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As Trends Journal’s Gerald Celente never tires of pointing out (quoting George Carlin): “It’s one big club, and you ain’t in it!”
It’s also an incestuous club. And for an example of that one need look no further than Pres. Biden’s nomination of Dr. Robert Califf to take the reins of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
If confirmed, Califf would reprise his role during the last 11 months of the Obama administration, when he first assumed the office of FDA Commissioner.
And then, as now, objections to his filling that role were based on his having been paid millions as a consultant to more than a dozen big pharmaceutical corporations.
If that’s not reason enough to oppose his nomination, he’s also heavily invested in major drug companies, to the tune of up to $8 million. And yet that is the very industry he would be expected to lead the FDA in regulating.
As reported on 22 December by The Defender (published by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Children’s Health Defense), even Bernie Sanders thinks the nomination of Califf to head the FDA is a bad idea.
The avowed Socialist senator from Vermont and failed presidential aspirant objected to Califf’s nomination in 2015 and continues to object this time around, saying that the relationship between Big Pharma and the FDA and other regulators is already too close.
Sanders pointed out that such incestuous connections are the rule rather than the exception:
“Not only have the drug companies spent over $4.5 billion on lobbying and hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions over the past 20 years, they also have created a revolving door between the FDA and the industry. Shockingly, nine out of the last 10 FDA commissioners went on to work for the pharmaceutical industry or to serve on a prescription drug company’s board of directors.”
TRENDPOST: If reading this evokes a feeling of déjà vu, it’s likely because we wrote about all this not that long ago; see “NEW FDA HEAD STUCK IN REVOLVING DOOR” (23 Nov 2021).
That article pointed out that Biden’s previous nominees attracted similar criticism for their ties to Big Pharma. In fact, the New York Times had even speculated that “In the end, White House officials might have concluded that they could not find a suitable candidate with no industry ties.”
And that “revolving door” analogy is particularly apt when the name of Scott Gottlieb is mentioned. That former FDA Commissioner now sits on Pfizer’s board of directors; see “‘HEALTH EXPERT’ = DRUG DEALER” (25 May 2021) and “FDA & BIG PHARMA, ONE BIG CLUB” (29 Jun 2021).