American politicians give another $3.2BILLION to Pfizer-BioNTech (2022Jun) while USA infrastructure is decades behind that of China and Europe and inflation-underemployment ravage the country [VIDEOS]
Drug companies have more money and more power to influence politicians and political outcomes than do the citizens of their own countries, thus rendering the idea of “representative democracy” absurd
America politicians never have money for social works and modern public infrastructure, but they find plenty of money to give to drug companies for worthless drugs (eg, Tamiflu) and the military-industrial complex (eg, weapons manufacturers).
Reuters Jun 30, 2022: “Pfizer and partner BioNTech said on Wednesday they signed a $3.2 billion deal with the U.S. government…”
NO modern social programs, not even a visible or potent public sphere; no concept of “the [public] commons"
NO modern mass transit.
NO high-speed rail system interconnecting the country.
NO mention of vitamin D to improve immunity among the 40% of the American population deficient in vitamin D.
Notice in the video below* (originally from 2014 and republished in 2022) that the same cash amount mentioned (at minute 4:30 of the video) that could fix key infrastructure in America is nearly the same that has already been spent on experimental drugs in the past 2 years (2020-2022).
They can’t find the money over decades to fix key national infrastructure, but they can find BILLION$$$ immediately to spend on experimental drugs, even those already proven to not work.
*America’s Crumbling Infrastructure | 60 Minutes Archive, Mar 11, 2022 In 2014, 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft reported on America’s crumbling infrastructure and the struggle to fund urgently needed projects.
PLENTY OF UNMET NEEDS
PLENTY OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS who would love to build a national infrastructure that we could all be proud of.
PLENTY OF NEED for low-cost transportation with low environmental impact.
PLENTY OF NEED to create manufacturing-building jobs for new motors, rail, stations, etc.
OUTRAGEOUS INFLATION and need for well-paying jobs.
Politicians wasted billions of public dollars on Tamiflu because they were bribed by paid lobbyists, not because the research and clinical benefits were clear
Drug companies rarely (virtually never) produce any drug or vaccine that lives up to its hype and advertising, but the drug industry commonly produces worthless drugs and vaccines that repeatedly fail, cause tens of thousands of injuries and deaths, and distract doctors and patients away from readily available low-cost solutions, such as vitamin D supplementation against viral infections.
What Americans call “lobbying” (private interests paying politicians to make high-profit laws and private-centered government policies) is called *bribery* in most other countries
Statnews June 9, 2021: More than two-thirds of Congress cashed a pharma campaign check in 2020, new STAT analysis shows. Seventy-two senators and 302 members of the House of Representatives cashed a check from the pharmaceutical industry ahead of the 2020 election — representing more than two-thirds of Congress, according to a new STAT analysis of records for the full election cycle. Pfizer’s political action committee alone contributed to 228 lawmakers. ... The top recipient of drug industry cash was Rep. Richard Hudson, a Republican from North Carolina. Major drug industry groups donated $139,500 to his most recent campaign..."
Drug companies have more money and more power to influence politicians and political outcomes than do the citizens of those same countries, thus rendering the idea of “representative democracy” effectively worthless and misleading
I saw it happening in 2018 and published a description in 2019 (academia.edu/38476348, included as PDF below), then we saw the global takeover of the world by drug companies in 2020, 2021, and 2022.
The only reasonable action is activism, or at least informed engagement.
The only reasonable solution is accountability and punishment, just like we saw with the Nuremberg trials. Until and unless we see a Nuremberg 2.0 and until and unless we see laws written to protect the public sphere, this can repeat and it almost certainly will repeat.
Sources:
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/pfizer-signs-32-bln-deal-with-us-government-covid-vaccine-doses-2022-06-29/
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-roche-hldg-novartis-search/stockpiles-of-roche-tamiflu-drug-are-waste-of-money-review-finds-idUSBREA390EJ20140410
https://www.statnews.com/feature/prescription-politics/federal-full-data-set/
https://diasporamessenger.com/2018/11/obbying-kenyan-corruption-legalized-bribe-machination/