Merck Sleeze Factor

There is a sleeze factor of which we're all aware, that we can't put our finger on exactly, but we know it when we see it. Imus calls a bunch of college kids racist names and he has met that sleeze factor. Bush lands on an aircraft carrier in front of a sign that says "Mission Accomplished" and 3 years later things are worse than ever in Iraq--that's a sleeze factor over-the-line.

Merck, that famous drug manufacturer caught with it's pants down denying that Vioxx was dangerous when its own internal memos showed that it knew facts to the contrary--Merck, who runs ads on TV about the integrity of its history in developing patent medicine for the cause of public health, when in fact all the drugs are "me-too" copies of generics already on the market in order to boost it's multi-billion-dollar bottom line for the sake of it's public shareholders--Merck is now running full-page ads every few days in national newspapers to warn about the problems of Shingles. The ads state that we need to be aware of this painful malady, and we need to ask our physician what to do about it.

And that's IT! The ads don't say specifically what the remedy is, nor does the Merck web site listed in the ad offer any obvious solution. So the assumption from reading the ads, and the web site, is that this Merck company is so in-tune with offering free unsolicited help to the public that this public should be thrilled and beholden to Merck for thinking of it - us - in such a generous and non-binding manner. After all, what does Merck have to gain from simply informing us of a medical condition that we could all have because we contracted chicken pox when we were children--that's what causes the painful shingles of older age--childhood chicken pox.

Doh!! I just got it! If you get the chicken pox vaccine as a child, you won't grow up and get shingles as an older adult. And now, with the newer recommendations that adolescents should get "booster" chicken pox vaccine shots, since the vaccine is short-lived and not proven to have life-long immunity effect as does the actual disease--Merck wants to shake everyone up into getting repetitive doses of its chicken pox vaccine in order to not get shingles, that dread malady, in later life.

Thar's MONEY in them thar shots! Big bucks! Worth paying for full-page color ads in national newspapers day after day for WEEKS! So what's the problem? Why shouldn't we get these shots and avoid shingles, and let Merck have its cash cow payola?

That answer is up to you, dear reader. If you think Merck, and the big drug manufacturers, are really pummeling you with ads for your sake, then go ahead and get vaccinated. If you wonder about the thousandfold increase in cases of autoimmune diseases in children like asthma, autism, and type II diabetes, and you think it might not be from air pollution or gamma rays, and might correspond to the same increase in vaccine dosages for children, then don't get the shots. The despair of having a vaccine-injured child, which big pharma, the CDC and FDA won't admit is from vaccine injury, is an experience without which, you absolutely won't miss.