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Peter Allan Williams
Writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines although verbalising thoughts on www.reality check.radio three days a week
peterallanwilliams.substack.com
An advertisement on a commercial radio station fascinated me last week.
I have no memory of what the product was, but it must be some kind of prescription medicine. New Zealand is one of just two countries in the world where prescription-only pharmaceuticals can be advertised.
The other is the United States and Big Pharma abuses that privilege through its control of the media industry there. Ever watched a TV news show in the US? “Brought to you by Pfizer” anyone?
Anyway, the punchline in the radio advertisement I heard last night was simple.
“Medicines have risks and benefits.”
Ah, hello, when did we start doing that? When were public warnings on medicine advertising introduced? Are those warnings mandatory?
If they are, it’s about time.
It’s just a pity the same attitude did not apply at the beginning of 2021 when a certain product called a COVID-19 vaccine was given to millions of New Zealanders without them having the chance to be fully informed about the risks and benefits.
To be honest, I’m yet to be convinced the Pfizer injections actually had any benefits, but that’s a discussion for another day.
However, we certainly know it had risks. That’s because coronial inquiries resulted in findings that the deaths of two people were caused by the administration of the Pfizer medicine.
I’ve never known of a coronial decision where a medicine was found to be the cause of death, but we’ve had two such outcomes in the last two years – a woman in 2021, and Dunedin man Rory Nairn in 2022.
Even in the madness that this country was gripped two years ago, the death of one person should have been a cause for reflection. At the very least the death of this woman should have slowed the vaccine rollout. Instead, it gathered pace.
This woman’s death was before the mandates became widespread. They became common throughout workplaces and society in general within months of the decision about her death.
But wasn’t that then the time to be using the tagline I heard last night?
By the time of the second of those coronial inquiries, that into the death of Rory Nairn in 2022, this warning about medicines having risks and benefits should have become a common saying on our airwaves.
But it wasn’t. In fact, the government doubled down and even now is still running advertising recommending people get a COVID booster, advertisements that to my recollection don’t run the “risks and benefits” tagline.
That was disgraceful then and it’s disgraceful now.
At least the warning is in place for some medicines now. It should have been there for ALL medicines two years ago.
