Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Ralph Nader Can Roast in Hell

Go read this, then come back. I'll wait.

Back? Good. Hi. How you doing? Are you as almighty pissed off as I am? Because good god, this is all eat up with stupid.

For those of you who didn't click the link (I know that finger clicking can get tiring), the FDA has banned Cylert/pemoline, a drug most commonly used to treat ADHA, but also to treat narcolepsy. This is due to pressure applied by Nader's "consumer safety" watchdog group. See, the drug (like many others) has a risk of liver damage associated with it. Patients have to get regular toxicity tests done to make sure they're not breaking themselves. Well, apparently (this was cited in the comments to the above post; my google fu was not good enough to figure out how to confirm it) only one person has suffered liver failure from this drug since the risk was first discovered.

Clearly, this demon drug must be stopped.

The FDA has withdrawn approval for the ONLY DRUG that can keep some people functional. In the case of the post linked above, you might want to read functional as "awake."

I would go off on a rant about democracy, about how crusades that claim to work for "the little people" so often end up stomping on them, or on the role of government in health care; but I'd rather Teresa be able to function. So I'm making demands on all ten of you, my readers (yes, even on the internet, I'm an introvert). Your mission, should you find yourself pissed off:

1. Contact your congressperson. There, I even made it easy for you. Two clicks, you've got email, snail mail, and phone numbers for the folks who represent you. There's some argument about what's most effective, with the leader usually being the telephone. Email and letters can be put off, but the phones have to be answered. Whatever you do, whatever you say, be polite. Your words will most likely be heard by a very harried intern or other support staff who really aren't the folks to be pissed at.

2. Spread the word. Link back to Teresa's post on your own blog (if you keep one), link to the nifty congress-finder, and talk to people you know in Real Life.

It's one thing to take something universally dangerous off the market. This is not that thing. It's really time that Ralph learned the difference.

2 Comments:

Blogger Bill said...

I wonder if Nader's tried to take rope off the market because people can hang themselves... or fans because they can make dust blow into peoples eyes... ugh...

12:05 PM  
Blogger itgirl said...

I can't stand the newly constant bowing to pressure forcing them to take good drugs off the market because one person is affected.

5:41 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home