The pharmaceutical industry waits in the wings salivating at their next multi-billion dollar drug to slide past the FDA for approval.  Bear with me as I bring you down the “road of no conscience” having had 19 years involved in the sordid history of pharma and the FDA.

The pharmaceutical industry entices physicians to prescribe their potential money making drugs.  They do it by having pharmaceutical reps visit physicians bearing gifts — nice gifts.  This has been well documented.  Just look up the history of only two pharmaceutical companies — Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin and Insys Therapeutics, maker of Subsys — both drugs that devastated families in deaths and addictions.

Years ago a miracle drug called “Valium” was introduced to the medical profession and quickly earned the catch phrase “Mother’s Little Helper” to help frazzled moms get through the day raising children.  Then two drugs were introduced to the medical profession – one was Ritalin and then  Adderall.  They were discretely promoted as “Teacher’s Little Helper” for disruptive students in a classroom setting.  Then enter OxyContin pitched as a 12-hour painkiller — which was untrue, but the FDA had already approved it and the marketing was out of control.  OxyContin was pitched as “Nurse’s Little Helper” in a hospital setting.  Nurses would only have to medicate patients in pain every 12 hours rather than 4 to 6 hours when in actuality, pain was relieved only 6 to 8 hours.

Twelve warning letters were sent to Purdue Pharma by the FDA on their dangerous marketing of OxyContin, which were ignored by Purdue Pharma.  In a conversation I had with Tom Abrams of the FDA asking him how many warning letters were going to be sent before action was taken, his reply to me was “we don’t have the manpower to police Purdue Pharma.”  I replied “and you don’t think they don’t know that?”  I was met with a dial tone.

Enter Covid-19 and “mask wearing” — medical masks progressing to cloth, designer masks with your favorite insignia adorning it.  Then we were advised by the CDC that children should wear masks.  Children breathing in their own carbon dioxide and in many cases, bacteria and viruses that children are susceptible to such as strep throat.  Children (some as young as 2 years old) not seeing a facial expression, a smile, a frown on people’s faces.  Couple this with isolation — no school, no social interaction, no sports.  Think there is a possibility that children could become emotionally scarred from “mask wearing?”

Rest assured, pharma and the FDA dressed as the calvary, will be riding to your children’s assistance.  There will be a drug (fast tracked) to help children adjust to the “trauma of masks”.  It will be similar to an emotional support dog to guide children through this maze.  May I suggest the pharmaceutical industry consider pitching this drug as “Children’s Little Security Blanket?”

Remember when the medical profession encouraged sunshine and fresh air to build up your immune system — especially children’s?  Now we have people driving in cars wearing masks.  Did the CDC issue yet another directive that I may have missed?  Mask wearing while in a car prevents people from licking the windows.