Just a few days ago, the former director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was named as the new president for Merck & Co’s vaccine division. Merck is one of the mega manufacturers in the “Big Pharma” group of companies. They make many vaccines including MMR, flu, HPV and others. It is the responsibility of the CDC to make official recommendations to the American people regarding the use of these very vaccines.
Julie Gerberding, MD has been head of the CDC for the past 7 years. She will be stepping up to take her new job at Merck on January 25th 2010.
This event has raised some red flags and more than a few eyebrows. However, it is just the latest in the obvious and crooked fondness between the CDC and drug manufacturers. In 2007 the CDC had a “moral lapse” by failing to resolve the conflicts of interest of many of the panel members who evaluated that year’s vaccines for flu and cervical cancer. Some of these people were legally forbidden from serving on such a board but did so anyway.
Earlier this year, the CDC was one of the organizations that called for “urgent action” to stop the supposed Swine Flu pandemic. This was despite the knowledge that H1N1 was no more deadly than the regular seasonal flu and did not justify the massive distribution and promotion of untested vaccines. So it seems to make sense to one of the companies that stood to profit that Mrs. Gerberding be given the helm of their $12 billion dollar a year vaccine division.
After you get over your initial feeling that there is more here than meets the eye, the event brings one question to mind. Just how deep do the ties between government health agency and Big Pharma go?
Conflict of interest in the medical industry is why the unbiased medical information provided by SmartMEDinfo is an absolute necessity. It is hard to know who to trust when there is any other motivation but protecting and helping the consumer. That’s why our doctors and pharmacists rely on the science and not the sensational and suspect pronouncements of government health agencies. Especially when the conflicts of interest are so rampant.