MANDATES?

I think the question “what is the purpose of public health institutions?” is actually a really important one, and it’s fair for people to ask it, especially after everything that happened during COVID.

That said, the claim that organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or Health Canada exist primarily to serve pharmaceutical companies feels like a very large conclusion that requires very strong, consistent evidence across multiple systems and countries.

It’s worth separating a few things:

• Public health agencies do rely on pharmaceutical tools (like vaccines and medications), so naturally they interact with that industry.
• There have been real concerns historically about regulatory capture and conflicts of interest in medicine.
• But that doesn’t automatically mean the entire purpose of these institutions is profit-driven or deceptive.

On the examples mentioned, like Paul Thomas, the situation is actually heavily debated. Critics argue his data wasn’t controlled properly (for factors like socioeconomic status, healthcare access, etc.), which makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions. Regulatory bodies often act based on standards of evidence, not just outcomes reported by one practice.


I think the stronger and more productive takeaway is this:
We should absolutely demand transparency, accountability, and informed consent,but we also need to be careful not to jump from “there are flaws in the system” to “the system is entirely malicious.” That being said there are definitely terrible things happening within the pharmaceutical space.