From Corrupted to Trusted: (Liberal) America’s Shifting Perceptions of the FDA
Until recently, most Americans had little trust in the FDA. But when COVID arrived in early 2020, a scared nation deepened in tribal identity and then turned its faith and trust over to FDA and CDC. Interestingly, during COVID, medical professionals' trust in the FDA and CDC plummeted. Let’s explore how American perceptions of the FDA have changed and what this faith has delivered to our nation.
In 2008 I obtained a letter written by an FDA official, which was sent to a competitor of Nutiva (the organic foods brand I founded in 1999). It warned firms to remove any reference to ‘non-GMO’ on food labels. Virtually every natural food brand quickly changed their labels. As CEO of Nutiva I determined that the warning was not based on any FDA regulation, but was an illegal abuse of power by an FDA official serving the interests of the GMO industry. We chose to ignore the letter, and luckily I never heard from the agency. This is just one of many examples of the FDA’s suspect moves over the past decades.
The FDA has failed to regulate a toxic food system of dis-ease, inflammation, and the destruction of nature via harsh pesticides, leaving Americans with weakened immunity and vulnerability to pathogens. Tragically the U.S.A. has one of the highest COVID death rates in the world.
The FDA Has Been a Case Study of a Captured Agency
From the 1980’s thru 2019, the FDA was not considered trustworthy by the American people and was often described as “corrupt, filled with cronyism, or a captured agency”.
During the 1980s groundswell of the organic food movement, many Americans realized that Monsanto and the chemical industry's cozy relationship with the FDA was a major issue. Most liberals were not happy with FDA policies that became the target of many legal campaigns over the safety and efficacy of GMO foods, pesticides and drugs.
In 1990, the FDA set out to make dietary supplements prescription only. The industry unified and rallied to pass the DSHE Act, legalizing supplements as foods.
There has been a revolving door of chemical and pharma executives between the FDA and industry, as was the case in 2009 when ex-Monsanto executive Michael R. Taylor was hired as the FDA’s food czar. Corn oil and corn syrup were given a pass, while eggs and beef were considered unhealthy. Then came Scott Gottlieb MD, the former FDA Commissioner from 2017 to April 2019, where in June of 2019, he became a Director at Pfizer and Chair of their Regulatory and Compliance Committee.
In fact, as documented by the international news organization Quartz, “as of 2019, nine out of the last 10 FDA commissioners – representing nearly four decades of agency leadership – have gone on to work for pharmaceutical companies.
FDA approval of dangerous drugs such as Prozac and Vioxx has been standard operating procedure. Back in 2012, CBS’ 60 Minutes exposed collusion between the pharmaceutical industry and the FDA on anti-depressants. The majority of FDA’s drug budget is in fact funded by the pharmaceutical industry.
In 2013, a report published in the Journal of Law and Medicine summarized by Dr. Donald W. Light highlighted that ‘about 90 percent of all new FDA approved drugs over the previous 30 years were found to be little or no more effective for patients than existing drugs’, that ‘the bar for “safe” was equally low, even when properly prescribed’, and that ‘125K excess deaths occurred in the United States each year among people taking properly prescribed drugs to be healthier.’
A fall 2019 Gallup Poll ranked the pharmaceutical industry as the most poorly regarded industry in Americans' eyes. Americans were more than twice as likely to rate the pharmaceutical industry negatively (58%) as positively (27%).
In 2020, as fears of COVID swept the land, the constant drumbeat of fear, isolation, and extreme polarization helped cultivate a “collective trauma” for the American people. Humans are social animals shaped by cultural context. The deepening of tribal identities, Trump zig-zagging at the helm of the pandemic response, and the presence of the QAnon conspiracy movement caused an even deeper distrust of anything associated with Trump, including the FDA. By October 2020, trust in the FDA was at an all-time low.
Shifting Tides
Ironically, this all changed when Joe Biden assumed office. Liberals and democrats flipped rapidly from FDA skeptics to FDA cheerleaders in a matter of months, the perverse logic seeming to be "We hate Trump and now we are on Team FDA-Pharma".
In May 2021, a Pew Research Poll found that the share of adults who are “basically content” with the federal government had risen to the highest point since 2004, driven by Democrats. In July 2021, an Annenberg Public Policy Center Poll found that 77% of Americans were confident that the FDA was providing trustworthy information about treating and preventing COVID-19.
Interestingly enough, at the exact same time that the general public’s trust in the FDA and CDC was soaring, healthcare professionals’ trust in the FDA and CDC was dramatically decreasing. A group of 20 + medical professionals spoke at a U.S. Senate Roundtable on January 24, 2022 (skip ahead to 51:28). Perhaps the views of many of these healthcare professionals have not been able to reach the general public because MDs and nurses regularly face termination or threat of medical board decertification for publicly speaking of vaccine injuries, low cost effective treatment protocols, or on other matters that don’t fit the current approved narratives.
The FDA Now is Trustworthy, Credible and Authoritative…Really?
It appears the majority of left-leaning Americans believe that the FDA has their best interests at heart regarding COVID policies and are obeying them without question. As leading clinical MDs remind me, much of what Americans base their opinion on is often simply pharma marketing claims disguised as medical science. In a world of corruption, brainwashing, and dishonesty, it’s not easy to know whom to trust. It’s a classic example of mass formation psychosis, where people adhere to groupthink in order to find meaning and resolution in uncertain times, no matter how irrational.
It’s a stunning sociological study to see a mass population trusting leaders of companies with very low ethical standards. Just months ago, most would never agree to be injected with an experimental genetic drug therapy every six months based on FDA edicts. Upon shot five or six under threat of job loss or travel ban, and mounting vaccine injury reports, will more Americans resume asking good questions?
Repeat after me…
Many Americans are repeating the FDA and the pharma sector’s slogan of “Vaccines are Safe and Effective”, almost like the pledge of allegiance to the flag, while ridiculing or ignoring other proven preventative and early treatment measures (as outlined in my recent article ‘Pharma’s Culture War’).’ Thousands of practicing MDs along with the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) agree that having more tools in the toolkit is wise and that “Early Treatment of COVID is Safe and VERY Effective”.
MDs and countries from around the world who focus on early treatment send very few patients to the hospitals, whereas countries with high vaccine rates such as the EU, UK, and the U.S.A. have some of the highest death rates in the world. Regions such as Africa and Northern India (until recently) had very low rates of vaccination and very low COVID cases and deaths. Tokyo, Japan and Delhi, India’s COVID cases in the latter half of 2021 were 175 to 2000 times less than London or NYC (see graphic and data below) and their COVID hospital beds were virtually empty. These regions often used early treatment protocols to reduce the spread.
Oddly many Americans cheering on the FDA have little awareness of why other countries are doing much better than the USA. Why is that not in the news? What is the connection of early treatment, inflammation, diet, toxic pesticides, soil health, gut biome and industrial agriculture?
Suppression of safe and effective treatments
The FDA, media, and the pharma sector have ignored the overwhelming benefits of Vitamin D and lifestyle choices. An Israeli study offers the strongest proof yet of Vitamin D’s power to fight COVID. “We found it striking, to see the difference in the chances of becoming a severe patient when you are lacking in Vitamin D compared to when you’re not,” said Dr. Amiel Dror, a Galilee Medical Center physician. The U.S. media virtually never publishes positive articles on Vitamin D, which often appear in international media. Why has the FDA and the media not published statistical COVID hospitalization and death data on Vitamin D levels or on inflammation? Why have most Americans not bothered to pay attention to their Vitamin D levels?
Before COVID, the FDA never issued edicts preventing doctors from prescribing low cost and re-purposed medicines. 20% of all medicines prescribed in the U.S.A. today are generic repurposed, (e.g. a heart drug given to a cancer patient). Clinicians do this every day and no long term studies are required, since safety data is already established.
Fluvoxamine, !vermect!n, Nitazoxanide and Hydroxychloroquine are safe, commonly prescribed medicines and are part of the FLCCC COVID treatment protocols. According to Pierre Kory, MD “Since the summer of 2020, U.S. public health agencies have continually shut down the use of generic treatments. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded 20 large research studies of patented pharmaceutical industry drugs before only recently agreeing to study repurposed generic medicines.”
The fact that doctors at the bedside are being fired or prevented from providing life saving vitamins and medicines is truly a black mark in America and has likely contributed to a significant number of unnecessary deaths. Instead they are told to use the highly toxic Remdesivir which can cause renal failure and hospitals are paid bonuses for treating COVID patients with this drug.
Censorship is Now a Liberal Value?
Many liberals now want to cancel, restrict or censor their perceived ‘tribal enemies’. Some scream about medical issues that they have little or no training in as if they are judge and jury, and maybe even represent science itself as Dr. Fauci has alluded to. Easily triggered, they often refuse to even listen to the world-renowned MDs and scientists that they are criticizing or read the published science themselves.
Recently, Joe Rogan’s podcast came under fire, accused of promoting ‘COVID misinformation’, for hosting Dr. Peter McCullough and Dr. Robert Malone. Dr. Peter McCullough is the former Vice Chief of Internal Medicine at Baylor University Medical Center and is one of the most published authors in his field with 600 citations in the National Library of Medicine. Dr. Robert Malone is one of the principle inventors of mRNA vaccine technology. Both hold views on COVID treatment and COVID vaccines that fall outside the mainstream ‘FDA-and-CDC-approved’ narratives, though neither are anti-vaccine. Neil Young and Joni Mitchell jumped in (unsuccessfully) to help ‘cancel’ Joe’s podcast as other artists followed with support from the woke mob (see: Not Your Cuppa Joe? Here’s a Thought: Move ON).
It seems absurd, yet Americans and our media now tar and feather anyone who dare question the approved narratives. Wokeism is now becoming the tip of the spear for the pharma industrial complex to cancel those that fall out of line. Facebook is now even starting to ‘fact check’ regenerative agriculture posts that mention holistic grazing with climate benefits.
Dissent = Misinformation
Dissent, and even skepticism is now being dangerously characterized as “misinformation”, while pharma marketing claims are now often labeled as “science”. It’s almost as if Orwell’s ‘newspeak’ is coming to life in realtime.
And the latest news is even more Orwellian as the Biden Administration mentions ‘misleading COVID narratives’. Disagree With Government Policy? Homeland Security Says You’re a ‘Terrorist’ if You Speak Out.
To even question the “Vaccines are Safe and Effective” narrative means possible loss of work or family drama. The ‘take the vaccine not for your health but to protect your mother’ mantra was repeated ad nauseum, despite the fact that you can still get COVID, spread COVID, and die from COVID even if you are vaccinated.
What does “safe and effective” really mean?
Mirriam Webster defines “safe” as:: 1 : free from harm or risk: unhurt.
Vaccine injuries are generally under-reported but the numbers related to the COVID vaccine are staggering and increasing rapidly. From altering menstrual cycles in women to heart disease in boys and men, and Guillain-Barre Syndrome, the expanding list goes on. With the growing vaccine injury issues of the mRNA jabs, Israel (which currently has one of the highest COVID death rates in the world- despite 4 jab booster regime) recently ordered 5 million non-genetic, non mRNA ‘old school’ Novavax vaccines.
A report reviewing data in the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, co-authored by Dr. McCullough and Dr. Jessica Rose, a virologist and epidemiologist in Canada, found that the relative risk for myocarditis is increased by 19-fold in age 12 to 15-year-old males following the second mRNA vaccination compared to background myocarditis rates for this age group. Interestingly, the report was pulled without a clear reason or explanation one week before the CDC deadline to review vaccine safety data in children.
A recent preprint from Kaiser Permanente Northwest also concluded that ‘the true incidence of myopericarditis is markedly higher than the incidence reported to US advisory committees’ and that ‘the VSD should validate its search algorithm to improve its sensitivity for myopericarditis.'
“Vaccine effectiveness” is another interesting term. Early epidemiological data is showing reduced rates of hospitalization and death in groups that are at higher-risk for developing severe COVID. However, there is now overwhelming evidence that the vaccines are not effective in preventing you from getting or transmitting COVID. Thus is this term ‘safe and effective’ based on sound science or should it have a qualifying statement to go along with it?
Weaponization of Vaccination Status
Mandates and vaccine passports based on experimental genetic vaccines (many of which were never officially approved by the FDA) are violations of the Geneva Convention, and arguably violations of the Nuremberg Code and human rights in general. One’s right to a job or going to your favorite café is now dependent on draconian and ever-changing rules. California governor Gavin Newsom’s announcement of the lifting of indoor mask mandates only for those vaccinated, besides not being based on science, is divisive and antagonistic. Two shots were not enough and shortly three will be required to be a “member of society”, and soon perhaps four, five or more. Do Americans still have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?
Waking Up (from the Woke?)
It’s truly strange times when your close friends or family would unwittingly rather have untold numbers of Americans die of a treatable disease (which must all be “misinformation”). However, a growing number of people are beginning to question the failed COVID policies. Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands and the UK have all started to lift COVID restrictions. Remember when liberals used to suggest the U.S.A. should follow Scandinavian countries like Denmark?
Every day more people learn of the growing vaccine injuries or censorship of low cost repurposed medicines. Many are beginning to worry about the lack of transparency, misleading narratives, mandates and censorship, yet are afraid to say anything for fear of attacks on their reputation.
Regeneration
It’s certainly fascinating to watch this unfold. Will public support fade for vaccine mandates, vaccine passports, school masking, and firing MDs for practicing medicine at the bedside? Will we gain the understanding of the linkage between soil health, pesticides, our gut biome health and regenerative agriculture (my 2021 article discusses this issue in more depth) as a key to boosting our personal and planet’s health? As we shift from this pandemic to endemic phase, let’s make an extra effort to play more and nurture ourselves and our community. It’s time. Let’s regenerate.
Wow - fantastic summary of corruption taking ahold of power. There are tiny moments where I might offer something different, but in all I do agree with you, except for your final paragraph. I do not find this fascinating to unfold, however. I find it terrifying and maddening because it keeps getting worse. However, thank you so much for an excellent summary I will share with my friends who I can actually talk to about this.
WOW thank you John you nailed it! So many excellent points here thank God for minds like yours! Keep it flowing please!