The government is trying to kill us
As if we needed more evidence of the triumph of business over everything else in our government, the FDA is on track to approve a new antibiotic for cattle. The new drug, cefquinome, is part of family of last-resort drugs that doctors can use to treat patients with diseases that are resistant to other antibiotics. Considering that antibiotic-resistant infections are on the rise (in military hospitals no less), you’d think that the government might have some small interest in preserving its last line of defense.
The problem with giving this drug to cows is that the more exposure there is to the drug, the easier it is for diseases to develop resistance. According to the WaPo article this is exactly what happened with the fluoroquinolones family of antibiotics when they were fed to chickens. So lets see, dangerous health situation, prior precedent of trouble, what’s the government going to do? Approve the drug.
But what really makes the wonder here are the scientists involved. I know our society has increasingly become monetized, but what ever happened to scientific ethics? How do you go to work every day, knowing that you’re developing a drug that is going to place thousands of lives at risk to cure a problem that doesn’t even exist (the new drug is to treat bovine respiratory infections, for which adequate cures already exist)? I have a hard enough time working in an industry that caters in large part to the advertising industry, but to actively go to work every day to create something that you know, as a scientist, is going to inherently increase disease?
And then there is Richard Carnevale, shill for the veterinary drug makers, sounding off:
“It’s not a question of whether there is a need or not. The answer is, there’s always a need.”
Actually, there is not always a need. A lust for profits doesn’t always have to be the be all and end all of life. How bout this, Mr. Richard Carnevale. If there is such a need and you’re so convinced that this is safe, would you be willing to bet your life on it? Maybe once this drug helps create a cefquinome-resistant strain of bacteria (and it will) you can get infected with it and we’ll see how you like it. See if maybe the need to have a human cure might outweigh the need to treat cattle that are only sick because of the crappy conditions we raise them in. I think your bottom line might change then.