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To the Editor:

For years I have felt that Big Pharma should not advertise prescription medications on TV or in the media in general, including magazines and newspapers. Medications are advertised to the general public often before the doctors have a chance to review the applicable information. In some cases patients ask (demand) their doctor to give them a prescription before the doctor has had time to research the medication. In my opinion only a doctor should recommend a medication after they have reviewed the test results and feel it will help their patient(s). Only an individual’s personal physician will be able to determine if the particular new medication will help their patient and know if the new drug will negatively interact with the patient’s present medications. It is time to put the doctors back in charge of prescription medications for their patients, not the pharmaceutical companies and their greedy advertisement schemes.

It has recently come to light that the lucrative advertising contracts from the pharmaceutical industry to especially the cable news networks as well as others is used to control what the outlets tell on the news. If you don’t support their products (no negative comments) and agenda they will retract their future advertising contracts. With the large number of medical advertisements seen today it is easy to see how they could exercise control. But the public deserves to know all the facts, not just the ones that make a medication look super.

This same philosophy should apply relative to shots be they vaccines, flu shots, etc. Let the doctor and patient make the decision, not some bureaucratic government agency. The government should only make the test/research information available and make the public aware of possible outbreaks of diseases and possible recommendations. The medical community should then take the necessary action for their patients.

 

Ronald Winter

Elizabethton