‘Children Are Dying’

[marmar]

‘Children Are Dying’
Posted on May 24, 2013


Manufacturing problems, few market incentives for the production of low-profit drugs and government inaction are leaving thousands of patients without essential medicine and creating complications usually seen only in the developing world, if ever.

There are currently 300 drug, vitamin, and trace-element shortages in the U.S., the highest number ever recorded by the University of Utah Drug Information Service, which began tracking national shortages in 2001.

Experts are calling the nutrient shortage a public health crisis and a national emergency. They are “astounded” that the government and manufacturers have let the situation get so bad, Washington, D.C.-based Washingtonian magazine reports. The situation is worst for prematurely born infants, who do not have the nutritional reserves of older children and adults.

“Children are dying,” says Steve Plogsted, a clinical pharmacist who sits on the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition’s drug shortage task force. “They’re not getting any calcium or any zinc. Or they’re not getting any phosphorous, and that can lead to heart standstill. I know of a [newborn] who had seven days without phosphorous, and her little heart stopped.” .......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/children_are_dying_20130524/

[Newest Reality]

1. A case in point.

When profit is the modus operandi of your economic system, it stand to reason that the outcome will be based on a bottom-line value system. At some point, I think you can expect a proliferation of scenarios like this here, though it is very common in the rest of world, especially in relation to the policies of the American Empire and its neo-imperialism.

That does not mean that profit, generally, is not good; it is a matter of priorities. One way to illustrate it would be that the goods and services are created for the sake of betterment and enjoyment of the customer, first and foremost, (which some start-out to do, obviously) with the profit as an aside, or as a benefit and incentive to the provider.

Corporate law requires that profit be both the incentive and priority of the business venture. The owners and investors are actually the prime meaning and motivation, contrary to the sugary sweet PR advertising that creates an altruistic or community illusion to gloss over the underlying impetus.

If we could change the system to prevent this then it would be something like having a "benefit/detriment" index where taxes were offset by how the product or service impacted people and the environment. However, since the major, multinational corporations are now in some economic stratosphere where thy are above and beyond the rest of us, paying taxes and how much is payed are no a problem for them, so that idea is just not feasible without fixing the fair share problem first.

[lapislzi]

2. Human beings are fungible, a renewable resource.

They'll keep making more.

The day I figured that out was a sad day for me.

[bunnies]

3. yep.

And every time I see a story like this I think 'population control'. Dispose of the disposable.