A full page advertisement for antivirals

and a win for a street sweeper

A short follow-up to my previous article on legacy news reporting that the covid antivirals appear to be having little effect and we have spent close to a billion dollars on them in Australia.

There were several interesting comments, to my article, including a link to an archived version of the Sydney Morning Herald article (thanks to Ranger71). Geoff Pain provided references to studies on the effectiveness. One study showed 77% adverse events.

I also had several direct messages, including anecdotes, from both doctors and nurses, regarding the lack of effectiveness. Professor Robert Clancy mentioned to me that the day after the Herald article, questioning the cost effectiveness, there was a full page Pfizer advertisement for antivirals in the Australian newspaper!

No point wasting a marketing opportunity. I had to see this for myself and went out and bought the paper copy.

The ad is titled: Be Ready to Fight Back

I was going to make this the title of this article but thought it might sound too insurrectionist.

For some reason there is a mysterious rubber virus toy in the picture and a not too sick looking middle-aged man sitting next to it who hasn’t noticed it. I asked ChatGPT how may spikes there are on the virus. It tells me that there are approximately 25 to 40 spikes, so maybe it’s realistic?

There is a website link knowandgo.com.au, hosted by Pfizer. I had to check it. It’s a bit disturbing with a selection of pictures of people with the dummy virus in their vicinity and they haven’t noticed it.

I would be terrified if that thing randomly turned up in the house. It would be OK though, if the grandchildren were with us, we would let them deal with it, so they could shield us old people.

There is a quiz on the site you can do. However I failed.

A Failing Healthcare System

My last article I raised some serious issues in the Australian healthcare system. They include nurses being attacked and ambulance ramping leading to deaths.

The health disaster story of today is the resignation of the CEO of the largest hospital in Sydney, Westmead Hospital. ABC news article here.

There have been unacceptable delays related positive faecal occult blood screening. People are supposed to get a colonoscopy within a specified time of the positive test. That is not happening. Apparently, it’s taking up to 3 years for some screening tests. Seems hard to believe. Good way to cut costs, people could be dead by then.

Last week, the head of gastroenterology, who raised concerns about these wait times, was “let go” by the hospital. The staff subsequently raised a vote of no confidence in the CEO.

The government doesn’t like bad news health stories getting out. The CEO has now jumped before he was pushed, according to a source.

As I’m writing another ABC news article has come up from today. Radiologists at the same hospital, Westmead, have resigned today due to outdated equipment and pay issues. Apparently “the unit has two dedicated angiography machines, which are designed to take pictures of blood vessels, but both are over 15 years old. One of them has broken down.”

This sort of thing is absurd. Making medicines or medical devices that work is hard and there are no guarantees. But all the issues in these news stories are things can be fixed with the appropriate funding and intelligent management who can plan things properly. Clearly both are lacking.

And at the same time we are spending a billion dollars on useless drugs. Maybe worse than useless due to adverse events.

Wrap-up

To finish on a lighter note. I enjoyed reading the hard copy newspaper, like in the old days. The top article is a story about a street sweeper who was sacked because he complained about an acknowledgment of country at the start of a daily meeting of the street sweepers. Apparently, it is one of Australia’s most left-wing councils. They called his complaint “serious misconduct”. The council ‘s “Chief People Officer” told him, when they hauled him up, that they would have an acknowledgement at the start of every meeting.

Apparently, he retorted why hadn’t they had an acknowledgement at this meeting, for which they seemed to not have an answer. The street sweeper told the council they were doing the welcome every time they opened a letter.

He was accompanied at his hearing by an indigenous friend who told the council that the welcome to country should be at large formal occasions and particularly when there were overseas visitors.

He has won his unfair dismissal case.