Someone once said to me that I really must despise the pharmaceutical industry. There are certainly times when this is true, and my anger with them is sharp ... and hot.

But yet, and yet, I know many people who work in the industry, and they all seem nice, concerned about the world, caring. Trying to do good. The industry itself has also produced some great innovations and medications. Without which the world would be a much scarier and more unpleasant place.

In truth, I find the industry is a bit like capitalism. Both fantastic and dreadful. Which is a bit like humanity itself. Both fantastic and dreadful. Capable of the most amazing things, yet the darker side can be very dark indeed. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

To be frank, my personal problems with the pharmaceutical industry have mainly centred around cholesterol lowering. Various companies have made billions, nay tens of billions, nay hundreds of billions, pushing LDL-Cholesterol reduction with all their might.

However, I have oft sat with my head in my hands in despair at such nonsense. Pfizer with Lipitor (atorvastatin) pushed the hardest and made the most ... and horribly distorted the entire world of cardiovascular disease research in so doing.

However, thirty years ago, and purely by chance, the planets Pfizer and Kendrick were in a strange alignment. Briefly, I found myself on the same side as Pfizer when it came to cardiovascular disease.

How could this possibly be so? Well, gentle reader, let me take you back to a time when Pfizer had a very different drug to promote, called Doxazocin. It was a type of blood pressure lowering agent known as an Alpha-1 blocker. It was not selling terribly well, so they were looking for other angles in an attempt to boost sales.

I should mention that this was before Pfizer had a statin. A time that you could refer to as the 'BS' era. (Or maybe we are now in the true BS era - discuss). Then, in the year 2000, Pfizer took over Warner Lambert, which just happened to have a statin called atorvastatin (Lipitor). Yes, Pfizer didn't actually develop atorvastatin. They just bought out the company that did. Nifty move.

Anyway, in 1992, Pfizer was not much interested in lowering LDL-Cholesterol, as they didn't have a statin. Which meant they had other fish to fry with their cardiovascular drugs. They were more focused on blood pressure lowering. But their Alpha-1 blocker for this, doxazocin (Cardura) was a bit rubbish.

So, what to do? What to do indeed. What they did was to use the tried and trusted mechanisms of looking at different effects that this drug might have.

China has moved a step closer to developing a home-grown mRNA vaccine against Covid-19, with the publication of early trial results for its prime candidate ARCoV.

No serious adverse events were recorded in the phase 1 clinical trial data, published last week by The Lancet Microbe, but scientists said it was too early to judge its success.

Large-scale trials of the vaccine - jointly developed by the Academy of Military Science, Walvax Biotechnology and Suzhou Abogen Biosciences - have been delayed since last year. No reason was given by the company, though it has become generally more difficult to recruit unvaccinated volunteers for phase 3 trials.

The spike protein pokes holes in cell membranes at concentrations much lower than those achieved with vaccination, contributing to COVID-like illness and mitochondrial damage. But is the J&J immune?

Dr. Anthony Fauci recently told CNN viewers to be prepared for anything in terms of pandemic response measures for the current BA.2 COVID variant.

In an appearance on Jake Tapper's program, Fauci said that the United States follows the trends of the United Kingdom by two to three weeks. While noting the lessened severity in the BA.2 COVID variant - it spreads faster.

The main message from health authorities is that COVID is still not over.

Moderna produces one of three COVID shots available in the U.S.¹ In November 2021, Moderna released data on third-quarter sales showing phenomenal profits from the vaccine of $5 billion worldwide and forecasted $18 billion for the year just from the mRNA vaccine.² To take advantage of this revenue stream, the company announced they are developing three new mRNA vaccines for shingles, cancer and herpes.³

At the start of the vaccine race, the Health and Human Services Operation Warp Speed pledged to deliver 300 million doses of the vaccine by 2021.⁴ This was just months after the pandemic had been declared in early 2020. Yet, developing a safe and effective vaccine normally takes years and begins with animal studies.⁵

In addition to the speed at which the vaccine was developed, the shot did not fit the definition of a vaccine at that time, as the mRNA product the pharmaceutical companies were planning does not induce immunity in and of itself; rather, it delivers instructions to the recipient's cells to do that by producing their own proteins to fight the targeted disease. So what did the CDC do? They changed the definition of vaccine.

In an interview with emergency medicine physician Dr. Chris Milburn on "RFK Jr. The Defender Podcast," Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Milburn discussed how physicians can stand up for their right to treat patients honestly.

Kennedy introduced Milburn:

"He has a background in heart science and a long history of involvement with public health — nationally, provincially and locally. His strong commitment to free speech and scientific integrity put him at odds with a medical profession that is increasingly politicized and unwilling to tolerate debate — especially in the age of COVID.

"In 2021, [Milburn] was fired from his job as director of emergency medicine for the Eastern Zone of the Nova Scotia Health Authority and accused of the crime of creating vaccine hesitancy, for speaking out against mandatory COVID vaccination school closures — and for suggesting that the medical officers of health had been granted a dangerous amount of power."

Research adds to evidence that healthier pre-industrial lifestyles may hold clues to preventing Alzheimer's and other dementias.

As scientists around the world seek solutions for Alzheimer's disease, a new study reveals that two indigenous groups in the Bolivian Amazon have among the lowest rates of dementia in the world.

An international team of researchers found among older Tsimane and Moseten people, only about 1% suffer from dementia. In contrast, 11% of people age 65 and older living in the United States have dementia, according to the Alzheimer's Association.

In this video portfolio manager Edward Dowd uses the CDC's own data to show that excess mortalities are occurring in the 25- to 44-year-old age group, to the tune of an 84% increase. The acceleration in deaths correlates with the mandates and boosters of the COVID-19 shots in the fall, he points out.

The news is "shocking," Dowd says. "It's the worst excess mortality, I think, in history. Basically, the millennials experienced a Vietnam War in the second half of 2021."

South East Asian countries are experiencing their deadliest Covid waves to date despite the milder Omicron variant being dominant and high vaccination rates.

Here are the double-vaccination rates in South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong, plus New Zealand, with the U.K. included for comparison.

The graphs below show record highs of reported infections in each of these countries, particularly in South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and New Zealand. They also show record levels of Covid deaths in South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong, though not yet in Thailand and Singapore. New Zealand has hit record deaths, though at a low level so far. Japan's and Singapore's curves (infections and deaths) appear to have peaked, whereas South Korea, Hong Kong and New Zealand are still on the way up. Thailand's reported infections appear to have peaked but not yet deaths.

Over 170 million U.S.-born people who were adults in 2015 were exposed to harmful levels of lead as children, a new study estimates.

Researchers used blood-lead level, census and leaded gasoline consumption data to examine how widespread early childhood lead exposure was in the country between 1940 and 2015.

In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday, they estimated that half the U.S. adult population in 2015 had been exposed to lead levels surpassing five micrograms per deciliter - the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention threshold for harmful lead exposure at the time.

The scientists from Florida State University and Duke University also found that 90% of children born in the U.S. between 1950 and 1981 had blood-lead levels higher than the CDC threshold. And the researchers found significant impact on cognitive development: on average, early childhood exposure to lead resulted in a 2.6-point drop in IQ.