32 Comments

Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, Oct 1, 2018

Vitamin D acceptance delayed by Big Pharma following the Disinformation Playbook

Commentary by William B. Grant, Ph.D.

(OMNS Oct 1 2018) A "Disinformation Playbook" has been used for decades by corporations to delay government action on matters of public interest that would adversely affect their income and profit. Some well-known examples include the big tobacco companies, the coal and oil industries, the sugar industry, and the National Football League. The Union of Concerned Scientists has outlined five "pillars" of the Playbook [Disinformation Playbook], [Alvord 2017]. Big Pharma may be using the Playbook to slow the adoption of strong support for vitamin D. This article is the product of my further analysis.

http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v14n22.shtml

This playbook was also used by Big Pharma to discredit Ivermectin, as discussed in detail by Pierre kory in "The War on Ivermectin, the medicine that saved millions and could have ended the pandemic", July 2023

Expand full comment

Spot on Dr. Grant!

Expand full comment

Good history lesson how corporations use the legislative initiatives for their private interests. IOM is now called NAM. National Academy of Medicine and is NOT a government agency. It has about 2000 directors on its board and is a bias medical research agency representing the interests of Big Pharma and far beyond. The book called "The Truth about the Drug Companies'" by Dr. Angell who was the editor of the NEJM for 20 years and got fed up and wrote the book! It was ignored in DC. Science in the Private Interest by Krimsky is another good book ignored. Dr. Kessler of the FDA and Dr. Koop were pushed out of their roles in DC because they wanted tobacco to be reclassified as a RX drug! Today there is a fight about stopping menthol cigarettes. Chronic inhalation of menthol negatively impacts liver function. Ignored. Corporate interests continue to Trump good health initiatives. mRNA is just the latest!

Expand full comment

Their review of PNAS articles also suck. Any submitted by committee members accepted without any review. And membership is less and less a sign of scientific acumen and more about politics.

Expand full comment

It is always about the "MONEY". Collateral damage is just part of doing business, with no regard to how negatively others will be effected. Although, covering up any potential responsibility on "their" part is always considered in the equation.

Expand full comment

I am beginning to feel like I live in a fun house. There are mirrors everywhere distorting and hiding the truth. One can no longer determine which image is the real deal and which ones are hiding the truth.

Expand full comment

Seems to me to be the Age of Great Deception.

Expand full comment

70 years later the 'borrow the playbook, wash, rinse and repeat' is so alive and well. Taking center stage with an all-out global assault where everyone becomes an influencer and no other voices can be heard is the real world we live in today. Believe and follow the science, even to your new disability or death. The colluding deploying the assault and then the coverup is so massive and impressive one can understand why it is so effective on so many. I posted this on Freedom Research but worth posting here:

The conservative spirit respects the past and the inherited. It appreciates the flaws of human nature, including the limits of human knowledge, the unreliability of human judgment, and the unruliness of human passion. It esteems the wisdom born of experience and the common sense of ordinary men and women. It distrusts innovators in moral and political theory because of their propensity to disregard stubborn realities and their partiality to utopian schemes. And, schooled in history and grounded in everyday life, it grasps the tendency of ambitious political undertakings to collapse under the weight of unintended consequences.

Conservatism – and the Nation – at a Crossroads Peter Berkowitz

Expand full comment

Fascism, alive and well: "...planned opioids research partnership worth roughly $400 million, in which industry would fund half the costs."

And " ...the tobacco industry set a destructive precedent that would affect future debates on subjects ranging from global warming to food and pharmaceuticals,” scholars observed.

Global warming scam? Who woulda thunk it...

Expand full comment

I still want to know how much $$$ Fauci et al received in royalties from Pharma 😡😡

Expand full comment

Exquisite analysis!

I would insert just two words: iatrogenic depopulation...

Expand full comment

True science follows the facts, "The Science(tm)" follows the money.

Expand full comment

I knew at the beginning of this article that indeed it’s always about the money. Such corruption 6 years ago was only an inkling in my consciousness. I’ve been so naive but am so relieved I am awake now. I’ve also listened trust in almost everything especially government and medicine. Great read and even greater awakening. Thank you 🙏🏻 ♥️💯

Expand full comment

Typos Listened should be lost. Was interrupted while typing.

Expand full comment

|| In effect, the pharmaceutical industry has repurposed tobacco’s campaign by co-opting academics to sell drugs.”

Yes, they have! Thank you for this chilling account.

Expand full comment

As one who has written “pier reviewed” articles albeit fairly non-controversial ones. Pier reviewed today means you sent it to your friends, who checked your spelling and grammer. As a geologist I created maps with cross sections and extensive text. At one point I realized nobody was paying any attention to the maps and cross sections, although someone with good 3-d visualization skills and a little time can easily review them. I have had friends, generally older and gone, who told me this wasn’t always the case, but sometime in mid-career for me that is how it evolved.

Expand full comment

Pier?

Grammer?

Your first sentence is a clause, not a complete sentence.

Sorry to point out the obvious, but you seem to be in need of an editor. 🙁

Expand full comment

Suspect a spell check intrusion which drives me nuts but perhaps pier is actually a more accurate descriptive given the a hierarchical nature of the beast today. Given using a stylus with severely arthritic fingers, I too take non grammatical shortcuts. So be kind please.

Expand full comment

That’s a heavy dose of reality. Is this advertorial judo, emergent 5G warfare, or both? “Embrace science, trumpet new data, and demand more, not less research . . . confront a major scientific controversy and amplify skeptical views.”

Sadly, we can send a human to school, but it isn’t likely to learn that we can’t all be morally above average: “61 percent [of medical residents] reported that they would not be influenced by gifts from pharmaceutical companies, while arguing that 84 percent of their colleagues would be influenced.”

Expand full comment

"Follow the science" (that we activate, control and promote...) "And, to prove our pure intentions, we unilaterally condemn the practice of greed and misinformation that characterize the opponents of truth."

Expand full comment

And they wonder why thinking Americans no long trust "science.???"

We see a similar campaign of lies and disinformation played out today, not only in the medical field but also in the sugar and artificial sweetener industry. Think of how sugar soaked our society is with 20 oz. soda and sugar added to tomato sauce, ketchup and even meat products. And there's the ubiquitous sucralose (Splenda) which causes extreme gastric distress in many people but added to many products.

Expand full comment

Look at the substitutes that were suddenly dangerous. I had a diabetic grandfather using saccharine over 70 yrs ago and never heard any health concerns until a more expensive sub was offered, then suddenly it too was a virulent carcinogen(it was not) and we now have one that is really bad. So the hands of the chem industry not so clean on that front either

Expand full comment

The light of the (un)truths of matters asserted certainly shines through here. Find it curious these tobacco/pharma perversions failed to result in my attention, judgements or actions.

On the other hand it does get back to my concerns of how we encourage folks to develop and engage in analytical efforts and then develop and engage in critical thinking. Vital clues as to how to find 'True' analyses and Truths. The merits of engaging in such efforts. The untold dangers in being true believers in the experts, government sources and industry sources. To me today's education and influencers if anything obstruct such directions.

Thank you for sharing this. These issues are surely far more vast than I have appreciated!

Expand full comment

None of this comes as a surprise to anyone with their eyes open. I hadn't connected the dots all the way back to tobacco but it makes sense. This is a helpful overview and analysis. The problem is that those who are to protect the public from such harms are themselves deeply corrupt. Thanks for posting Dr. Malone.

Expand full comment