[CHD] As history shows, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention don’t always get it right the first time they declare a drug "safe" — in fact, sometimes they’re dead wrong.Throughout the pandemic, health officials have urged the public to "trust the science," reassuring people that "the science" is the basis for any recommendations originating from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to President Biden on COVID-19, at one point even went as far as to tell the media if they criticize him, "They’re really criticizing science because I represent science. That’s dangerous."
In the U.S., the FDA approves new drugs, including vaccines — or, as is the case with COVID-19 vaccines, grants them Emergency Use Authorization. The CDC then recommends them.
Once that process is completed, it’s assumed the public — and the mainstream media — will unquestionably trust that the drugs or other treatments are safe and effective.
But as we’ve seen recently — when Newsweek last week broke with mainstream media and published two opinion pieces criticizing the U.S. government’s response to COVID-19 and claiming Americans don’t trust the CDC — not everyone buys everything the FDA and CDC are selling.
As history shows, the FDA and CDC don’t always get it right — in fact, sometimes they’re dead wrong.
Whether they err because they allow pharmaceutical companies to deceive them, or because the agencies are populated with "experts" whose financial conflicts of interest cloud their judgment, the results are the same.
There is a lack of a firewall between the FDA and drugmakers who pay much of the agency’s fees.
For example, the current FDA commissioner, Dr. Robert Califf, who had previously served in that role and was again nominated by President Biden, has 50 conflicts of interest.
After leaving the FDA in 2017, Califf became head of medical strategy at Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc. He also presided over a discredited drug trial of the blood thinner Xarelto, which was linked to at least 370 deaths, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Discussing the Vioxx scandal on PBS, Califf said, "Many of us consult with the pharmaceutical industry, which I think is a very good thing. They need ideas and then the decision about what they do is really up to the person who is funding the study."
As the FDA and CDC unleash risky, experimental COVID-19 vaccines on babies and toddlers, it’s worth looking back at some of their deadliest mistakes....