Trump was hammered by the pathetic mainstream media for daring to suggest that the medical profession stood to benefit from the Covid freak out, but there is a case for his position.
“US President Donald Trump has pushed the baseless conspiracy theory that American healthcare workers are overstating the number of coronavirus deaths the country is suffering to get more money.
That claim was just one example among a litany of falsehoods and bizarre moments during Mr Trump’s election campaign rally in Waterford, Michigan today.
“You know, our doctors get more money if somebody dies from COVID. You know that, right? Our doctors are very smart people. So what they do is they say, ‘I’m sorry, everybody dies of COVID,’” the President claimed.”
Dr Marcia Angell, The Truth about the Drug Companies How They Deceive us and What to do about it, (Random House, 2005), however gives us an alternative perspective.
“During her two decades at "The "New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Marcia Angell had a front-row seat on the appalling spectacle of the pharmaceutical industry. She watched drug companies stray from their original mission of discovering and manufacturing useful drugs and instead become vast marketing machines with unprecedented control over their own fortunes. She saw them gain nearly limitless influence over medical research, education, and how doctors do their jobs. She sympathized as the American public, particularly the elderly, struggled and increasingly failed to meet spiraling prescription drug prices. Now, in this bold, hard-hitting new book, Dr. Angell exposes the shocking truth of what the pharmaceutical industry has become-and argues for essential, long-overdue change.
Currently Americans spend a staggering $200 billion each year on prescription drugs. As Dr. Angell powerfully demonstrates, claims that high drug prices are necessary to fund research and development are unfounded: The truth is that drug companies funnel the bulk of their resources into the marketing of products of dubious benefit. Meanwhile, as profits soar, the companies brazenly use their wealth and power to push their agenda through Congress, the FDA, and academic medical centers.
Zeroing in on hugely successful drugs like AZT (the first drug to treat HIV/AIDS), Taxol (the best-selling cancer drug in history), and the blockbuster allergy drug Claritin, Dr. Angell demonstrates exactly how new products are brought to market. Drug companies, she shows, routinely rely on publicly funded institutions for their basic research; they rig clinical trials to make their products look better than they are; and they use their legions of lawyers to stretch out government-granted exclusive marketing rights for years. They also flood the market with copycat drugs that cost a lot more than the drugs they mimic but are no more effective.
The American pharmaceutical industry needs to be saved, mainly from itself, and Dr. Angell proposes a program of vital reforms, which includes restoring impartiality to clinical research and severing the ties between drug companies and medical education. Written with fierce passion and substantiated with in-depth research, "The Truth About the Drug Companies is a searing indictment of an industry that has spun out of control.
"From the Hardcover edition.
Trump, I think, hit the syringe on the point, if that is a metaphor.