This headline made most American newspapers in early April 2008. Rightfully so, it raised many eyebrows. From Wall Street to Main Street, the buzz centered on a seemingly nefarious relationship that existed between those who govern and the governed; that is, the airlines and the FAA.

In their April 5th newspaper, The Denver Post said this: “Some relationships just shouldn't be "partnerships." If nothing else, that has become abundantly clear from recent revelations that the Federal Aviation Administration was so friendly with Southwest Airlines that it failed to require necessary safety inspections.

The next time you're cruising at 30,000 feet, think about it: Do you want a "friendly" partner or an enforcer that will oversee the airworthiness of your plane?”

Let me rewrite that last sentence so it can become relevant for this article:
The next time you find yourself lying in a hospital bed needing medication, which would you prefer - a drug that was quickly put in this hospital based on fees paid to the FDA by the drug company, or one whose safety is controlled by an honest, unbiased agency that works for you and takes no money from the drug company?

Welcome to this issue of KNOW THIS!

I fly Southwest airlines and I love Southwest airlines! But hysteria, fear, and diversion seem to be the tools of the trade for our media and unfortunately good old Southwest airlines was in line to be spanked by brilliant writers…and spankers! Maybe we can figure out why before this article ends! Not one single Southwest airplane went down, no one died and not so much as a scratched finger has been reported! Surely there must be a more reportable story dealing with conflicts of interest than this!

Let’s just suppose, however, that a Southwest airplane did crash due to faulty wiring or a problem that had been hidden from the public due to an inappropriate relationship with the FAA. 200 Americans would be injured or killed and, as sad as that would be for all of us, it pales when compared to the number of us who are injured or killed by medicine-not once a year, but every hour of every day! Would you be upset and frightened and demand a Senate investigation if a Southwest airplane went down every hour of every day for one year? You bet you would, but you’d have demanded it in hour number three, not 15 years later! Yet every year, millions of Americans die or are seriously injured by pharmaceutical drugs, doctors, hospitals and even unnecessary medical procedures, and all we do is wipe our tears, shake our heads and seemingly justify this madness as somehow being analogous to the fact that whales beach themselves, and sometimes our family members, friends and associates just die…surely they did all they could~~

The FAA is to the airline industry as the FDA is to our health industry. The Food and Drug Administration is supposed to regulate the companies that prepare our foods and make our drugs. But something has gone horribly, horribly wrong and only we, the people, seem to care…maybe if you knew some facts, this would change. These won’t likely be reported by the news media.

The FDA asks for and is granted money-LOTS OF IT-from the drug companies. In fact, almost 50% of their multimillion-dollar budget comes from these fees. Every doctor and nurse has to continue their medical education (CME) on an on-going basis, year after year (sounds great on the surface, doesn’t it?) and the “schools” are actually classrooms headed by and taught by none other that the drug companies, themselves. And the FDA sanctions this. See any clear conflicts of interest yet?

One year ago now, www.comsumeraffairs.com reported the differences in Chinese law pertaining to conflicts of interest and USA conflict laws. Note the number of Chinese injured or killed by the Chinese conflict vs. medical deaths that continue in the USA:

“When the former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was caught violating the law, he was charged with two misdemeanors. When the former director of China's State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) was convicted on corruption charges, he was sentenced to death.
Zheng Xiaoyu and his family and associates allegedly took bribes amounting to more than five million yuan, about $650,000 in U.S. terms.

In October 2006, former U.S. FDA head Lester M. Crawford pleaded guilty to a conflict of interest charge and making false financial disclosures to the U.S. Senate and the Executive Branch. He was sentenced to three years probation.

Prosecutors said Zheng, 63, took the bribes to approve faulty medicines, including a bad batch of antibiotics that killed six patients and sickened 80. The harsh sentence is seen as a signal that the Chinese government is serious about cleaning up the widespread corruption that is beginning to give the rapidly-developing nation a black eye in the global marketplace.”

Drug companies spend billions of advertising dollars annually, and the recipients of this cash cow are television and radio networks, newspapers, magazines and the like. Their money seems to block the true conflict of interest story from ever being published. Who in the world is going to blow that whistle? Educate me with the dangers that might exist if the FAA has an inappropriate relationship with an airlines, but don’t patronize me! You reporters know, yet remain amazingly silent, almost diversionary, when it comes to reporting the truth about what you openly refer to as “the miracles of modern medicine.” The “miracle” is that your silence is bought and no one seems to care—yet.