You're sick! You Spend too Much for it! You get little!

First, a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal, commenting on the Viagra vision loss article (notice how I've tastefully avoided conflating Viagra use, blindness, and certain habits, just for a cheap laugh!) that I noted last week.

...as a consequence of our legal environment, drug companies have no choice but
to cram onto drug labels every adverse reaction reported, no matter how
rare....If a single adverse reaction has been reported and isn't included on the
label, the company will likely find itself on the losing end if sued by a
consumer who experiences that adverse reaction, on the theory that the company
''failed to warn'' of the remote risk of injury.

Sounds familiar, no?

You're sick!

What a great article that appears in the Seattle Times recently! As the introduction states,

Pharmaceutical firms have commandeered the process by which diseases are
defined. Many decision makers at the World Health Organization, the U.S.
National Institutes of Health and some of America's most prestigious medical
societies take money from the drug companies and then promote the industry's
agenda.

Damn right we have! Because we have the money to do it!
Check out the homepage of this excellent series, and spend some time reading the articles therein.