COP-6: Caviar and Champagne for the pharmaceutical industry

Apparently the WHO couldn't afford to stop the Ebola outbreak (http://goo.gl/SS1jc7), but they seem to have no problem hosting a £1.6 million party in Moscow for their friends in the pharmaceutical industry. While Ebola was (and still is) ravaging West-Africa, the delegates attending COP-6 was eating caviar and drinking champagne in Moscow: http://goo.gl/AYv1kC. And while the media and the public was thrown out and the doors were shut behind them to make sure the decision making wouldn't be affected by outsiders, Big Pharmas lobbyists were allowed to stay: http://goo.gl/w2C39t.

I asked before the weekend what happened to the FCA behind those closed doors. I think Dick Puddlecote pretty much sums this up in his excellent post on the subject:

With all those dissenters out of the way; with the hall packed with pharma lobbyists and security forcibly silencing any flies in the ointment, I suppose it made it quite easy for the FCA's original recommendation on e-cigs - for caution and a postponement of recommendations pending further study - to be steamrollered out in favour of encouraging wholesale bans.

I highly recommend reading the whole post. I also recommend reading Christopher Snowdon's post "Health über alles". There is so much wrong with the way the WHO and public health is handling the situation right now, and I think Snowdon's post gives some great insights when it comes to why things are the way they are.



photo credit: geishaboy500 via photopin cc