No, this is not about out divisive political landscape, but about powerful groups, corporations and special interests buying influence through fake Advocacy Groups. The biggest offenders are Big Pharma and Big Food. They are responsible for placing articles, and studies singing the virtues of pharmaceuticals while minimizing their side effects, and the wholesomeness of refined sugars. At the same time they attack anyone or anything that opposes their agenda. They also pay so-called experts and “neutral third parties” to ridicule those who prefer non pharmaceutical products like vitamins and herbs, while hiding the evidence that most drugs come from those very items.
Report finds extensive industry ties to nonprofit patient advocacy groups
“Reuters (3/1, Emery) covers a special report in the New England Journal of Medicine that states “an examination of more than a hundred of the largest U.S. nonprofit organizations created to improve health and fight disease has found that more than 8 in 10 get financial support from companies involved in the drug, biotechnology and medical device industry.” Meanwhile, “over a third have at least one industry official on their governing board and, in 12 percent of the 104 organizations analyzed, an industry official was listed as leading the governing board.” According to researcher Matthew McCoy, a postdoctoral fellow in the University of Pennsylvania’s department of medical ethics and health policy, “I don’t want to impugn them. … But I think we have a right to know more. If an organization receives more than 50 percent of its support from a drug or device company, I might take what they say with a grain of salt.”
The New York Times (3/1, Thomas, Subscription Publication) also reports that Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, “who previously advised President Obama on health care, said patient groups are far less transparent about conflicts of interest than medical researchers, who are now pushed to disclose ties to the drug and device industries when they write articles and make public appearances.”
