Revolving Doors
Continuing with Robert F. Kennedy’s plan to make America healthy again, we can look at other issues he has addressed, but I want to sketch a sort of spectrum going back to when I first began my journey into natural medicine and healing more than 50 years ago. At that time, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) was making headlines. The cause was unknown but was later tentatively associated with adverse reactions to early childhood vaccines. This is a long and tragic story, but it was followed by Alzheimer’s disease and an alarming increase in autism and then Lyme disease and a crescendo of diabetes and now massive reports of complications and death from the various Covid vaccines.
RFK, Jr., believes the epidemic of diabetes can be solved through removal of toxic components in foods that are found in virtually every grocery store. He cites food colorings as well as long list of ingredients that are banned in the EU. He then advocates an organic diet. Here is a one minute summary:
Rewinding to the 1960s when I landed my first real job post-graduation, my impression was that neither the food nor pharmaceutical industry have a conscience. As the only woman professional in the research department of a Wall Street bank, I was assigned to evaluate food, beverages, chain restaurants . . . and at times to cover for the pharmaceutical and chemical analyst who was my immediate boss, not the vice president of the research department, but the leader of one group of analysts. The job involved a lot reading and attendance at banquets hosted by companies who were cultivating stronger ties with Wall Street . . . and of course, higher valuations of their stock. The emphasis was always on the bottom line: profit.
This is why I today balk at the corporate model — and most of President-elect Trump’s financial ideas and goals. The corporate model is designed to benefit stockholders, not employees or customers. This encourages cutting corners, not to mention exploitation of all lower and middle level workers as well as duping of the public through carefully engineered advertising and price gouging.
Also, there is nothing inherent in the corporate model that would support sustainability or quality. I will give one example from a luncheon hosted by a famous company in the liquor industry. A guest, not me, asked what the difference was between a cheap bottle of vodka and an expensive one. The presenter said, “price” . . . meaning that the bottle may have a fancier appearance but it is not superior to the lower priced competition.
Unfortunately, this pattern can be found in everything from olive oil to vacuum cleaners and prescription drugs. This is not to say that quality cannot be found, but the price and packaging are not a guarantee that you get something better by paying more. I am sure that with certain luxury items, there is a difference, but with most rubbish in stores, there is no guarantee that price is a determinant of value or efficacy.
Hence, the instruction to RFK, Jr. to restore real science to industries that have strayed from credibility to exploitation and golden parachutes is an important step in the right direction as would be elimination of egregious conflicts of interest.
What, however, would happen if the corporate model itself were replaced by putting the emphasis on service to humanity as opposed to profits. I am sure most health care providers started out as idealists whose motivations were compassion and a desire to heal.
Over the years, I have worked with many modes of healing as well as insurance providers. One important project began with the AIDS epidemic. The fifteen largest insurance companies held a secret meeting to determine whether expensive payouts at a young age would cause the companies to go belly up. I developed a wellness plan in which every insured individual with a serious diagnosis would have a choice between mainstream medicine and a wellness regime, a residential facility with a staff comprised of both allopathic and holistic practitioners. They would be given a lump sum to spend as they wished, meaning they could tour the world and/or live it up with whatever time they had remaining or enroll in a wellness clinic which we estimated would cost 10% of what conventional treatments would run. There was a lot of excitement and great support at the middle management level but the president of the company shot down the proposal and reneged on the promised fee for my services which involved months of work. The explanation was that the companies were so cross-invested that they would profit from pharmaceutical sales even with claims coming from clients who had not paid much in premiums.
It is obvious why there is a revolving door involving regulatory agencies and corporations. My sense is that unless one includes both natural medicine and serious clinical trials as part of the necessary reforms, we will not achieve health . . . because, sorry to say, the body can only utilize what is natural and everything foreign would add to stress on the coping mechanisms we have developed to deal with insults to our health.
As someone who has been committed to natural methods of healing for over half a century, I also feel that everyone should have complete freedom of choice as to the type of insurance one does or does not prefer and the modalities used to address health issues.
For example, diabetes is now an epidemic that, according to RFK, Jr., runs $1500 a month. I ran a remote clinic in India for a while, meaning, I was working via webcam with an Ayurvedic doctor and a team of Western-trained Indian doctors. The Ayurvedic doctor took all the diabetic patients off insulin on day one and blood sugar tended to be normal by day ten. If the patients followed through with the necessary changes in diet and herbs that help to regulate diabetes, they would remain healthy, but what we saw was that habits run deep and the most serious threats came during holidays in which a vast number of sweets were consumed along with meals that were traditional rather than healthy. Obviously, this is a ubiquitous problem. I saw the same pattern in Europe and North America.
Wrapping this up, I would like to comment on Donald Trump’s corporate approach to the economy. As someone who studied economics, I know the curriculum, but it is 1950s “modern” and completely unsustainable if people are concerned about the trajectory and the impact on future generations. Briefly, his tariff threats do punish exporters but they are ultimately paid by the importers and passed on to the consumer.
Likewise, a consumption tax puts a very heavy burden on lower and middle income individuals, some of whom may be in a zero percent tax bracket. What are exempt essentials? We need food, medicine, clothing, a roof over our heads, transportation, and perhaps have expenses for education, vocational training, exercise, and home businesses. Wealthy people already have many loopholes to avoid taxation, but a consumption tax would hit them a bit. Ellen Brown’s idea of taxing financial transactions would generate the same amount of income for less than 1% and it would not have any adverse impact on those who are living more or less hand to mouth. Anyone with investments to manage has more income and assets than needed to survive so a tax on transfers of stock and bonds would not really set anyone back much at all.
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