Oh, the Irony, It Hurts: FNC Comprehends Nothing, Whines Incessantly.
I’ve tried to stay away from the FNC ‘BIAS ALERT:’ but this last one was so laughable I just had to take a look.
In an attempt to paint the left leaning media as less than rational, something that they themselves practice without remorse or apparently, recognition, they recently blasted out the headline “Blaming Mitt Romney for deadly meningitis and other wild liberal media claims”
Now, I have to agree, if somebody on the left is really trying to directly pin meningitis on Romney as the headline suggests, that truly does deserve the label of irrational loon. Knowing Fox News’ penchant for projection, I became curious so I went to the article in question to see.
What I found really didn’t surprise me, considering that in the past wingnuts on the right have shown an inability to follow a causal chain, most notably when it comes to climate change. The article doesn’t blame Romney for meningitis, it blames the company recently implicated for the tainted pain medications that are responsibly for the spread of the disease.
The victims in the epidemic all received shots of methylprednisolone acetate, a steroid compound often used to alleviate back pain, but which was tainted with a fungus that caused meningitis, an inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord.
The link between the shots and meningitis is direct and solid.
According to CBS News, federal authorities announced they had matched a fungus responsible for the epidemic with more than 50 unopened vials of the drug sent out by New England Compounding Center, a Framingham, Mass., pharmaceutical company that has been identified as the source of contaminated drugs. Over 17,000 vials of the tainted drugs linked to the epidemic have been shipped to 76 different facilities throughout the country.
The link between the New England Compounding Center and the shots is also direct and solid.
There is no question the New England Compounding Center is directly responsible for the meningitis outbreak.
Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Department of Health released documents dating back more than a decade that revealed a series of regulatory citations involving NECC.
In 2002, the Food and Drug Administration filed a confidential report alleging that two patients had suffered ‘adverse effects’ after injections of an NECC compounded betamethasone repository, a steroid that is different from the one under scrutiny in the current epidemic. A few months earlier, New York resident William Koch became ill with bacterial meningitis after receiving injections of the steroid. According to an AP report, NECC settled a lawsuit in the case after he died in 2004.
In all, Massachusetts state records revealed that between 2003 and 2006, there were six complaints regarding NECC and its co-owner, Barry Cadden. At least one of these complaints alleged that NECC’s methylprednisolone acetate failed to comply with pharmaceutical standards. This is the same drug involved in the current epidemic.
That means the company has had severe problems for at least 10 years with living up to regulations of the time. That means they have been uncontrolled from 2002 until today, 2012.
In other words, the governments during that time have either had insufficient regulations or did not enforce the regulations. Had proper regulations been in place and had they been enforced, it is highly likely many of the deaths caused by this company’s dishonesty would not have happened.
… in 2006, NECC was effectively permitted to monitor itself simply by assuring the board it was in compliance with all procedures. In a May 22, 2006, letter obtained by Salon, NECC co-owner Barry Cadden wrote the board a short letter saying, ‘I am pleased to report that the following actions have been completed’ regarding several safety precautions.
If we fix those dates in our minds and then look at the names of the Governors in power since 2002, we see that Mitt Romney was in power during the time of least control over NECC.
The chain of responsibility can be expressed as:
1. Gov. Romney presided over a government with loose regulations and even looser enforcement of those regulations.
2. Those loose regulations allowed for a pattern of dishonest and dangerous practices by NECC.
3. NECC is directly responsible for deaths as far back as 2004 and should have been held responsible at that time.
Had NECC been closed down, especially after multiple infractions, or had NECC’s business administration been prosecuted, 25 deaths could have been prevented.
It isn’t loony to wonder why a harness wasn’t placed on NECC back in 2004 when it became apparent their bottom line was more important than humans. The Republican party is the party of vanishing regulations, valuing business over people and Romney is their current figurehead.