Alternative Title:
How The Pharmaceutical Industry Uses Its Alliance With Government To Boost Profits, And How The Media Is Complicit

Here’s former FDA Commissioner and current Pfizer Exec Scott Gottlieb promoting his company’s product under guise of Public Health.

Below is a continuation of my last post:

According to Dr. Arnold Relman, the long-term editor of the New England Journal of Medicine (not least of his accomplishments), the pharmaceutical industry bought the medical profession. They bought academia. They bought science. And as you can see in the example below, they bought government. Their influence in this country and around the world is profound.

Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA Commissioner (2017-2019), now serves on Pfizer’s Board, where he oversees “procedures applicable to pharmaceutical sales and marketing activities.” When he’s on TV, introduced as a former FDA Commissioner and promoting COVID vaccines, one of which is Pfizer’s, is he being impartial? Of course not. But that’s what we’re led to believe. Example:

In the graphic below … Gottlieb may be a FORMER FDA Commissioner, but he’s a CURRENT Pfizer board member. Where does it say that? (The host does say this in lead-up, but it’s glossed over and not addressed as a conflict of interest.)

And:

While at FDA, Gottlieb lowered the number of inspections at both foreign and domestic drug manufacturers producing drugs sold in the United States. He also sped up the approval process for experimental and generic drugs, leading many to question whether the “newer and cheaper” drugs hitting the market were actually safe.
…
[Former] Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar — Gottlieb’s former boss — used to be president of Lilly USA, the U.S. branch of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly. Trump lauded his appointment [in 2017] by calling Azar a “star for better healthcare and lower drug prices,” but during his time there the company raised the brand’s insulin prices threefold creating a crisis and drawing public outrage.

One way drug companies buy influence with the government is through lobbying. Another way, as above, is through the revolving door, where people move between roles as legislators and regulators on one hand, and members of the industries affected by the legislation and regulation on the other. The revolving door has become so much a part of our lives that we’ve grown numb to its implications.

When we see Scott Gottlieb on TV, on social media, we need to think of it as a commercial. Because that’s what it is. He is selling vaccines.

Pharmaceutical companies don’t exist to help people. They exist to make money. Helping people is a side effect.