The Age of Fear-Based Medicine

How did a federal agency tasked with protecting public health become a rubber stamp for Big Pharma?

The corruption in our public health agencies runs deeper than we thought.

Between 2013 and 2022, the FDA approved 429 drugs, not including vaccines. A recent joint investigation by The Lever and the McGraw Center found that more than half these drugs were approved not on the basis of clinical trial evidence, but preliminary data. In plain terms: the FDA approved them without knowing if they actually worked. There was little or no evidence that these drugs reduced symptoms or improved function.

But it gets worse.

To receive FDA approval, a drug is supposed to meet four minimal scientific standards: 1) testing in placebo-controlled trials, 2) at least two such trials, 3) trials that are blinded, and 4) use of real clinical outcomes, not surrogate endpoints. A surrogate endpoint is a proxy marker used in place of actual evidence that a drug saves lives or improves health. For example, instead of showing that a cancer drug extends patient life expectancy, the manufacturer might produce a CT …