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Mar. 28, 2005 In view of the Terri Schiavo debate, this is a broadside at inappropriate official federal blind spots: misleading health debates, undertreatment of bacterial pneumonia and officially propagated pseudo cancer theories. To start, the Congress has gone to great lengths to show that they have been interested in allowing Terri Schiavo to live. But the powers that be did not order that her feeding tube be reinserted nor pass a law enabling this to happen nor did they offer to pay anyone to make sure this would happen. I believe this is but one clear example of faulty official federal thinking, simultaneously highlighting that old saw: pay or die. Death by starvation and/or dehydration can be considered cruel and unusual punishment. Have you seen photos of Terri Schiavo’s pitiful face. She is in pain, pushing her treatment into the category of torture. But no one is going to pay. All the same making clear that politicians are people who can get you killed and not face any repercussions. Cheapskates is not evocative enough to cover the shallow thinking involved. Now look at pneumonia in this light. While many, many victims survive bacterial pneumonia, there are thousands and thousands of avoidable deaths caused by this infectious disease. Yet antibiotics are effective against bacteria, including those responsible for this debilitating infection. Consider the realizable but hypothetical supposition that if enough infectious agents such as bacteria are destroyed fast enough a patient would not succumb to this disease but would survive to live another day. Admittedly, antibiotics are dangerous. About four hundred people die each year from an allergic reaction to penicillin. Then again, people also die from eating peanuts. But, then again, improperly insufficient treatment is just as dangerous. That does not mean that the current state of medical expertise has to remain constant into the foreseeable future. Current antibiotics are also losing effectiveness. Penicillin is only 50% effective nowadays. Meaning that medical researchers with vision can save lives and considering the number of victims, this big market can support the necessary research and development sufficiently well to see that resulting bills get paid for. A final example of officially promulgated nonsense is the pseudotheory that cancer cells grow rapidly. Twenty years gestation for some cancers is not fast nor do asbestos or nicotine cause rapid growth. Defective genes of whatever type also do not necessarily mean fast growth. But this is an officially promulgated theory meaning politics is behind it, that is, a very narrow minded kind of thinking. The federal government has enormous influence, in medical practice, this is mainly through the NIH, the FDA and the power of the purse. The government may encourage the discovery of new treatments for cancer by paying for the comparative genome sequencing of varied cancer cells vis-a-vis non-cancerous cells as evidenced by the current unique treatment named Gleevec for chronic myelogenous leukemia but officially sanctioned false theories like leeches curing disease, witch doctors and the Earth being the center of the Universe have always delayed progress and Gleevec only appears capable of sustaining patients for around ten years and then users die of the drug’s side effects. Surely, Washington politicians can do better, much better. ------------ About the author: Mr. Neil Levine enjoys writing and collecting autographed letters: E. I. Koch, D. P. Moynihan, J. Javits, G. W. Bush, B. Frist et al. Email: neillevine3@aol.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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