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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.

Sources

  • Newstarget, July 5, 2005