{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "description": "Johnson & Johnson is a healthcare empire and a household empire in the United States (and elsewhere, perhaps? I can't speak to that). That they are so deeply entrenched and recognizable is a crediting to their marketing and fierce defense of their brand. That reputation is undeserved and trust in them is misplaced. J&J knew for years that their was asbestos contamination in their baby powder. They sold hip replacements that they knew were flawed, caused harm and death and then profited by selling parts for subsequent surgeries to fix said replacements when they failed. They sold risperdal despite knowing about a high probability of permanent, damaging side effects. Procrit was at best useless. Duragesic fentanyl patches dwarfed the damage caused by the Sacklers. Vaginal mesh caused endless complications and pain. Their COVID vaccine was less effective with more harmful side effects. Tylenol? Careful with that — it'll hit your liver. Ortho Evra? That'll release dangerous levels of hormones and fail in myriad other ways. And yet, here they are. I would have hoped the FDA would have stepped in in any of these cases. All of them. At least some of them. But the author makes a clear and compelling use that they're often useless, captured by lobbyists, underfunded and beholden to the companies they regulate. Yet another example in the US' long history of allowing for regulatory capture. Doctors get wined, dined and paid to pitch J&J's products (and those of other, similar conglomerates) to a degree that's outright criminal, though it's rarely treated as such. No other healthcare system is as expensive or ineffective. None in the developed world loses a greater share of its participants to preventable deaths. Middle-class Americans have long accepted the system's downsides under the mistaken belief that the poor are the only ones disadvantaged. We have an embarrassment of a medical system. The creep and American embrace of privatization has delivered few benefits and endless harms. Classic and endemic corruption. The profit motive is fundamentally at odds with the goal of providing quality care. Don't expect these companies to do right by you, expect them to do right by their shareholders. Advocate for better regulation, advocate against privatization and know that these companies aren't designed to help you. They're designed to maximize profits and erode any institutions, regulations and guardrails that get in the way of that goal.",
  "path": "/reading/books/9780593229866/no-more-tears",
  "publishedAt": "2025-06-03T00:00:00Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:sttgf52vkk46f6yuknvqxvgh/site.standard.publication/self",
  "tags": [
    "politics",
    "history",
    "health",
    "nonfiction"
  ],
  "title": "No More Tears"
}