Pfizer and The Speed of Science or Pursuit Of Profits?

Pfizer uses a piece in IFLScience titled Working At The Speed Of Science And Why You Should Be Excited, by Dr. Beccy Corkill to apparently put Pfizer's customers' minds at ease.  Dr. Corkill uses the Doubling of Knowledge Curve to explain why medical breakthroughs are possible 

Doubling of Information Curve:  ASM

"Breakthroughs that come out of apparently nowhere may seem scary, but remember that they are accumulative. If a caveman in 4,000 BCE suddenly pulled out a scalpel and offered you heart bypass surgery, then be suspicious and maybe ask to see his medical qualifications. However, if the caveman begins a research foundation into heart surgery, then their descendants spend centuries working on it and numerous other innovations first – such as the difficult “wash your hands before you put them in someone’s guts” phase – you can be less suspicious as his great-great-great-great-great granddaughter grunts at you about counting down from 10 while the anesthetic kicks in" 

Dr. Corkill's statement, sounds like Bernay's Eat Bacon Campaign: In the 1920s, Bernays was approached by the Beech-Nut Packing Company as it wanted to increase consumer demand for bacon. Bernays turned to his agency’s internal doctor and asked him whether a heavier breakfast might be more beneficial for the American public. Surprise, the doctor confirmed Bernays suspicion and wrote to five thousand of his doctors friends asking them to confirm it as well. This ‘study’ of doctors encouraging the American public to eat a heavier breakfast – namely ‘Bacon and Eggs’ – was published in major newspapers and magazines of the time to great success. Beech-Nut’s profits rose sharply thanks to Bernays and his team of medical professionals.  Not only that, but if you take ASM's and Dr. Corkill's Doubling of Knowledge Curve into consideration, you may recall that there was a generation that grew up  watching: Gunsmoke, Big Valley, The Virginian, Have Gun Will Travel, Laramie, Bonanza. Branded, Maverick.  These films were not only popular in the United States, but worldwide/

That generation built its own wooden rifles, slingshots and played Cowboys and Indians. Their parents could buy a rifle directly from a Sears Catalog. This same generation was required to read the Bible in public schools, until the Supreme Court in In Abington Township v. Schempp (1963) decided that required Bible readings in public schools was unconstitutional.  That generation did not experience mass shooting

This generation could order guns from Sears catalog

Now the mass shootings' curve is accelerating.  A plausible conclusion is that Gun mandates control the people, not the mass shootings,  just  like Covid Vaccine mandates  don't control the pandemic, they control the people. Seems like in this case, contrary to Dr. Corkill's argument,  knowledge is no accelerating but decelerating.

According to Technology Networks, Dr, Corkill is a creative content producer, Beccy worked on high-quality and engaging client projects and Technology Network projects, such as The Scientific Observer. Before joining Technology Networks in 2020, she completed a PhD from the University of East Anglia and spent 4 years looking into the sex determination genes of Bemisia tabaci – an invasive insect pest – for potential candidates of genetic insect control. Before that she completed a masters at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in Molecular Biology of Parasites and Disease Vectors and a bachelors in Human Biology and Forensic Science. Beccy now works for IFLS as the publication's senior custom content producer.

Now consider that The Food and Packaging Forum just published a study where it found plastic food packaging and containers can contain hundreds of chemicals that cause cancer, infertility and gene mutations. 22 were hormone- or endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and 32 endanger health with persistence and "bioaccumulation."Peer-reviewed studies have demonstrated the presence of 127 of these molecules in food contact materials (FCMs).

The Center for Disease Control's (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky recently issued an alert on Pfizer’s COVID-19 Pill, Paxlovid: ‘You Might Get Symptoms Again."  Use of Pfizer's Paxlovid, authorized to treat newly infected, at-risk people in order to prevent severe illness, has soared as infections have risen. The Biden administration officials have pushed for wide use of Paxlovid, which the government purchased and provides free.

Earlier this month, the Department of Justice urged the US Supreme Court to reject a Bayer/Monsanto appeal of a California case and clear the way for potentially billions of dollars in lawsuits claiming that the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer.  Bayer/Monsanto is challenging a $25 million award to Edwin Hardeman, who says decades of exposure to Roundup caused his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Bayer argues that federal approval of Roundup’s label meant Hardeman’s suit under California law-- and others like it -- couldn’t go forward.

Just as Bayer/Monsanto has reached an approximately $11 billion settlement with most plaintiffs. Approximately 80% of filed Roundup lawsuits have been settled. Some NHL victims received settlement checks in 2021 and 2022. Many others will receive their Roundup settlement money later this year as their Roundup settlement gets processed. 

Recently over 1000 scientists wrote  A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism;" a simple, 32-word statement that reads: “We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged.”

And 50 years after  DDT was banned, it's legacy is alive.  A bleak reminder that thousands of products like Paxlovid, DDT and Roundup,  have been approved using the scientific method. Most like DDT and Roundup  have been banned, using the scientific method 

If 50 years after  DDT was banned, it's legacy is alive and the CDC  is warning about Paxlovid, imagine what we are going to find out about COVID Vaccine side effects 10 years from now! 

Can you imagine how much Big Pharma and  the government would have to pay out if the Covid Vaccine had been released using the same standards as Roundup?  By the way, The Pharmaceuticals and Health Products Industry spent about $92 million on lobbying in the first quarter of 2021, more than any other industry - not including dark money.  While Pharmaceutical Research And Manufacturers Of America, a trade organization, spent roughly $8.6 million on lobbying in the first quarter of 2021, & sued to block a policy proposals to import lower-priced prescription drugs.

In simple terms:  While chasing profits can lead to breakthroughs, let's keep in mind that science can't be rushed. Lawyers are paid to come up with the best argument money can buy, not to arrive at the truth.  Judges are paid to judge the performance in the court, not to arrive at the truth. Journalists are paid to defend the narrative, not to uncover the truth,  Likewise, Scientists are not paid to save the world, just like Dr, Corkill is paid for producing creative content.  Simon Sinek in his very popular Ted Talk How to Inspire Leders, compares Pierpoint Lagnley space race with the Right Brothers concluding that when the motive is egalitarian, it produces better results that the pursuit of  power and fame.
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Pierpoint Langley was a noted astronomer, secretary of the Smithsonian Museum and very well connected with close friends including Alexander Graham Bell and Andrew Carnegie. Thanks to his connections, Pierpoint Langley was able to capture the imaginations of the ‘great and the good’ of the day with his dreams of powered flight. Indeed, the United States Department of Defence granted him $50,000 to fund his endeavors and his team included some of the best engineers of the day.
 Meanwhile, in Dayton, Ohio, Orville and Wilbur Wright were pursuing the same dream. In stark comparison to Pierpoint Langley, they had no funding or government support, and they relied solely on income from their bicycle shop to fund their dream of flight. Not a single person on their team was a skilled engineer and most did not even have a college education. They had no publicity, and no one knew who they were.  Guess who succeeded?

A quick test for Pfizer and Big Pharma: Would they bee willing to drop the liability exemption and be treated just like in the case of Roundup?