Product of my environment
the case for misinterpretation
The moving goal post
How the dope boyz hijacked healthcare
**KillMonger takeover day 3**
My pops N’jobu use to constantly tell me, “not everything that glitters, is gold.” That was one of his two favorite sayings. The other one was, “give them a little bit of truth to attract them, and make the rest of it lies to entrap them.” This was essentially was his views on politics and our immediate society.
I remember growing up home back in Oakland, how drastic the change was once the CIA flooded the neighborhoods with crack. It didn’t take long before systems were set in place to benefit monetarily from the death and destruction of crack cocaine. I remember seeing the cops patrol the streets and feeling a sense of relief. I was actually all in favor of them increasing their numbers in our community if it meant getting rid of the drugs.
Every year right before school we use to have these back to school drives, where both the cops and the local dope boys would come together to celebrate our progress and give bookbags and other school supplies to the neighborhood kids. At the end of the celebration “Dae Dae” who was the kingpin and leader of the local dope boys, would present the local police department with a check from his non-profit organization called “Yeah-Right.”
In my eyes, I saw progress, change, and hope, but my pops on the hand saw a hustle. One day I said to him, “Isn’t this great pops, things are finally gonna change.” He looked down at me, smirked, and patted me on my head and said, you’re a child, so you’re supposed to believe in childish things, but very soon the world will see you as a man. A man who believes as a child does will become societies dinner.”
He explained to me that I had eaten the fruits of a social illusion. He said to me straight up, “the dope boys are funding the police department, who should the police have primary loyalty to?” “Things will never get better; they will only get fancier.” It was all clear and apparent then. The proof was always there, but I just refused to see, because my desire for improvement was so strong, that I imposed my belief on something that just wasn’t there nor real.
I can’t speak for Edward, but when I read his next email, the story I just told you about came first to mind. He titled the email, “The moving goal post,” but he should have titled it “How the dope boyz hijacked healthcare.”
This email laid out references and links about how much funding by pharmaceutical companies went on behind the scenes. They were funding everything from medical schools, clinical trials, and medical research. If they weren’t directly funding these projects, then they would donate to an organization like a “Yeah-Right,” and then “Yeah-Right” would make the donations to the other organizations. My pops used to call this tactic, “directly indirect.”
The thing that really caught my attention in his email was this process called “disease creep” and the term “pre-disease.”
Disease creep is the process of broadening definitions of what is considered to be a disease or diagnosis. Pre-disease means, you don’t have the disease yet. However, we will treat you as if you did have the condition. These next lines are quoted directly from the medical literature.
“We are labeling more and more healthy people as sick and building bigger potential markets for those selling medicines. For some of the newly labeled patients there will no doubt be benefits, but for others with mild problems or at very low risk of illness, a diagnosis can bring more harm than good, leading to overtreatment and wasting precious resources that could be better directed to those in genuine need.”
“Pre-diseases were created, thresholds were lowered, or diagnostic processes changed to enable earlier diagnosis. In no case did a panel rigorously investigate and report on the potential danger that some people may be caught unnecessarily by the newly widened definitions.”
“Among the panels that disclosed competing interests, 75% of panel members had multiple financial ties to a median of seven drug companies each. These members were paid by companies for activities like speaking, consulting, advising or researching.”
“For instance, among the blood pressure guideline panel that in 2003 created ‘pre-hypertension,’ 80% of members disclosed ties to 12 companies each. Eight of the 11 members had financial ties to pharmaceutical companies that sold drugs for hypertension.”
“The decisions made by these heavily conflicted panels are not abstract academic exercises. They ultimately influence whether or not an individual is labeled as ‘diseased,’ changing their life’s narrative. Moreover, decisions that expand patient populations profoundly affect where we spend our health resources.”
Now do you see why I started with the story that I did? Dae Dae never got caught, although everyone knew who he was. The death and crime never improved, although they say it did. It was all this big profitable social illusion, where only one side was benefiting.
Now you are maybe thinking that there is no harm in treating people with blood pressure medications for their mild to moderate conditions. So what I will do is leave this last quote here and let you make an informed decision for yourself.
“MOST PEOPLE WHO TAKE BLOOD PRESSURE MEDICATION POSSIBLY SHOULDN’T”
“A new study is turning decades of medical dogma on its head. A panel of independent experts reports this week that drugs used to treat mild cases of high blood pressure have not been shown to reduce heart attacks, strokes, or overall deaths.”
“Most of the 68 million patients in the United States with high blood pressure have mild, or Stage 1, hypertension, defined as a systolic (top number) value of 140-159 or a diastolic (bottom number) value of 90-99. The new review suggests that many patients with hypertension are overtreated—they are subjected to the possible harms of drug treatment without any benefit.”
“Antihypertensive drugs used in the treatment of adults (primary prevention) with mild hypertension (systolic BP 140-159 mmHg and diastolic BP 90-99 mmHg) have NOT been shown to reduce mortality or morbidity in RCTs. Treatment caused 9% of patients to discontinue treatment due to adverse effects.”
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