Prescription drugs are 16,400% more dangerous than terrorism

[Scepcop]

One of the Pseudoskeptics' biggest hypocrisies is that they preach out against all alternative medicine and remedies, calling them dangerous "quackery", yet they say NOTHING about the thousands of people who die every year from conventional medicine! If they really cared about saving lives, you'd think they'd speak up wouldn't you? But NO, they could care less about saving lives, or even about truth for that matter, cause deep down, they are all about protecting establishments. Thus, they are the farthest thing from truth-seekers you can imagine, and the ultimate con, making them just as bad if not worse as any charlatan out there!

http://www.zeitenschrift.net/news/sne-17805-drugs.ihtml

Toxic Drugs or Terrorists: Which One Kills You Quicker?

This Newstarget article argues that the horrible tragedy that was 9/11, and the lives lost that day to terrorism -- some 3,000 Americans -- is small compared to the number of Americans who die needlessly every day as a result of the mistakes of conventional medicine.

Six Airplane Crashes a Day

According to the medical report Death by Medicine, by Drs. Gary Null, Carolyn Dean, Martin Feldman, Debora Rasio and Dorothy Smith, 783,936 people die in the United States every year as a result of conventional medicine mistakes. This is the equivalent of six jumbo jet crashes a day for an entire year.

Another 1995 study stated, "The iatrogenic [doctor-caused] death rate dwarfs the annual automobile accident mortality rate of 45,000 and accounts for more deaths than all other accidents combined." And that study was issued before the Vioxx disaster killed 60,000 people all by itself.

104,700% Deadlier Than Terrorism

Since 2001, 490,000 people in the United States have died from prescription drugs, while 2,996 people in the United States died from terrorism, all in the 9/11 attacks; prescription drugs are therefore 16,400 percent more dangerous than terrorism. If deaths from over-the-counter drugs are also included, then drug consumption leaps to being 32,000 percent more dangerous than terrorism. And conventional medicine viewed as a whole is 104,700 percent deadlier than terrorism.

The Money Drain

Next year's budget for the Department of Homeland Security will exceed $34 billion. By comparison, this country spends about eight times that amount annually -- $282 billion -- on deaths due to medical mistakes. And that's a conservative estimate, because only a fraction of medical errors are reported.

Money and Ethics

The problems are primarily those of money and ethics; drugs are over-prescribed and surgeries are over-recommended in order to increase the profits of the medical industry. Meanwhile, corporate pressure gets many drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regardless of their safety.

9/11 was a terrible tragedy, and terrorism is a real problem. But the corruption and deregulation of the medical and pharmaceutical industries is a greater problem still.

Source: Newstarget, July 5, 2005

[SeanRMR]

Indeed health systems in the your country aswell as mine need to be better. To few doctors and nurses getting over worked why do we let this happen as of course overworked stressed people are going to make mistakes.

Is this though a reason to look to alernative medicinces such as homeopathy or reiki etc....


Of course it isn't why go backwards lets put the money wasted on those sort of things in to health. Enough money I think has already been wasted on homeopothy showing it doesn't work after it has already been shown not to work. As I have heard many people say.

You know what they call alternative medicine that's been proven to work? They call it medicine!

This shouldn't be in the topic thread this is a lack of funding and lack of workforce issue more then conventional medicine is dangerous. I'd rathe have the option of risking my life with doctors who will try to save it. Then some overcharging person who believes they will save me by giving me water,tea or a massage. Good intenions does not save everyone nor does proven methods. But proven methods are a damn side better.

[Scepcop]

Those are just words. Can you demonstrate that homeopathy or alternative medicine kills over 700,000 people each year, or leads to that many deaths? Where's the proof?

The point is that 700,000 per year is way too high. How come skeptics have no problems with it? Isn't it the same reason why Christian fundies have no problem with atrocities committed in the Bible in the name of God?

[SeanRMR]

I like how you skipped the part were I said it was to high.

Can I demonstrate that it kills that many people no I can't. But can I safely say Homeopothy doesn't save that many peoples lives? Yes I can as it has been proven not to work. Can I prove conventional medicince has saved that many people undoubtedly I could my internet gets decaped tomorrow so I can go find proof to back up the statemenst made in this here post I've just made.

[ProfWag]

[ciscop]

scescop
if you get really sick
dont be an hipocrite and go to a real doctor
stay with your homeopaths and your herbal remedies and whatever woo you believe in
i rather go to a real doctor

and for the record.. 800,000 is way to high
is a lot, and i do care, but traditional medicine saves people while alternative medicine has been unable to prove it works AT ALL...

when magic water, i mean homeopathy
has proof it works, it is going to stop being alternative medicine
is gonna be MEDICINE.. but since is just water.. i doubt it

[ProfWag]

"Somewhere out there is the world's worst doctor. What's scarry is that people have appointments with him today." (Unknown comedian)

[NinjaPuppy]

[accidentsinspace]

If Homeopathy does not work why is Big Pharma always trying to discredit it?

[ciscop]

[brett]

if you note gents scepcop mentioned "alternative medicines " not specifically homeopathy - so what of the literally millions of Chinese and Asian people who favor their traditional medicines and seem to do OK ?? - most having little or NO access to western pharmaceutical products - just a point to bare in mind

[ProfWag]

[brett]

well as always personal choice , of course there ARE no cures for many forms of cancer , just delaying tactics - which are pretty pricey so it seems

- there was a guy here on the news today with advanced liver cancer ( same as my wife had ) who had been turned down for new drugs costing 3000 GBP per month !! ( nothing like making a profit from the dying eh ?? ) which MAY have given him poss 12 months ??

me , well if i get it ,and there is a goodly chance of it as i have worked with asbestos , breathed in god knows what crap in the fire service and I still smoke - my attitude will be - its my time , and as long as i have enough time to sort my affairs , then fine - i sure as heck ain't gonna cling on to life and go through months of feeling crap or being experimented on by doctors

but as i have said before - i don't fear death - as there are 2 outcomes , one is there IS something further , or two , there is nothing , in which case i go to sleep and don't wake up with a bad back and aching hips and knees in the morning either way whats to worry about ??

one or the other is gonna happen - that's for sure !!

but i am with you on acupuncture - the needles just don't appal some how

[Nostradamus]

There is a lot of quibbling here folks based on a fake story posted by Scepcop. The claim of the number of deaths due to conventional medicine is a lie put forward by a practitioner of unconventional medical treatments.

Be a proper skeptic and take a look at the original article. It is a few lines of unsubstantiated baloney that has been shipped around the internet. Nowhere is there any attempt to back up any of the claims. The statistics in the article are as meaningless as possible. Don't forget the meaningless front cover heading by Time a few years back, "Women over 40 more likely to get killed by terrorists than get married."

Same meaningless rubbish.

And BTW, some of the authors listed in the article are not medical people. They have a PhD, not an MD. So the claim of doctors is true, but were you misled?