Notes from the edge of civilization: July 7, 2024
Revolving door, much? Nimble, quick and lethal, too; Later ovulator!
According to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), former employees who leave their positions to work for the pharmaceutical industry can still influence the agency’s decision-making, as long as they do it “behind the scenes.” This, according to a new investigation in The British Medical Journal (BMJ) that should have made front-page headlines. (Surprise, surprise — it didn’t.)
Peter Doshi, senior editor at the BMJ, wrote in the July 1 investigation:
During his final three years at the US Food and Drug Administration the physician-scientist Doran Fink’s work focused on reviewing COVID-19 vaccines. But a decade after joining the agency, Fink had accepted a job with Moderna, the COVID vaccine manufacturer, and was undergoing mandatory FDA exit requirements. As he left for the private sector, the FDA’s ethics programme staff emailed him guidelines on post-employment restrictions, “tailored to your situation.”
Those tailored guidelines included the following note: “You are also not prohibited from working ‘behind the scenes’ at any time, provided that you do not disclose non‐public information and do not communicate to – or make appearances before – the federal government or its employees.”
Doshi told
he was surprised to see “just how proactive FDA is at informing departing employees of their ability to work behind the scenes post-FDA.”
We wonder if Moderna is working on a vaccine for dizziness caused by high-velocity revolving door syndrome (HiVeReDos)?
In the meantime, Moderna did just receive $176 million from the US government to develop an mRNA vaccine for bird flu.
Although bird flu is not an actual threat to human health, our government just can’t be too careful. In a July 2 announcement, the department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said it has “successfully taken lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic and used them to better prepare for future public health crises.”
Evidently, those lessons include the success of mRNA vaccines. And while the current strain of bird flu isn’t lethal, the government is creating a vaccine for a potential, currently non-existent variant that may become a problem in the future.
That’s what Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra calls being “nimble and quick.”
The Biden-Harris Administration won’t stop until we have everything we need to prepare for pandemics and other public health emergencies that impact the American public.
No doubt the fear of contracting bird flu will convince some people to voluntarily vaccinate against it. Just as the fear of becoming pregnant is causing an uptick in young people wanting to be sterilized. You read that right.
NPR reports that since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, doctors have seen waves of young people requesting permanent birth control procedures such as having their fallopian tubes or uteruses removed.
Research published in JAMA in April bears this out.
“Children are a big commitment,” says 28-year-old Sophia Ferst, a licensed therapist who told NPR she has always known she doesn’t want kids. Ferst is married to a woman, so you would think contraception would not be her top concern. But among her worries, Ferst says, is that she could get pregnant from being sexually assaulted and then be unable to access abortion services. Ferst hopes to be sterilized later this year.
Preemptive sterilization? That seems a little like going to the doctor and saying, ‘I live in Colorado but someday I may go on a beach vacation and a shark could attack me and bite my leg off, so I’d like you to amputate my right leg, please.’
In a world of ‘My Body, My Choice,’ it seems doctors like Dr. Kavita Arora would be only too happy to comply. Arora, who chairs the ethics committee at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, says:
I honestly believe my job is not to be a gatekeeper, but to empower and uplift those goals and wishes, especially after good, shared decision-making and informed consent.
An argument for the "informed" consent of the governed
If we demand informed consent between healthcare providers and patients, why not between governments and citizens?
A quick note of thanks to those who kept us in their thoughts and prayers this past week. Because of a slight shift in track, it looks like we may avoid the worst of hurricane Beryl. But there are many others who now will be affected, so let’s hope Beryl makes landfall somewhere with little population to avoid unnecessary damage and loss.
Collapse Life is returning to its regularly scheduled programming. As always, we are so grateful for your readership and support.
As the neo-pagans, atheists, communists, feminists, progressives etc,etc are sterilizing themselves, so as not to reproduce, young faithful traditional Christians are reproducing at a rapid rate having anywhere from 4 to 10 to 14+ children. At this rate these Christians will vastly outnumber the neo-pagans and can begin to re-form society and re-establish the social Kingship of Christ, God willing. Jesus Christ is King!!