Alfred Dawes | Of lab mice and men

What do you get when you mix science and politics? Answer: Politics.

The scientific method was developed hundreds of years ago and governed mankind’s leap through four industrial revolutions. A theory is formed based on critical observation and experiments formulated to test same. Following analysis of the data, conclusions are drawn from the experiments. These conclusions have governed every aspect of our lives from technology, healthcare to even our decision to walk with an umbrella. Science and logical conclusions often clash with special interest groups because of the undesirable conclusions drawn from irrefutable data. When this happens, the involvement of politics is inevitable, as is the corruption of science.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic the obvious examples of science being hijacked by special interest groups were the food industry and climate change denial. When food industry declared war on saturated fats and food cholesterol as causes of heart disease, the resulting explosion of low fat and cholesterol free junk foods laden with sugars gave rise to the obesity epidemic. This has resulted in chronic diseases being the leading causes of death worldwide. It was only last year that recommendations on the restriction on dietary cholesterol were quietly abandoned despite years of evidence opposing them.

Climate change is hotly debated by politicians and laymen fed talking points from their respective sides of the divide. Nobody listens to boring scientists presenting evidence of climate change even when the data are clear. Yet none of these examples come close to doctors and health experts recommending “healthy” cigarettes to an unsuspecting public.

If science has been corrupted in recent history, why is it so difficult to believe that in a world of hyper capitalism that it is not taking place right now? For one, nobody wants to accept that they have been indoctrinated and that their beliefs are falsehoods. To convince them otherwise is for their ego to admit that they were duped, and to change beliefs after public declarations is shameful. Conversely, it is difficult to convince conspiracy theorists to abandon their flawed positions even as they become more outlandish.

CONSPIRACY THEORIES

It is the prevalence of conspiracy theories that has given rise to a society where it is simple to hijack science and relegate the analytical doubters and established scientists to the fringes. The commandeering of the established channels through which scientific studies are disseminated has skewed experiments and conclusions towards those financing their existence. Universities are dependent on grants and those come with conditionalities seen or unseen.

Doctors are taught that nothing is worth its salt if it was not recommended by the data from peer reviewed, multi-centre, randomised double-blind studies. Such experiments are tedious and expensive to conduct. They are usually funded by companies expecting some return on their research and development budgets. Conclusions are invariably compromised by these unseen biases. Therapies that may be better than those found in rock star journals may never see the light of day because of their low financial incentive. That cost is paid in human lives.

Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) is a deadly pneumonia that is found in patients with compromised immune systems. It was a leading cause of death in AIDS victims prior to the advent of retroviral therapy. Although fairly common at the dawn of the AIDS era in the early eighties, a cheap generic drug called Bactrim was shown from 1977 to reduce the risk of contracting PCP.

People with AIDS had a four times higher risk of repeat infections than other immunocompromised patients. From as early as 1981, the recommendation was made to prescribe Bactrim for AIDS patients. A Bactrim advocate begged one Dr Anthony Fauci to issue interim guidelines, but he steadfastly refused, citing the need for clinical trials. PCP continued its death march. Finally, in 1989, the Centers for Disease Control issued recommendations for the use of Bactrim in the prevention of PCP. By then, 30,543 had died from AIDS-associated PCP in America alone.

REDUCED TO QUACKERY

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, several therapies including cheap repurposed drugs were found to be highly effective in decreasing hospitalisation rates and deaths. Studies that showed that zinc in combination with vitamins and other supplements could kill viruses inside infected cells. These treatments were developed by doctors with cumulatively thousands of successfully treated COVID-19 patients. Jamaican doctors have used these and other treatments in treating COVID-19 patients. Yet these treatments have been reduced to quackery and snake oil potions, even described as dangerous by the establishment.

Even more disturbing is the ignoring of a simple, readily available device, the pulse oximeter, that can screen for the development of severe lung disease in COVID-19 patients. With early intervention in persons identified as progressing to COVID pneumonia, countless lives would have been saved and debilitating long COVID can be avoided. These treatment modalities have been proven time and time again to work. Yet they have been largely ignored as the vaccine only narrative has been pushed by big pharma and their proselytisers.

We cannot boost our way to normality. COVID-19 is a disease we have to learn to live with. We perform Pap smears, mammograms, and colonoscopies to identify diseases at points where treatments are more effective, and to decrease the chances of progression to deadly stages. Why isn’t science guiding us towards early treatment and pulse oximeter screening for COVID-19? Simply because modern science has been mixed with the politics of money, and this time around, the result is death and suffering.

Dr Alfred Dawes is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, CEO of Windsor Wellness Centre, and medical spokesman for Lifespan Spring Water. Follow him on Twitter @dr_aldawes. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and adawes@ilapmedical.com.