I love Jenny McCarthy. Seriously. She’s a hot train wreck. She’s got a new opinion piece up on Huffington Post and its worth a read. It’s kind of like listening to the crazy guy on the street corner, but it is entertaining.
Jenny McCarthy has some pretty radical ideas about autism. She still adheres to the long-disproven belief that vaccines cause autism. OK, so McCarthy doesn’t understand science, but let’s not let a little thing like science get in the way of a good time.
In her Huffington Post article she says she doesn’t really want to talk about vaccines, she wants to talk about recovery. Yet she doesn’t talk about recovery – a pity. You see, Jenny McCarthy single-handedly discovered the cure to autism. She knows how to reverse the disease. She was able to cure her own child’s autism. Yet, selfishly, Jenny McCarthy refuses to share the cure with the tens of thousands of parents in America who also have children with autism. Why? Is she afraid that parents will learn the truth? Who’s afraid of the truth? Evidently, it’s Jenny McCarthy.
But the most intelligent thing is McCarthy’s closing line: “Who’s afraid of the truth? Usually the people it would hurt the most.” She’s right. Parents are afraid of the truth. It’s easier to blame everything on something external – vaccines, big bad drug companies and the government – rather than accept the truth: there’s not one single boogie man to blame. Autism disorders seem to have a multitude of factors: genetics, age of the parents at birth, mother’s consumption of fish during pregnancy, and mother’s substance abuse during pregnancy. It feels better to blame vaccines, drug companies and the government rather than your actions during pregnancy. However, just because it feels good, doesn’t mean it is reality.
Speaking of reality, a survey of parents found that 1 in 4 parents are convinced that vaccines cause autism (no doubt, they’re listening to Jenny McCarthy). Coincidentally, that’s the same percentage of people that believe in Big Foot, are still convinced that there are Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, and that HIV was engineered by Europeans to kill off Black Africans and take over the continent.
We can continue down the road of foolishness and believe that vaccines cause autism. Or, we can stop wasting time and resources, instead focusing on those things that are actually associated with autism. Thousands of children are suffering with autism – it’s time to get them the real help they deserve and stop wasting time.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
The Privacy Shakedown
Last week, twenty thousand medical IT professionals invaded Atlanta for the annual HIMSS meeting. When it comes to health IT, this was ground zero.
Obama’s health IT czar in da house? Check. The gravy train of federal stimulus money? Check. Deborah Peel proclaiming the end of the world? Check.
Deborah Peel is a favorite of mine. I used to think that Deborah Peel just didn’t get it. I was wrong, Deborah Peel gets it – and has made sure that she’s profiting off it. It’s all about the money and selling fear. Her organization, Patient Privacy Rights, offers a report card on how well companies do in protecting patient privacy. Top on her list is No More Clipboards. So it is not surprising that I found Deborah Peel at the No More Clipboards booth – makes you wonder about how impartial the Patient Privacy Rights ratings actually are.
Yet something was amiss with Deborah Peel this HIMSS. Gone was the fight and the fierceness. Instead, this sad woman was left in her place. She’s given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democratic political causes and candidates – from Emily’s List and the DNC National Committee, to Dick Durbin and Barack Obama, Deborah Peel has dropped a small fortune into buying access and clout. So, when the Democrats snubbed Peel’s privacy ideas in their health IT adoption plans, it left her to sulk in the corner. And sulk she did at HIMSS.
The thing with Deborah Peel is this – everybody has the same goal. Everyone wants to protect patient privacy. The only difference is that Deborah Peel acts like there is patient privacy only when she’s being paid – it’s the privacy shakedown. No wonder she seemed so blue at HIMSS.
Obama’s health IT czar in da house? Check. The gravy train of federal stimulus money? Check. Deborah Peel proclaiming the end of the world? Check.
Deborah Peel is a favorite of mine. I used to think that Deborah Peel just didn’t get it. I was wrong, Deborah Peel gets it – and has made sure that she’s profiting off it. It’s all about the money and selling fear. Her organization, Patient Privacy Rights, offers a report card on how well companies do in protecting patient privacy. Top on her list is No More Clipboards. So it is not surprising that I found Deborah Peel at the No More Clipboards booth – makes you wonder about how impartial the Patient Privacy Rights ratings actually are.
Yet something was amiss with Deborah Peel this HIMSS. Gone was the fight and the fierceness. Instead, this sad woman was left in her place. She’s given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democratic political causes and candidates – from Emily’s List and the DNC National Committee, to Dick Durbin and Barack Obama, Deborah Peel has dropped a small fortune into buying access and clout. So, when the Democrats snubbed Peel’s privacy ideas in their health IT adoption plans, it left her to sulk in the corner. And sulk she did at HIMSS.
The thing with Deborah Peel is this – everybody has the same goal. Everyone wants to protect patient privacy. The only difference is that Deborah Peel acts like there is patient privacy only when she’s being paid – it’s the privacy shakedown. No wonder she seemed so blue at HIMSS.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Pfizer: Loose Lips Sink Ships
Back in my day, we had the legacy of the American Government’s propaganda war – including the famous “Loose Lips Sink Ships” adverts.
When I began my career in business, discretion was expected. Since then, many companies have paid over-priced consultants millions of dollars to develop employee training programs to teach employees the obvious – be careful what you say in public because you never know who is listening.
This is a lesson a couple of Pfizer executives failed to understand. Last Monday, I found myself heading out of Manhattan on an Amtrak train with a couple of Pfizer execs ensconced in the seats behind me and talking very loudly about certain inflammation franchise clinical trials. It doesn’t take a genius to realize you’re riding Amtrak through the Northeast Pharma Corridor and there are probably at least 4 or 5 other people within earshot who are also engaged in the pharma business – perhaps a competitor (or, even a little old blogger like me).
Having some experience in this area, I had a pretty good idea of what they were talking about. They started off talking about Crohn’s disease and their Phase 2 compound ATN-103. Naturally, my ears picked up when they started comparing the compound to existing drugs on the market and how ATN-103 was stacking up.
But perhaps the most interesting to me, was a discussion of the compound ATR-107 for Lupus. This compound was listed in the 2009 Wyeth Pipeline Report as being removed from the active project list and is not even listed in Pfizer’s 2010 Pipeline Report published just a few short weeks ago. Yet I listened to a rather lengthy discussion on the future of this compound.
I could go on and on. In an ultra-competitive industry like pharma, you’d imagine company executives would be a little more prudent and discrete in a public environment, but perhaps not.
When I began my career in business, discretion was expected. Since then, many companies have paid over-priced consultants millions of dollars to develop employee training programs to teach employees the obvious – be careful what you say in public because you never know who is listening.This is a lesson a couple of Pfizer executives failed to understand. Last Monday, I found myself heading out of Manhattan on an Amtrak train with a couple of Pfizer execs ensconced in the seats behind me and talking very loudly about certain inflammation franchise clinical trials. It doesn’t take a genius to realize you’re riding Amtrak through the Northeast Pharma Corridor and there are probably at least 4 or 5 other people within earshot who are also engaged in the pharma business – perhaps a competitor (or, even a little old blogger like me).
Having some experience in this area, I had a pretty good idea of what they were talking about. They started off talking about Crohn’s disease and their Phase 2 compound ATN-103. Naturally, my ears picked up when they started comparing the compound to existing drugs on the market and how ATN-103 was stacking up.
But perhaps the most interesting to me, was a discussion of the compound ATR-107 for Lupus. This compound was listed in the 2009 Wyeth Pipeline Report as being removed from the active project list and is not even listed in Pfizer’s 2010 Pipeline Report published just a few short weeks ago. Yet I listened to a rather lengthy discussion on the future of this compound.
I could go on and on. In an ultra-competitive industry like pharma, you’d imagine company executives would be a little more prudent and discrete in a public environment, but perhaps not.
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