Swine flu
2009-04-28
It's probably safe to say that fewer people understand swine flu
today than understood collateralized debt obligations or credit
default swaps when the financial crisis broke out. Just as the
unfolding of that crisis exposed the dangers and insufficiencies
of the banking system, the swine-flu crisis has the potential to
shine an unfavorable light on the health industry. The
Hippocratic Oath says nothing about profit, but medicine has
become an industry interested in little else. Idealists who
become doctors in the naive pursuit of helping people are
quickly disillusioned. Research labs are heavily funded by the
public and private sectors but are often used to "prove" what
brings the most profit, not what is true, safe or healthy. (Brno's
Int'l Clinical Research Center risks becoming a local example of
this mentality.) Money devoted to corrupt, wasteful or self-
interested endeavors retard or even reverse medical and
scientific advancement by taking funds away from useful
research. Time will tell whether this has been the case with
swine flu.
[Czech Republic ICRC Mayo Clinic healthcare]
|
