Endangered Species is Human Race

With the push toward elections, it seems that the media is obsessed so thoroughly with the political attacks and maneuverings that anything goes in the actual work of governing the country. The elected head of the government sinks into the politics of meanspirited accusations without foundation in facts, once again showing that this is government without judgment or belief, sheerly aiming for power and using mendacity as its major tactical policy.

In the mean time, over at the FDA, which is supposed to protect the people of the U.S., the appointees are hard at work putting industry's interests ahead of health and safety.

From NewsWire:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is being urged to follow the recommendation of the FDA's scientific advisory committee to reject the use of cefquinome for treating respiratory disease in cattle linked to antibiotic resistance in human medicine. Despite this negative recommendation, the drug's manufacturer, Intervet, has not withdrawn its application -- as is usually done after advisory committee rejections.

In fact, "the company says it is convinced that cefquinome use in livestock will not create public health concerns...Intervet will continue to pursue approval activities." (See full text of Intervet news release here

Cefquinome is a 4th generation cephalosporin, a class of drugs that is highly valued in human medicine as treatment for serious and life-threatening infections. Growing scientific evidence shows that use of antibiotics in poultry, swine and beef cattle that are identical or similar to important antibiotics used in human medicine promotes development and spread of antibiotic- resistant bacteria that can be transferred to people via air, food, soil and water, making it harder to treat infections in humans.

"The FDA's handling of scientific advice is under increasing public scrutiny, with critics alleging the agency sometimes gives industry or ideological interests priority over science and public health," wrote Richard Wood, Steering Committee Chair of the Keep Antibiotics Working coalition (KAW), in a letter to the FDA's acting commissioner Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach.

More from Newswire:

An FDA decision to disregard its own scientific advisory committee's recommendation on 4th generation cephalosporins would fuel those concerns. Such an approval would be a big step backward for the public health."

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In Europe, where Cefquinome has already been approved and used in livestock under the brand name Cobactin, E. coli and Salmonella bacteria isolated from animals have already been found to carry resistance to this and other cephalosporins. In the U.S, where 4th generation cephalosporins have not yet been approved for use in animal agriculture, resistance to these drugs is uncommon

Okay, lots of scientific jargon here, and technical names, but the gist to the readers who come here because they're bright enough to see what's happening and to try to correct the crimes, the FDA is overriding the public concerns and putting into use an agricultural method in industry's interest that would totally ignore public health. It is also proven in growing bodies of medical research that bacteria are developing resistant strains because of the use in agriculture of medicines that have proved effective in human use.

FDA is riding roughshod over human beings' concerns to serve agricultural industry.It's time to show these miscreants the door, and I'm not too concerned that it doesn't swing shut before their overladen posteriors get through.