PharmCo's. Fear Mongering since 2001

Back in 2001 the FDA relaxed the protocols for advertising Pharmaceuticals direct to the consumer resulting in the PharmCo's coming up with the most annoying and obnoxious and prolific TV ads around.  Nothing like sitting down top dinner and watching the tube and hearing things like "lower all kinds of cholesterol...." or "an erection lasting more than 4 hours (this is a problem????)"......or seeing a bunch of middle age guys sing out joyously "Viva Viagra!!!!!".   We've become a scared and sterilized society now.  NeoSporin has an antiseptic spray that Soccer Mom's can carry in their purse in case little Johnny or Tiffany fall down running during their "playdate" in the park.....(let me go off topic here for a moment.  Is that term not the stupidest term  you have ever heard????  Playdate??? WTF????  Yeah let's set them up for rejection right off the bat...."Mom....Johnny won't go on a play date with me...."  What happened to taking your kids to the park so they could interact with other kids.....you have to set it up and screen their friends now?????  This whole idea is utter BS....seriously.  Now back to your regularly scheduled rant)...because God Forbid that little scraped knee is going to turn gangrenous and you will have to amputate Johnny's leg.  What happened to Mom's spitting in a hanky or tissue and wiping it all off.....or good old Bactine.   Hurt like Hell but fixed it right up.   Oh wait.....we don't want the experience to be unpleasant....I forgot.  Let's see, kids medicine tastes so good now that kids might think it's candy and drink it up.  My Grandson did this.  He got into the medicine chest and managed to get through the child safety cap...he's too smart for his own good.....he ended up in the ER with my oldest Step-Daughter freaking out.   Why did he drink it....because it tasted like grape Kool Aid.....wonderful.   Remember how medicine used to taste awful?   It made you not want to get sick, and you definitely weren't going to go drink some because it tasted so bad.

 

Back to big PharmCos.....they have been pitching their snake oil on TV since 2001, and have been using the best trick in the book; Fear.  Yep, those aches and pains you have....we have a name for it now and a pill to go with it!!  Just tell your Doctor that's what's wrong with you and that you need a prescription for our Pill...  And that's the problem; folks are being brainwashed into thinking they have a certain ailment and are bound and determined to tell their doctor they need this Pill.  Even though their doctor is well aware of all the new medicines out there....trust me they get so many damn samples in the mail it's not funny.   I'd say the professional physician....you know the Doctor that spent almost 20 years in school.....knows what the Hell he's talking about.  If he says you just have sore muscles then you have sore muscles....you don't have Fibromyalgia and you don't need Lyrica.   The one's that get me are the new vaccines that are coming out for crap that isn't all that widespread.  The newest one is for Meningitis...Meningococcal (sp???) Meningitis to be exact.  Get your Teen vaccinated from Meningitis because, as you know, all Teens are walking crocks of disease that can infect your child.  Yes, tell your Teen not to touch anyone, talk to anyone because they will get infected with horrible diseases!!!!  Cooties, apparently are real now and they have a vaccine.   Then there's the Guardasil commercials which is a vaccine for HPPV....essentially a Sexually Transmitted disease.  This confused me as to why they were advertising this to Mom's to get their daughter's vaccinated, and showing Pre-Teen girls in the commercial!?!!?  Apparently it needs to be done prior to becoming sexually active.   I can hear this conversation.....

 

Mom: Suzy I'm taking you to the Dr. to get this shot..

Suzy: Will it hurt (Suzy's 9 by the way)?

Mom: Probably....

Suzy: Do I need it?

Mom: Not yet....it's to prevent you from getting a sexually transmitted disease later on in life....

Suzy: Um....ewww....sex???  Mom that's disgusting......so I can get diseases from sex???  Well I'm not having sex ever then!!

Mom: Um....wow this is awkward.....well I just want you to be One Less like the commercial says.....

Suzy: Isn't there another way to protect against this?  In school they were talking about Birth Control...

Mom: What's your school teaching you!!!!

 

Yeah I can just hear it now.   Helpful hint from the pros....Girls, make your partner wear a condom and you won't get HPPV.......or Aids or anything else.   Hey a box only costs like 6-10 dollars and you can buy them when you are ready to make that decision.....not at 9 Freaking years old!!!!! 

 

What gets me too is that they can release this crap on the market with only the most basic of research.   Sidenote: Guardisil is being recalled as I write this because of some really nasty side effects.....

 

Speaking of side effects, ever notice the laundry list of side effects that can happen from taking some of these drugs?  You know, infection, slow breathing, heart failure, blindness, loss of hearing, bleeding, infection of the injection site (I love that one...) or irritation of the injection site (ya think???), and even death (oh I really like that one.....hey take out pill, it will fix what ails you by killing you!!!).   Makes you want to say..."you know what?  I think I will just pop a couple of Tylenol/Advil/Motrin/Bayer and that will deal with the pain...Hell if I take an Aleve in the morning it will last until noon!!!"  You don't need a prescription, there's no risk of death (well unless you down the whole bottle of 500 pills in one sitting.....then you will probably die....horribly too most likely) and hey you can get generic versions real cheap that do the SAME DAMN THING!!!  Seriously folks, Ibuprofen is Ibuprofen....whether it says Tylenol, Safeway, Kroger, Target, etc on the label.  The only difference, besides Tylenol making there's with holes or fancy colors or tasting like grape KoolAid, is the price.  

 

It's this increase in Fear Mongering that is driving the cost of Health Care through the roof.  Insurance Companies are having to pay out more for treating ailments that really didn't need treating with expensive medicine before.  Doctor's Malpractice insurance rates are going up because more brainwashed people insist they need Pill A even though their Doctor says No.  

 

What do we do Mr. Ranter you may ask?  I'll tell you.  Stop giving in to advertising.  Meningitis is a real nasty disease, but when was the last time you heard of kids at your Child's school getting it?????   Probably never, so do you think it's necessary to pay for an office visit plus the expense of a shot (that's probably not covered under you insurance) for your Child?  If you thought about it you would say Hell No!!  Isn't it easier to tell your Teens about birth control and not have to explain to your 9 year old daughter why she's getting a shot to protect her from "Evil Sexually Transmitted Diseases"........Do we really need to add that stress on top of every other stressor that has been placed on our Teens??   Break that cycle, teach your daughter's that sex is sex.....you hear of so many Teens who think that they aren't having sex because they just "did oral"....got news for you ...that's sex.  Or anal sex isn't sex.....uh huh....just ask any Gay Man.....he will tell you different I'm sure.  Stop making these PharmCo's wealthier than they already are.  Instead of coming up with Vaccine's for stuff that's avoidable, why not cure diabetes or cancer?   Work on those.....stop trying to invent the miracle cure for everything........you don't need Flu shots...you have a healthy immune system and some Nyquil...works every single time!! The more we try to vaccinate minor viruses, they smarter they get and then we will have the Penicillin problem where there are viruses now that are immune to it.  How did this happen?  Several Countries used Penicillin as a miracle drug and gave it to everyone for everything.  Put some faith in your Doctor...after all he/she is a professional.......