[cgbg]

Agreed.

The warning signs have been there for decades.

Large corporations developed a play-book for hiding toxic side-effects of their products—but usually it was on a local or regional basis.

The playbook included:

—Massive advertising campaigns with smiling people saying how wonderful their toxic product was
—Planting fake “research” in medical journals saying their product was safe and denying that any symptoms reflected the danger of their product.
—Paying off local politicians to get them to actively support the company instead of investigating them.
—Rapid response teams to quickly identify and marginalize whistle-blowers from within the company.
—Using local media contacts to name-call local concerned citizens as “ignorant”, “anti-science” and “paranoid kooks”.

[Cold Heart]

“Using local media...”

Fake Portland news just did that, claiming some Dr. really didn’t say what he said.

[Joe 6-pack]

Big pharma learned many lessons from the Thalidomide scandal, not the least of which is that it's far more cost effective for a "medication," to cause a miscarriage than a birth defect.

Photos of deformed children are bad PR.