“All of our lies are THIS big!”
Plan B Pill Snarls FDA Nominee Hearings
Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, nominated to head the Food and Drug Administration, insisted at his confirmation hearing Tuesday that “medical ideology” – not politics – guided his handling of proposed over-the-counter sales of the morning-after contraceptive.
Oh REALLY?!?! No superstitions, religious beliefs or misogynistic suspicions about women’s ability to make moral choices had ANYTHING to do with the FDA’s handling of “Plan B”?
Plan B Decision Made Before Data Review: FDA Staff
The decision whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should approve wider access to a morning-after contraceptive drug was made well before agency scientists finished their final review, two FDA officials said in court documents released on Thursday.
Supporters of over-the-counter sales for Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s Plan B pills have accused top FDA officials of hindering the company’s bid for nonprescription sales for years, to please conservative supporters of President George W. Bush’s administration.
The documents come just days after the FDA said it would reopen discussions over the drug, which can prevent pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of sexual intercourse. The delay had stirred debate over politics and science and held up the confirmation of two agency chiefs.
In a sworn statement in June, Dr. John Jenkins, director of the FDA’s Office of New Drugs, said he learned in early 2004 that then-FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan had decided against approval before the staff could complete their analysis.
Plan B was rejected in May 2004, shortly after McClellan left the agency.
You can view the depositions here, thanks to the good folks at the Center for Reproductive Rights.
It’s really past time that anybody shows any respect for these hacks who serve a benighted constituency of religious freaks, misogynists and patriarchs. There can be no reasoned debate, because these people lie, because they don’t respect facts or science or reason or honest debate. They are right, the rest of us are at best wrong, most probably evil, and they have every right to lie to us to further their aims.
This is the flat-earther mindset we’re confronting here, and they hold the reins of government firmly in hand.
The Democrats, of course, still don’t get this:
Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, the panel’s ranking Democrat, called the pending Plan B decision “a test case of FDA’s integrity.”
If Monday’s announcement “leads to a swift and clear decision, I applaud it,” Kennedy said, “but we must make certain that the administration does not use it as yet another delaying tactic.”
A test of their INTEGRITY?!?!
Jesus, Senator, are you really that stupid, or are you just going through the motions? HOW MANY LIES DO THEY HAVE TO TELL BEFORE YOU GET IT? They’ve lied about nearly everything they’ve done, for years, every stupid offer of bipartisain cooperation has been built on lies and the gullibility of a bunch of comfortable has-beens who rather be out having drinks on the lobbiest’s dime at an expensive steakhouse than open their damned eyes. The rest of us can see you’re being played for chumps, Senator:
An attorney for the group, Susan Heller, said: “As far as I know, this could be just another ploy to clear von Eschenbach’s confirmation.”
Well, bingo! No kidding. Dr. Susan Wood told us what the game was when she resigned in disgust over the stonewalling of Plan B:
The main point was in May 2004 [when the FDA first rejected over-the-counter status for EC]. I was still not happy, but at that point I felt two things.
First, that the people who were on the scientific professional staff were still part of the conversation. They had lost and were upset, but they were still in there swinging, so to speak. They knew what [information] was coming down as it was coming down.
Second, I believed Steve Galson [the acting director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and. Research], in that he thought we would be getting [EC] approved in about six or eight months, depending on when [Barr Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of Plan B] came back with their application, and that this would be a way toward some form of approval. It would not be perfect but it would be partway there, and that would be a good thing.
But [in August], when [Plan B] hit that wall again, it was clear that the professional staff had no involvement and that this was a way to say no without actually saying no.
The Republicans promise. They say they will “study” a question. They stall, they hem, they haw, they spout meaningless phrases of comity while feeding red meat to their theofascist constituency.
They have declared WAR on modern life, on the fruits of the Enlightenment, on the commonweal, on each and every one of us who isn’t one of them. It is past time to fight back. Kudos to the Senators for blocking this nomination, after rolling over so easily on the last one, but that’s not enough. Remember when the hapless Dems were threatening to shut down Congress? They actually did it, once, over some question of Senatorial perogative. If they gave a damn about this country they’d actually do it, for real this time. It’s not like this do-nothing Congress is doing anything more than helping the Bush Administration destroy everything that might be good for this country. How about we draw the line in the sand here, Senators? Shut it down, shut it ALL down. LETS HAVE A VIGOROUS DEBATE IN THIS COUNTRY.
How about finding the intestinal fortitude to do more than flap your gums and mouth platitudes before you offer up your bared throats to the Republicans, AGAIN?
That won’t happen, because we are beginning to see that you are all FINE with the rightward slide of this country. Integrity, Senator Kennedy? How would you know it when you saw it, since it plainly isn’t on display in any mirror you gaze into?
