#87

Again, it would be great to improve the healthcare system, but it’s not just about change for the worse. Worse is always possible. If you don’t believe, look around the world… healthcare in Russia anyone? How about Somalia? And don’t you think for one second that the journey down is less likely than a journey toward the light.

Now, no matter how I see the odds, I always maintain an open mind. If RFKjr. can shock us all by cleaning up some of the corruption, I’ll be the first to stand up and applaud loudly. I’m just realistic. I expect a lot of chaos, turnover and bizarre schemes, grifters cycling through and womp, womp. I’d love to be proven wrong.

And speaking of corruption, you really need to start with step 101. The insane scandal of a corrupt scientific establishment. Because it all starts with science. Get that wrong, and you have literally nothing. We - and the world - spend countless billions on science, including medical science. Why is it, that a huge and growing percentage of the research is outright fraud and paper mills? Why don’t we have some very basic rules, such as, you get caught ONE time engaged in fraud, paper mills, AI chat garbage and such, and you are banned FOR LIFE from any lab or grants. Period. Where else are you allowed to perpetrate outright fraud for years and at worst bounce from one institution to the next? Can you imagine if in some other profession, a lawyer or accountant steals money from clients for years if not decades, and when caught, is not punished and at worst moves to a different company? But this is what happens with public funds and government grants for research. Fraudulent research is the theft of financial resources, and undermines faith in the integrity of results. I gotta be honest, these days, it is not enough to avoid papers from large parts of the world, but right here at the highest level and most prestigeous institutions, I frequently wonder if the paper I’m hanging my medical decisions on, will not one day transpire to be fraudulent - or worse never exposed, but still fraudulent, just never found out. We’re not talking about a crooked car mechanic, it’s your very life and health at stake.

Now, if RFKjr can clean up that mess, realign the publishing and research incentives, at least at the government level, so it eventually trickles into the rest of the scientific establisment here and abroad, so that integrity is prized again and a given, I’ll not only praise him at the top of my lungs, I’ll erect a shrine to him in my study. But I’m not holding my breath.

4 Likes
#88

Lifespan isn’t declining because of pharmaceuticals. It’s because 80% of America is overweight, 40% obese, and very few people get any exercise of any sort. This has been getting worse every year since about 1975.

The argument could be made that pharma is not counteracting our terrible lifestyles fast enough and it’s true that the only time the obesity line did anything but go straight up was the introduction of semaglutide… but pharma isn’t the reason for the decline in lifespan.

But I could definitely get behind the idea that maybe the only real way out of this is even more technology. We’ve structured the USA around cars and suburbia and processed food. Unless we’re willing to bulldoze cities to start over with walkable ones and ban processed foods… we need pharma to try to find other ways to help.

4 Likes
#89

I assume you are just posting this in fun, but I just have to have this woman’s back. I don’t know anything about her skill level, but someone’s looks or the shape they are in have nothing to do with the knowledge they can impart. I’d rather have a brilliant cardiologist who smokes and eats at McDonald’s than a moron cardiologist who runs marathons and eats a perfect diet.

4 Likes
#90

And one of the reasons I’m not holding my breath. is because RFKjr himself is featured on retraction watch:

Now, how confident am I supposed to be that RFKjr is not going to actually promote dodgy papers that support his dodgy claims?

Oh, great, a “disruptor” as head of medical establishments, surely a saving angel. Then again, a fox in charge of the chicken coop. You pick the odds of which is more likely.

Put foxes in charge of all the chicken coops, like a criminal as head of the DOJ, and you’ve got comedy gold, banana republic style. A thoroughly expected farce, but so “disruptive”, lol!

Friends, while we sing happy songs of everlasting hope, I think a focus on practical personal medical choices are our only realistic path forward. We have no impact on whatever is going to come down the pike, so I for one intend to expend no energy speculating on what this or that appointment means.

Most immediately I’d love to know if importing from Indian pharmacies is going to change going forward. I got a package possibly stuck in customs, you see, and that petty fact is more important to me than anything connected to RFKjr’s grand announcements. YMMV.

2 Likes
#91

Is this true:

Aging is not a disease (FDA);

Therefore, artificial drugs and clinical trials in that area is PROHIBITED.

If so, why has no one mentioned that this debate also is related to if longevity / healthspan drugs can even be researched?

#92

This.

There is so much corruption going on and he wants it all to be investigated so we can get to the bottom of it. His statements on seed oils and additives really shouldn’t be the focus here as much as investigating the criminals responsible for all the corruption.

Shouldn’t federal health agencies like the FDA, CDC, and NIH be transparent and free from corporate influence? These institutions are meant to protect public health, yet they often seem more aligned with corporate interests than with the people they serve. Wouldn’t we all benefit from an overhaul to restore integrity and accountability?

1 Like
#93

Many of these things are matters of detail which require detailed attention and subtle judgments. I don’t see any evidence from the new administration of attention to detail apart from perhaps in Musk’s area.

1 Like
#94

The point is not that she is an out of shape woman, but rather that she is a man who thinks she is a woman. Clearly not based in science.

5 Likes
#95

Mark my words – RFK will be fired within months of being confirmed. Remember the revolving door of the first Trump administration? He’ll be out the door as soon as he pisses off enough wealthy corporate campaign donors, which won’t take long. This will all be irrelevant.

1 Like
#96

I don’t know anything about her personally, but it’s clear she was picked because it checked off a bunch of diversity boxes. When you appoint an obese transgender woman to be in charge of health, the jokes write themselves.

3 Likes
#98

An interesting take on this issue:

#99

While i can see the importance of having someone who at least appears healthy in a health leadership role, I’d still rather have a scientist who actually understands research in charge rather than a dumb jock with abs, for instance.

5 Likes
#100

Aging doesn’t need to be declared an “official disease” but you do need outcomes that can be measured in a 3 phase trial. Nobody is going to do a true longevity trial because it will take 25+ years. but if you’re not measuring additional years or additional years free of disease, what are you measuring? For all the talk of aging clocks, we don’t have any of them that have been proven enough to map to real world outcomes.

If we ever get a solid aging biomarker and we can prove that that bio marker maps to extra disease free years, then we’ll have FDA submissions for aging.

4 Likes
#101

The thing people fail to mention is RFKs muscled appearance owes just as much to exogenous hormones as the current HHS head. He’s been in testosterone for years.

4 Likes
#102

I would rather it wasn’t as it would increase the regulatory issues.

1 Like
#103

https://www.politico.com/story/2008/11/obama-considers-stars-for-cabinet-015320

#104

I was not saying that lifespan was declining because of pharmaceutical drugs. Big food would be the major contributor. Big food gets us sick, big Pharma sells us drugs to fix the problem. It’s a downward spiral.

2 Likes
#105

Which is especially interesting now because in the case of GLP meds, they help us to avoid Big Food in the first place, which will cut into Big Food’s profits.

2 Likes
#106

Are you referring to Richard Levine. The guy who was Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept of Health. He promoted sending covid patients to nursing homes. He also wears a dress and calls himself Rachel. He has been the US Assistant Secretary of Health since 2021. I guess the guy that hired him was really impressed with his sending covid patients to nursing homes idea!

2 Likes
#107

Trials were poorly designed, rushed and ended prematurely

1 Like