Dr. Starfield’s revelations: shock of shocks

by Jon Rappoport

November 25, 2015

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Suppose you learned that a single source in the US, every year, like clockwork, kills 225,000 people. That would be 2.25 million killings per decade.

Wouldn’t you think we’d hear about it? Wouldn’t public health agencies make a big, bigger, biggest deal about it? Wouldn’t they call it a pandemic to end all pandemics?

Can you imagine the reaction at every level of society? The insane panic? The madness in the streets? The attacks against institutions tasked with preventing such a cataclysm? The collapse of the stock market and the healthcare system? The predictions of the end of the world? The churches on roaring business highs?

Well, on July 26, 2000, the Journal of the American Medical Association published Dr. Barbara Starfield‘s review, “Is US Health Really the Best in the World?”

In it, Starfield, who was a respected public health expert working at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, stated that:

* The US medical system kills 225,000 Americans a year.

* 106,000 deaths per year from FDA-approved medical drugs.

* 119,000 deaths per year from error-ridden treatment in hospitals.

I’m aware that independent research puts those death figures much higher, but I focus on Dr. Starfield’s work because no mainstream reporter or government official could challenge her credentials or the credentials of the journal that published her findings.

And yes, there were stories in the press at the time, in 2000. But the coverage wasn’t aggressive, and it faded out quickly.

And none of the mainstream coverage did the obvious extrapolations. We are talking about 2.25 MILLION deaths per decade. And over a MILLION deaths per decade from medicines the FDA has approved as safe and effective.

The US government is aware. You can search for an FDA page titled, “Why Learn About Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs)?”

It states: “Over 2 MILLION serious ADRs yearly.” And “100,000 DEATHS yearly.” (The capital letters are the FDA’s, not mine.)

The FDA, of course, is the single federal agency responsible for certifying all medical drugs safe and effective before they are released for public use. They readily admit the human death-and- maiming devastation…but take no responsibility for it.

On December 6-7, 2009, I interviewed Dr. Starfield by email. Here are excerpts from that interview.

What has been the level and tenor of the response to your findings, since 2000?

The American public appears to have been hoodwinked into believing that more interventions lead to better health, and most people that I meet are completely unaware that the US does not have the ‘best health in the world’.

In the medical research community, have your medically-caused mortality statistics been debated, or have these figures been accepted, albeit with some degree of shame?

The findings have been accepted by those who study them. There has been only one detractor, a former medical school dean, who has received a lot of attention for claiming that the US health system is the best there is and we need more of it. He has a vested interest in medical schools and teaching hospitals (they are his constituency).

Have health agencies of the federal government consulted with you on ways to mitigate the [devastating] effects of the US medical system?

NO.

Since the FDA approves every medical drug given to the American people, and certifies it as safe and effective, how can that agency remain calm about the fact that these medicines are causing 106,000 deaths per year?

Even though there will always be adverse events that cannot be anticipated, the fact is that more and more unsafe drugs are being approved for use. Many people attribute that to the fact that the pharmaceutical industry is (for the past ten years or so) required to pay the FDA for reviews [of its new drugs]—which puts the FDA into an untenable position of working for the industry it is regulating. There is a large literature on this.

Aren’t your 2000 findings a severe indictment of the FDA and its standard practices?

They are an indictment of the US health care industry: insurance companies, specialty and disease-oriented medical academia, the pharmaceutical and device manufacturing industries, all of which contribute heavily to re-election campaigns of members of Congress. The problem is that we do not have a government that is free of influence of vested interests. Alas, [it] is a general problem of our society—which clearly unbalances democracy.

Can you offer an opinion about how the FDA can be so mortally wrong about so many drugs?

Yes, it cannot divest itself from vested interests. (Again, [there is] a large literature about this, mostly unrecognized by the people because the industry-supported media give it no attention.)

Would it be correct to say that, when your JAMA study was published in 2000, it caused a momentary stir and was thereafter ignored by the medical community and by pharmaceutical companies?

Are you sure it was a momentary stir? I still get at least one email a day asking for a reprint—ten years later! The problem is that its message is obscured by those that do not want any change in the US health care system.

Are you aware of any systematic efforts, since your 2000 JAMA study was published, to remedy the main categories of medically caused deaths in the US?

No systematic efforts; however, there have been a lot of studies. Most of them indicate higher rates [of death] than I calculated.

Did your 2000 JAMA study sail through peer review, or was there some opposition to publishing it?

It was rejected by the first journal that I sent it to, on the grounds that ‘it would not be interesting to readers’!

Do the 106,000 deaths from medical drugs only involve drugs prescribed to patients in hospitals, or does this statistic also cover people prescribed drugs who are not in-patients in hospitals?

I tried to include everything in my estimates. Since the commentary was written, many more dangerous drugs have been added to the marketplace.

—end of interview excerpt—


The Matrix Revealed

(To read about Jon’s mega-collection, The Matrix Revealed, click here.)


Comment: Hyping death is a media industry. But it cuts two ways. The people who do the scare-propaganda also delete the uncomfortable truths, like those Dr. Starfield describes above.

As always, media are fronting for an agenda.

They are selectively inventing reality for the public.

Reality-invention is the biggest business in the world.

Jon Rappoport

The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free NoMoreFakeNews emails here or his free OutsideTheRealityMachine emails here.

7 comments on “Dr. Starfield’s revelations: shock of shocks

  1. Dawn Vierra says:

    Reblogged this on Reiki Dawn and commented:
    Does not surprise me. Yet there are still a large majority that will defend the medical community as well as the FDA. The medical community has maintained a stance the any other types of treatments for whatever ails you is dangerous. Not so. Be informed. Don’t blindly follow and believe everything you are told. Even if you hear it again and again Just because someone says so. And seemingly in authority doesn’t make it true. Use the reasoning that the creator gave you along with your intuition. Hugs

  2. jacobite2015 says:

    Great post Jon…your reports on the medical system is one of my favorite topics. But it’s even worse: JT James published in the Journal of Patient Safety (2013) that deaths associated with the preventable harm to hospital patients is estimated to be more than 400,000 per year! He further reports that serious harm to be 10 to 20 times more than lethal harm! Unbelievable:

    ” A new, evidence-based estimate of patient harms associated with hospital care.”

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23860193

    But why should I be surprised? The medical system has been nothing but a horror show for my family. Last year a family member was hospitalized for drug-induced renal failure (the same drugs she was taking for complications from a vaccine-induced autoimmune disease!). A few weeks into the hospitalization, she suffered respiratory failure during a “routine” dialysis treatment. This resulted in ventilation in the ICU as she began the fight for her life. Then came hospital-acquired pneumonia and later followed by drug-induced pancreatic necrosis. A vicious cycle had started and the horror show was in full swing.

    The hospital investigated and found no wrong doing. “Standard medical care” they call it. It was clear that the hospitalists, specialists, residents and administrators didn’t care. Business as usual seem to be atmosphere of the hospital. I even confronted several doctors at the hospital with the James and Starfield reports. No denial of the reports, no disputing of the statistics…just shameful grins and shoulder shrugging.

    And even the rich and famous aren’t immune to the horror show of the medical system. A year ago or so, the iconic Joan Rivers went in for a “routine” upper endoscopy only to never see the light of day again.

    Be aware…be very aware – nothing is “routine” in the hospital setting. IMO, I think it would be most appropriate for hospitals across the nation to have warning signs stating: “Enter at your own risk.” ????

  3. wanttobegalt says:

    Great article. At best, we have a sickcare system.

  4. K-Veikko says:

    (A general comment.)

    Creativity
    ———-

    When God created the world. That must have been an act of ultimate creativity. No limits, no preconditions. What He wished became the future. Was he constrained by the time, or did He create the time itself?

    Then there was the one man on the earth: Adam. If He wanted a woman, that became the reality.

    The third step
    ———-

    I’d like to hear your opinion: What happened to the creativity at the moment when Adam and Eve ate from the tree?

    – And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

    – I follow you in the RSS.

  5. From Québec says:

    The medical industry is quite a racket.
    First, they do everything they can so you get sick: WI-Fi radiation, Chemtrails, GMO’s, fluoride in the water, vaccines, etc.

    Then, when you get sick, they have a bunch of toxix medicine for you, that will eventually kill you.

    They really want to lower the world population to 500 million peoples. But to do it without people realizing it, they must do it slowly. They slow-kill you.

  6. The Eco-Auditor says:

    Dear Jon. These implications of this article are reviewed in a broader legal, political, and economic context in two recent 2013 articles published in Harvard’s Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics:

    http://ethics.harvard.edu/blog/risky-drugs-why-fda-cannot-be-trusted
    http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2282014

    Ali B

  7. Reblogged this on TheBreakAway and commented:
    Mr. Rappoport gives an incisive snippet into an interview he conducted with Dr. Starfield regarding America’s health as a nation and the loss of life that keeps taking place at an unprecedented rate.

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