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Infamous OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma used front organizations and sponsored research to deceive the World Health Organization and corrupt global public health policies with the goal of boosting international opioid sales and profits, according to a Congressional report (PDF) released Thursday, May 22.
The investigation identified two WHO guidance documents that appear to parrot some of Purdue's misleading and outright false marketing claims about the safety and efficacy of their highly addictive opioids.
The findings, released by Reps. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) and Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), land as the country is still grappling with an epidemic of opioid abuse and overdoses. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, opioid overdoses kill an average of 130 Americans every day.
Clark and Rogers say that the motivation for the investigation follows a 2017 warning letter Congress members sent to the WHO. Given the opioid epidemic unfolding in the US, the lawmakers warned the WHO that opioid makers would try to expand into international markets, which could potentially trigger a global epidemic. But the Congress members say they didn't get a response (though the WHO disputes this).
"When the WHO failed to respond to the letter, we began to question why they would remain silent about such a significant and devastating public health epidemic," the report reads. "The answers we found are deeply disturbing."
Based on public records, the report outlines a tangle of organizations and individuals that connect financial threads from Purdue to WHO.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25 2019, @12:33PM (6 children)
Your problem is that you think the anti-vaxxers are the unreasonable ones. Those are the people demonstrating a rational skepticism of the medical profession which has a history of giving out bad advice while taking no accountability. This opiod thing is nothing compared to the skin cancer and obesity crises they caused. Once we see some accountability there I will begin to think a trustworthy process is in place.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25 2019, @03:15PM (5 children)
Okay.... the elites in the "medical profession" caused the obesity epidemic? Nothing to do with food industry stuffing everything with corn syrup to increase profit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25 2019, @03:53PM (4 children)
Yes, they recommended the food pyramid and a "low fat" diet (code for "high carb"). Anyone can prove to themselves in a few days that eating a low carb diet makes you less hungry. You will even save money while running this experiment. The same number of calories as fat are simply much more satiating than as carbs, so you consume less.
In contrast, they spent billions of dollars on BS low fat research and public health campaigns that resulted in an obesity crisis.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25 2019, @04:22PM (3 children)
That food pyramid [wikipedia.org] you speak of did not come from the medical industry, it came from the department of agriculture.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday May 25 2019, @04:26PM (1 child)
And how many doctors told there patients to follow the food guide instead of saying "WTF? That'll make you fat!"
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @04:21AM
Related:
Facebook bans group that advocates low carb diet
https://www.crossfit.com/battles/crossfit-suspends-facebook-instagram [crossfit.com]
They want people to be fat and sick.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25 2019, @04:28PM
Where do you think the recommendations came from if not doctors or other healthcare "experts"? If they weren't on board why wasn't there an outcry from them?
Anyway, I suspect I am responding to the same AC that showed up recently who seems to have such little understanding of the world that they must be a bot.