Stephanie
Diamond Member
- Jul 11, 2004
- 70,230
- 10,864
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The GOP is always going about how government regulations hurt business, suggesting that modern-day businesses can be trusted with the public's health and safety, that no business would knowingly sell a tainted product.
Well...you know what? There's a REASON for those regulations and the current outbreak of fungal meningitis demonstrates it perfectly!
The outbreak, which has killed 5 people and sickened 30 so far, is traced back to a compounding pharmacy in Framingham, MA which sold the fungus contaminated product to doctors and hospitals for injecting into people's spinal cords. Compounding pharmacies do not fall under FDA supervision. Instead, that's left to the states and the FDA only becomes involved when something awful happens. Well..it's happened. It seems that leaving such oversight to the states might not be that good a deal after all.
Worse, Massachusetts is a tort reform state, where the amount of punitive damages is limited. A victim, or the victim's survivors, may collect actual damages plus $500,000 for punitive damages and no more. And, good luck to them collecting even that as the business is now shuttered and their website is down. In other words, they'll now file for bankruptcy and escape any punishment for their lax safety standards at all, which were so bad that regulators once found a batch of product with VISIBLE contamination!
This is the GOP's dream for America. No, or weak, regulations. Lax government oversight. Tort reform, so the businesses won't have to suffer too badly for their profit-motivated endangerment of the public.
That's government of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations. Mitt Romney supports it all.
Meningitis Outbreak Highlights Hazards of Drug Compounding - ABC News
omg, WE HAVE Government on this and we STILL HAD THE OUTBREAK, now see how damn great they are