Now that I have your attention…this isn’t the latest gun rampage in a public place…it isn’t a car bomb in a world hot spot…it is the wanton murder and injury to AMERICANS who trusted their doctors and hospitals and health care infrastructure to keep them safe and heal their pains.
This is the outbreak of spinal fungal meningitis caused by contamination in the lab that produces a steroid used to treat chronic back pain.
Yet Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan claim federal regulations are killing American business.
BULLSH*T…unregulated American business is killing Americans!
This is inexcusable. It is criminal. Yet we act like it was inevitable and gets a shrug of the shoulders.
Hold our leaders accountable for the lack of oversight.
Tell Mr. Romney and Rep. Ryan that we don’t want to die over their partisan dislike of regulation.
And it isn’t the only recent occurrence: go back 18 months and check out the Triad Group alcohol wipes scandal…
I’ve been following this story since the outbreak began, and it is an infuriating tale. This is an entirely preventable tragedy. If only Americans would wise up and reject the anti-regulatory, anti-federalism hysteria that has poisoned the common consciousness. This latest outbreak isn’t the first. Ten years ago a similar outbreak occurred involving a different fungus but the same steroid, Methylprednislone acetate. The source was a similar facility – a compounding pharmacy. Pharmaceutical compounding isn’t federally regulated, these operations are under the authority of state health officials. To make matters worse there are no reporting requirements for compounding facilities when their products go afoul. These steroids are unusually susceptible to fungal growth and necessitate conditions of assiduous sterility. That lesson, however, was learned in 2002 and no changes to how compounding pharmacies are monitored have occurred since then. It is criminal.
The FDA and CDC have been investigating and inspecting the contaminated compounding center; preliminary findings are beyond unacceptable. The contamination was known since at least January, but no efforts were made to contain it, minimize it or initiate measures to prevent further contamination. Apparently, the facility has had an even longer known history of questionable sterility practices, but there are no mechanisms in place to properly regulate these kinds of facilities.
I consider anti-regulation proponents and those who would cut entire federal agencies in order to “starve the beast” criminal traitors to this country. They are unconscionable murderers motivated by nothing more than avarice.
I hope everyone who becomes aware of this story can hold all the people who need these injections in their thoughts because at this time the fear of receiving this needed treatment has never been greater. I hope every American can find compassion to mourn the 25 who have needlessly died and the 344 who are gravely ill from irresponsible anti-regulatory ideology. In some cases the meningitis induces stroke and can result in a variety of complications. At least three other fungi besides those that cause meningitis have also been found in patients injected with the contaminated steroid. Symptoms of fungal infection can take months to surface and at least 14,000 people are estimated to have received the drug. That means that anyone who has been injected from the lots suspected of contamination (since May of this year) must be vigilant in returning to their physician to routinely check for signs of infection if they are asymptomatic. So this is a nightmare even for those who have not fallen ill.
The anti-regulation agenda is a sham of misinformation; its proponents rely on dishonest and incomplete data, bogus think tank studies and unsound methodologies. The benefits from regulation far outweigh their costs in just raw numbers let alone human terms. Roughly $2 trillion in benefits for $65 billion in cost. Regulations create more jobs than not. Worldwide, nations with strict regulatory measures have higher standards of living than those that don’t. Anti-regulatory environments are tyrannical, exploitive, 3rd world government structures. America should take the lead in increasing the effectiveness of its regulatory environment, not the opposite. That is, if we want to remain a world power.
Yet according to many Republicans, what this country needs is less regulation and government oversight.
President Obama risked his Democratic majority and most of his political capital on reforming healthcare. He didn’t have a suicide wish, he knew it was the most important issue of the 21st century. It still is.
34 killed is nothing. In Obama’s Chicago, this many are killed every month.
Summer of 2011 I took advantage of our tax supported transportation infrastructure to attend an anti-tax tea party rally at one of our tax supported parks. First speaker I heard was Becky K. who told us of her ordeal with cancer, neglecting to thank the taxpayers who picked up the bill. She was followed by RoJO and another speaker both saying we needed to get rid of the FDA, the EPA and DNR. We are suffering from carcinagen deficiency.
tom harlen,
What were those 34 people in Chicago killed with? They were killed with guns.
By the way, to say that “34 killed is nothing” is sociopathic; it’s something a psychopath might say.
By the way, your figures for Chicago are incorrect. The number is 27. And you’d be more accurate to use the term “NRA’s Chicago” or “Wayne LaPierre’s Chicago.”
But do try to stay on topic, won’t you? Try as you might with your propagandist diversion – the issue on this thread is Regulation. Not Obama and not Chicago.
Deregulation is killing America. “Small Government” is killing America. Conservatism is killing America. Do try to stay on topic, won’t you?
We might as well refer to this outbreak as Mitt’s Meningitis because it was in Mitt’s Massachusetts where the outbreak occurred and it is in Mitt’s Massachusetts that pharmaceutical compounding went without proper oversight. Unfortunately, the tragedy isn’t isolated to Massachusetts because the fungal meningitis from the Massachusetts lab was shipped to 23 states. Mitt Romney has precipitated a nationwide public health crisis due to his irresponsible lack of governance. Mitt Romney is personally responsible for this fungal meningitis epidemic.
The investigation into the New England Compounding Company is revealing a number of rather frightful tidbits about Mitt Romney’s role of negligence in regulating NECC. Regulators at the Massachusetts Department of Health were aware that NECC demonstrated a pattern of substandard procedures. No, not a single isolated incident, but a discernible pattern traceable over a decade’s time. As governor, the top dog public health regulator in Massachusetts, Mitt Romney dismissed the reprimands for the company submitted to him in 2004. Between 2003 and 2006 alone six public health incidents involving the steroid now in question were found by Massachusetts health officials to be linked to NECC’s tainted products, and that tainting directly caused by lax practices.
Rather than doing his job by placing the company on probationary status or enacting any disciplinary actions for failure to meet minimum health standards, Romney just dismissed the reprimand and allowed New England Compounding Company to continue its unsafe practices. No doubt so business wouldn’t be stifled. As its owners alleged in 2004, disciplinary action against NECC would be “fatal” to its “business.” Never mind the potential for “life” to be “snuffed out” were its business to continue.
As of 2006, the state of Massachusetts has allowed the New England Compounding Company to monitor itself.
Oh and the owners of New England Compounding Company, the fungal Meningitis factory, donated to Mitt Romney’s campaign.