In my opinion, the barrage of pharmaceutical ads just fuels the
“sickness” mentality that serves to escalate the cost of “health care.”
Of course, the TV news programmers cannot risk offending the very
industries that they are financially dependent upon. So they run some
“news” items that are fed to them by those industries; for example, the
recent announcement that the number of cancer deaths was down. What they
added at the end of the announcement was that cancer deaths in women had
risen.
In an earlier Blog, I mentioned how cancer (and other diseases)
becoming chronic and treatable gives the pharmaceutical industry a
steady stream of money. I also mentioned how, in my opinion, a plethora
of medications are promoted for “new” diseases that appear to be nothing
but symptoms of underlying conditions. For example, one “disease” that I
suspect is simply a symptom of a possible underlying cardio-vascular
problem is RLS (restless leg syndrome). It is amazing how many “new
diseases” are cropping up!
Certain diseases have become status symbols with “clubs” of their
own. Commercials feature celebrities proudly announcing that they have
diabetes, for example. And what about an ad, paid for by a
pharmaceutical company, that features a “sisterhood” sharing breast
cancer! To me, this ad seems so exploitative.
A couple of days ago, I saw a pharmaceutical commercial for a sleep
medication where I never expected to see such ads: on the public TV
channel! Those commercials are becoming truly ubiquitous!
