,” Attkisson exposes how a failing medical industry is being propped up by Big Pharma money.  Hers is the story behind Big Pharma and how they exist with the aid of government agencies and the media, where greed and financial connections are ubiquitous.  Instead of curing the sick, they maintain their ability to get rich from the ongoing poor health of the country.  Seventy-five percent of all ad money to media corporations is from Big Pharma, noting news segments brought to you by Pfizer.  Medical correspondents focused on pharmaceutical news are not, in fact, independent, but often captive to these revenues.  When the pharmaceutical industry is involved, all too often the media, the government, and the medical community act together to protect their collective profits.    

American healthcare is a story of conflicts of interest with an incestuous relationship existing between doctors, nonprofits, professional associations, government entities, and Big Pharma.  With pharmaceutical companies and the government now funding the majority of scientific studies, they often ghostwrite studies that are then held out as independent research.  When one study provides inconvenient outcomes, it is suppressed, while new studies are convened.  Today, private interests also fund academic research, while paid pharma reps teach courses.  These bad incentives, along with a lack of oversight, ensure that diseases linger for the maximum profit of the medical establishment.  That is, a switch to lifelong treatments over a focus on cures. 

The National Institute of Health, a governmental department, determines who does what research while controlling scientific and medical information.  They, too, use misinformation to hide the truth, often feigning authenticity by using medical journals to promote tainted studies.  Corporations, of course, favor policies that sell their drugs, often by paying doctors to prioritize certain drugs.  Ads are disguised as academic work, while the media kills stories that are unflattering to Big Pharm.  A recent New York Times story revealed the blocking of a study on trans puberty that may have been detrimental to the LGBT+ agenda.  Associations, non-profits, and doctors fail to disclose ties.  For example, a non-profit, Every Child by Two, which advocates for child vaccines and is funded by pharmaceutical companies, has pharmaceutical employees sitting on the board.  The American Cancer Society has ties to pharmaceutical companies that receive money from cosmetics companies.  And Gilead, a maker of transgender medication, is the biggest known funder of trans activist groups. 

Central to the book are COVID vaccine cover-ups, policies that served to open the eyes of many Americans.  Childhood vaccinations’ role in autism, a taboo topic that is still called a conspiracy theory, has been exposed through research and court cases, even as open discussions on the topic are dismissed as anti-vax.  Hannah Poling, an autistic child, won her claim against the government that a vaccine caused her autism.  The case was sealed before it was leaked, confirming its existence.  Attkisson also touches on Alex Jones's “the frogs are turning gay” tirade about atrazine, a chemical used in agriculture whose studies found a blurring of gender in animals.  Whether it's seeping into the water supply through runoff into rivers and wells, has not been disproven, as dissenters claim further research is needed. 

When money and profits drive healthcare decisions, the patient loses.  The blind trust that medical professionals once enjoyed has since been irreparably broken.  Federal agencies, doctors, and medical associations, instead, have become misinformation agents, choosing their personal interests over those of their patients.