Maryanne, as much or more of the culpability is on the government, not just the manufacturers. If CEOs should go to jail or have to personally pay fines, so should government bureaucrats. Almost all of our problems would fix themselves if FDA (or congress, or anyone) had personal liability for actions they take that destroy everyone's life. Imagine how different the covid debacle -- millions of lives and trillions of dollars lost -- would have been if every bureaucrat at NIH/HHS/FDA and every congressperson (and their equivalents in every other country) would have had to consider that they might end up in jail for not exercising due care/hiding the true facts/whatever. That is the solution we need.
Maryanne, you are simply brilliant, a gift to the world. Thank you for tirelessly seeking out medical truths and then presenting your conclusions in such an easy-to-read way.
10/23/25: Amen. As a layman with no medical training but having spent decades investigating frauds, I especially appreciate how well this is clearly and succinctly written. Without these redeeming qualities of prose, no significant progress in any medical / scientific field can possibly happen except by accident.
I watched that valiant warrior Malcolm Robert’s try to get some answers from the TGA in aluminium adjuvants, double blind placebo testing, and autism. So much obfuscation and Jedi hand waving. But in the comments it was amazing how many people had a go at Robert’s and me. I just said we need to wait till the ACIP enquiry.
Then Alex Antic questioning hep b vaccines in little babies. The health dept dragged in a big gun from ATAGI to try to shut him down. The reasoning was incredible.
I remember the Horizon programme and how the outcome diminished the ABC in my view. Subsequent separate events have diminished it further. On the up side, the critical state of scientific endeavour has to be resolved in favour of ‘true science’. Your essays are a big contribution to the pushback! Personal responsibility is key but is absent everywhere; we’ve lost our moral compasses in so many ways.
Some of us learned during the COVID years that science did not serve us well. I for one became suspicious. As a student of the scientific way, it took me too long to realize that I was being lied to by people who used "science" as a weapon against me. I was deluged with claims that the govt.'s statements were correct because they were based on science. Well, their "science" was surely a bastardized version, and criminally so.
It's breathtaking the scope of the corruption in the medical-industrial-complex and no one tells thniee story as well as you do Maryanne. I keep saying this over and over again, given all the frivolous things on which government spends taxpayers hard-earned money, the junkets, the silly projects and then there's the general waste its criminal that it doesn't do all the testing, do it properly on its own dime. Cut the funding of testing by drug companies completely. For heavens sake what on earth are government's priorities? And then there is the competence of government scientists. Perhaps government can't afford to pay what industry pays but aren't there enough good scientists out there who want to earn a decent living working for the public good? Whatever happened to government of the people, by the people, for the people?
Please forgive my rant but everything that you reveal is just infuriating.
Your assessment of the weaponization of science is right on target. Big pharma has successfully overtaken every institution. Transparency and criminal charges and convictions against those who withhold critical information about the harm of drugs is crucial. Thanks for so clearly pointing out all the corruption perpetrated by the pharmaceutical companies. I’m praying Kennedy can reverse the process.
As ever, another excellent article.. The level of this type of corruption (and that’s exactly what it is) is unfortunately all too predictable as a logical and inevitable outcome of hyper-capitalism. In a society that tells us that greed is good, and extols rampant capitalism as legitimate and praiseworthy, it should be no surprise that companies and their leaders will do absolutely everything possible to maximise and safeguard their profits. Hence the very clever and very effective gaming of the system - including the deliberate subversion of what should be safeguards and standards - including science and all too many scientists. Ultimately it is ourselves who are to blame - we elect the politicians who allow this destructive system to flourish and reward the perpetrators, and until we collectively find a better, more sensible and responsible way of living, these abuses of power and privilege will continue.
David - in defence of capitalism, its not the capitalism that's the problem here at all. Its a complete abandonment of ethics and corruption of oversight bodies that is the issue.
I have worked in research in petfood and if an outcome of consuming one of my products would be death of pets then that product would never get developed. In one case I had found that potentially the level of an additive may have caused issues in some dogs - so it was immediately reduced to a level where no issues occurred.
However, I appear to be different from some. I do note that when working for one client they had a large no of dogs getting very sick suddenly from one of their products, made by somebody else. I found the source of the problem and was stunned when the manufacturer did everything possible to deny it was an issue. In the end they had to face up and lose a lot of money in dumped product.
We need to have objective regulators, with teeth, prepared to call out such terrible behaviour. I know myself and many others who I have worked with could do this, but why is it that we are passed over when such positions are filled???
Well Chris, I agree with you about the lack of ethics etc, but not about capitalism’s role. Capitalism is a magnificent system for wealth generation, the best the world has ever seen, but it views ethics and morals as an irritating impediment to wealth generation. That’s why so many business people actively resist any responsibility except ‘to their shareholders’. That’s why pharmaceutical companies are gaming the system. There’s no other reason for them to do so other than making more money. More power = more money. More disinformation = more money. More influence = more money. Any way you cut it, it comes back to the money! It drives everything. And that’s why they strenuously resist efforts from anyone brave enough to question or oppose them - like Maryanne or JFK jr! 😊
The problem is that our elected officials are all aware but we are talking about a highly powerful industry. The only way to topple this grip is if every country worked in unison to take down a very in control industry. A lone politician or their party will be a voice in the wilderness and will pay dearly for speaking out. The majority of citizens even doctors have not a clue how corrupt the system is, so ordinary citizens would come to the defence of pharma.
We need a Nuremburg 2.0 for those who killed so many during Covid. If people were put before firing squads or were jailed, never to be released, then maybe the malcontents would realise that there are consequences for bad behaviour.
There is easily enough evidence to convict many of the big players here during covid of crimes against humanity.
The empire will always try to fight back. There is too much at stake. Huge financial profits, professional reputations public health is a long way down the list.
It’s so interesting to hear people within the profession concerned about undermining the American healthcare system . It’s amazing because you wonder what exactly they are protected. It’s a story that’s easy to miss, but once you hear it difficult to ignore. Thank you for all the work you do. The tide is turning.
Maryanne, it's my birthday today and I'm going to consider your article to be a present! Such a good read, revealing so many aspects of the corruption complex. Thanks.
I noticed that Mark Skidmore, a MSU (MI State University) professor was on the panel. Several years ago, I remember reading his survey-based study about Covid vaccine injuries. Of course, being against the narrative, it was "retracted" for total BS reasons (just like Lyons-Weiler & Paul Thomas's 2020 vaxxed-unvaxxed study (Lyons-Weiler also on panel). Weaponization indeed!
So many credentialed scientists who exposed the dangers of these shots in a medical journal had the journals retracted because pharma also funds them. Pharma is in control of our world surrounding healthcare. A huge part of the problem are those, including governments who are willing to take money from pharma, never realizing the consequences of doing so.
Sadly and strangely, JD Rockefeller only sought medical care from HOMEOPATHIC physicians for the last 50+ years of his life...and he promised that HALF of his philanthropy for medical concerns in the 20th century would go to homeopathic institutions...BUT not a single cent was given. My article provides the back-story to this nefarious actions.
The statin story is perhaps a little more nuanced - in that they do work, just not very well and not because of cholesterol changes. The triallists got away with confusing the public by using absolute risk for side-effects and comparing the low figure (though probably higher than claimed) with the relative benefit. So - if the relative benefit is 50%, as quoted, but the absolute risk of cardiac disease is 5%, then my simple brain computes the absolute benefit as 2.5%. My teachers told me that a reasonable significance level is 5%. So the benefit fails to reach significance. Of course, the Oxford group have resolutely failed to release raw data for independent analysis, as you state, and the only plausible explanation is that they don't dare to.
Why do statins work? Because they are weakly anti-inflammatory. The promoters continue to claim that reducing blood cholesterol will stop plaque formation in arteries, but as this formation is due to a failed healing process after intimal damage caused by inflammation it will do no such thing. Also, a low fat diet won't make a jot of difference as blood lipids arise from the metabolism of carbohydrates in the liver. John Yudkin was right... and to add icing to the cake the whole concept of cholesterol causing heart disease is based on the selection by Ancel Keys of data that fitted his hypothesis, and had he used the results from a different set of countries it would have shown the opposite. Thus a gigantic (if lucrative) castle of mud, bad science and blindness is built on a foundation of sand.
The one good thing that has come out of Covid is that proper scientists are able and willing to dissect research far more easily than before, and call out fraud and deception. Carry on please!
Yes, during the panel I explained that the early secondary-prevention trials showed a mortality benefit. But then greed took over — statins were pushed for primary prevention, for everyone over 50 even if they have normal cholesterol, for children, and eventually someone even suggested adding them to the water supply.
Enjoyed the podcast by Joe Rogan talking to Will Happer and Richard Lindzen about a similar situation in climate science. RL mentioned a curious observation. When he was teaching at Princeton he had his students research old scientific papers from early 1900’s. None were peer reviewed, just published. Peer review is therefore only a quite recent process and if anything, serves to stifle real scientific findings. The peer reviewers actually become gatekeepers which can be manipulated. It’s seems this is way more evident in medical research.
Maryanne, as much or more of the culpability is on the government, not just the manufacturers. If CEOs should go to jail or have to personally pay fines, so should government bureaucrats. Almost all of our problems would fix themselves if FDA (or congress, or anyone) had personal liability for actions they take that destroy everyone's life. Imagine how different the covid debacle -- millions of lives and trillions of dollars lost -- would have been if every bureaucrat at NIH/HHS/FDA and every congressperson (and their equivalents in every other country) would have had to consider that they might end up in jail for not exercising due care/hiding the true facts/whatever. That is the solution we need.
Agree entirely - in the panel discussion, I eluded to the Fauci-esque types that need to be held accountable too. How realistic that is, I don't know.
I'll vote for it.
Maryanne, you are simply brilliant, a gift to the world. Thank you for tirelessly seeking out medical truths and then presenting your conclusions in such an easy-to-read way.
Appreciate you, thanks Ian.
10/23/25: Amen. As a layman with no medical training but having spent decades investigating frauds, I especially appreciate how well this is clearly and succinctly written. Without these redeeming qualities of prose, no significant progress in any medical / scientific field can possibly happen except by accident.
I watched that valiant warrior Malcolm Robert’s try to get some answers from the TGA in aluminium adjuvants, double blind placebo testing, and autism. So much obfuscation and Jedi hand waving. But in the comments it was amazing how many people had a go at Robert’s and me. I just said we need to wait till the ACIP enquiry.
Then Alex Antic questioning hep b vaccines in little babies. The health dept dragged in a big gun from ATAGI to try to shut him down. The reasoning was incredible.
I remember the Horizon programme and how the outcome diminished the ABC in my view. Subsequent separate events have diminished it further. On the up side, the critical state of scientific endeavour has to be resolved in favour of ‘true science’. Your essays are a big contribution to the pushback! Personal responsibility is key but is absent everywhere; we’ve lost our moral compasses in so many ways.
In relation to the Australian ABC, Dr Norman Swan has much to answer for with his biased and unsubstantiated presentations on the "Health Report".
That epitomises the corruption at the ABC. Fraudsters are rewarded and truth tellers are reprimanded🤷🏻♀️
Indeed… 🙏
Excellent analysis. Thank you!
Some of us learned during the COVID years that science did not serve us well. I for one became suspicious. As a student of the scientific way, it took me too long to realize that I was being lied to by people who used "science" as a weapon against me. I was deluged with claims that the govt.'s statements were correct because they were based on science. Well, their "science" was surely a bastardized version, and criminally so.
It's breathtaking the scope of the corruption in the medical-industrial-complex and no one tells thniee story as well as you do Maryanne. I keep saying this over and over again, given all the frivolous things on which government spends taxpayers hard-earned money, the junkets, the silly projects and then there's the general waste its criminal that it doesn't do all the testing, do it properly on its own dime. Cut the funding of testing by drug companies completely. For heavens sake what on earth are government's priorities? And then there is the competence of government scientists. Perhaps government can't afford to pay what industry pays but aren't there enough good scientists out there who want to earn a decent living working for the public good? Whatever happened to government of the people, by the people, for the people?
Please forgive my rant but everything that you reveal is just infuriating.
Keep ranting…. We need to keep the noise going. ☺️
Your assessment of the weaponization of science is right on target. Big pharma has successfully overtaken every institution. Transparency and criminal charges and convictions against those who withhold critical information about the harm of drugs is crucial. Thanks for so clearly pointing out all the corruption perpetrated by the pharmaceutical companies. I’m praying Kennedy can reverse the process.
As ever, another excellent article.. The level of this type of corruption (and that’s exactly what it is) is unfortunately all too predictable as a logical and inevitable outcome of hyper-capitalism. In a society that tells us that greed is good, and extols rampant capitalism as legitimate and praiseworthy, it should be no surprise that companies and their leaders will do absolutely everything possible to maximise and safeguard their profits. Hence the very clever and very effective gaming of the system - including the deliberate subversion of what should be safeguards and standards - including science and all too many scientists. Ultimately it is ourselves who are to blame - we elect the politicians who allow this destructive system to flourish and reward the perpetrators, and until we collectively find a better, more sensible and responsible way of living, these abuses of power and privilege will continue.
Spot on. Thanks David 🙏
David - in defence of capitalism, its not the capitalism that's the problem here at all. Its a complete abandonment of ethics and corruption of oversight bodies that is the issue.
I have worked in research in petfood and if an outcome of consuming one of my products would be death of pets then that product would never get developed. In one case I had found that potentially the level of an additive may have caused issues in some dogs - so it was immediately reduced to a level where no issues occurred.
However, I appear to be different from some. I do note that when working for one client they had a large no of dogs getting very sick suddenly from one of their products, made by somebody else. I found the source of the problem and was stunned when the manufacturer did everything possible to deny it was an issue. In the end they had to face up and lose a lot of money in dumped product.
We need to have objective regulators, with teeth, prepared to call out such terrible behaviour. I know myself and many others who I have worked with could do this, but why is it that we are passed over when such positions are filled???
Well Chris, I agree with you about the lack of ethics etc, but not about capitalism’s role. Capitalism is a magnificent system for wealth generation, the best the world has ever seen, but it views ethics and morals as an irritating impediment to wealth generation. That’s why so many business people actively resist any responsibility except ‘to their shareholders’. That’s why pharmaceutical companies are gaming the system. There’s no other reason for them to do so other than making more money. More power = more money. More disinformation = more money. More influence = more money. Any way you cut it, it comes back to the money! It drives everything. And that’s why they strenuously resist efforts from anyone brave enough to question or oppose them - like Maryanne or JFK jr! 😊
The problem is that our elected officials are all aware but we are talking about a highly powerful industry. The only way to topple this grip is if every country worked in unison to take down a very in control industry. A lone politician or their party will be a voice in the wilderness and will pay dearly for speaking out. The majority of citizens even doctors have not a clue how corrupt the system is, so ordinary citizens would come to the defence of pharma.
We need a Nuremburg 2.0 for those who killed so many during Covid. If people were put before firing squads or were jailed, never to be released, then maybe the malcontents would realise that there are consequences for bad behaviour.
There is easily enough evidence to convict many of the big players here during covid of crimes against humanity.
Thanks as always Maryanne.
The empire will always try to fight back. There is too much at stake. Huge financial profits, professional reputations public health is a long way down the list.
It’s so interesting to hear people within the profession concerned about undermining the American healthcare system . It’s amazing because you wonder what exactly they are protected. It’s a story that’s easy to miss, but once you hear it difficult to ignore. Thank you for all the work you do. The tide is turning.
Yes, change seems near impossible, but then again, I never imagined RFK would just wipe out ACIP and start again…. And yet… he did.
Chaos always precedes change!
Maryanne, it's my birthday today and I'm going to consider your article to be a present! Such a good read, revealing so many aspects of the corruption complex. Thanks.
Oh, happy birthday Joseph 🍾🫶🏻
Hope you have an amazing day.🥂
I noticed that Mark Skidmore, a MSU (MI State University) professor was on the panel. Several years ago, I remember reading his survey-based study about Covid vaccine injuries. Of course, being against the narrative, it was "retracted" for total BS reasons (just like Lyons-Weiler & Paul Thomas's 2020 vaxxed-unvaxxed study (Lyons-Weiler also on panel). Weaponization indeed!
Yes, all honest scientists who were done over.
So many credentialed scientists who exposed the dangers of these shots in a medical journal had the journals retracted because pharma also funds them. Pharma is in control of our world surrounding healthcare. A huge part of the problem are those, including governments who are willing to take money from pharma, never realizing the consequences of doing so.
The American Medical Association has a long history of mafia-like behavior since its founding. I have chronicled this evidence in a recently published article, entitled "Rockefeller, the Flexner Report, and the American Medical Association: The Contentious Relationship Between Conventional Medicine and Homeopathy in America": https://www.cureus.com/articles/370572-rockefeller-the-flexner-report-and-the-american-medical-association-the-contentious-relationship-between-conventional-medicine-and-homeopathy-in-america#!/
Sadly and strangely, JD Rockefeller only sought medical care from HOMEOPATHIC physicians for the last 50+ years of his life...and he promised that HALF of his philanthropy for medical concerns in the 20th century would go to homeopathic institutions...BUT not a single cent was given. My article provides the back-story to this nefarious actions.
Wow...you have confirmed what Richard Smith, the editor of the British Medical Journal, said as far back as 2013 when he wrote an opinion piece entitled “Is the pharmaceutical industry like the mafia?” https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2013/09/10/richard-smith-is-the-pharmaceutical-industry-like-the-mafia/
Big Pharma represents the largest and most significant impediment to health in the world.
The statin story is perhaps a little more nuanced - in that they do work, just not very well and not because of cholesterol changes. The triallists got away with confusing the public by using absolute risk for side-effects and comparing the low figure (though probably higher than claimed) with the relative benefit. So - if the relative benefit is 50%, as quoted, but the absolute risk of cardiac disease is 5%, then my simple brain computes the absolute benefit as 2.5%. My teachers told me that a reasonable significance level is 5%. So the benefit fails to reach significance. Of course, the Oxford group have resolutely failed to release raw data for independent analysis, as you state, and the only plausible explanation is that they don't dare to.
Why do statins work? Because they are weakly anti-inflammatory. The promoters continue to claim that reducing blood cholesterol will stop plaque formation in arteries, but as this formation is due to a failed healing process after intimal damage caused by inflammation it will do no such thing. Also, a low fat diet won't make a jot of difference as blood lipids arise from the metabolism of carbohydrates in the liver. John Yudkin was right... and to add icing to the cake the whole concept of cholesterol causing heart disease is based on the selection by Ancel Keys of data that fitted his hypothesis, and had he used the results from a different set of countries it would have shown the opposite. Thus a gigantic (if lucrative) castle of mud, bad science and blindness is built on a foundation of sand.
The one good thing that has come out of Covid is that proper scientists are able and willing to dissect research far more easily than before, and call out fraud and deception. Carry on please!
Yes, during the panel I explained that the early secondary-prevention trials showed a mortality benefit. But then greed took over — statins were pushed for primary prevention, for everyone over 50 even if they have normal cholesterol, for children, and eventually someone even suggested adding them to the water supply.
Enjoyed the podcast by Joe Rogan talking to Will Happer and Richard Lindzen about a similar situation in climate science. RL mentioned a curious observation. When he was teaching at Princeton he had his students research old scientific papers from early 1900’s. None were peer reviewed, just published. Peer review is therefore only a quite recent process and if anything, serves to stifle real scientific findings. The peer reviewers actually become gatekeepers which can be manipulated. It’s seems this is way more evident in medical research.
Eric Weinstein describes the origins of peer-review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5sRYsMjiAQ