Comments on: News flash: FDA was right on Zicam

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:19:49 +0000

No scientists, just construction crews. Some of them were only barely literate so scientific literacy was out of the question among many of them as well and I had to carefully explain the reasoning behind my decision. It especially concerned me because some of them were consuming up to 4, 5, or even 6 grams of vitamin C daily in addition to their dietary intake.

I even had the, “It’s a conspiracy in favor of the drug companies,” line thrown at me when I had to tell them that the Zicam was no longer available.

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By: jthibeault

jthibeault — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:49:20 +0000

I’d assume your project members were scientists of some stripe? Of course, they’re humans, so I can kind of see the mass of conflicting impulses, but still… you’d assume objective evidence of human harm would trump anecdotal evidence and selection bias.

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By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:44:16 +0000

I was working on a project in a remote part of Alaska and many of the people there swore by Zicam and Emergen-C.

When research data came out that showed high doses of vitamin C could actually be bad for humans and shortly thereafter, the Zicam debacle happened, I made sure that we no longer carried the Emergen-C as part of our “comfort supplies”. Of course the Zicam was no longer available.

It actually made some of them mad! They were so convinced that these worked that they were willing to ignore the hard data and continue to use these items at the peril of their future health.

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By: jthibeault

jthibeault — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:55:30 +0000

Yeah. Had a coworker pitching Acai berry juice around here, and he was basically using people and selling the MLM “your chance to be a millionaire” crap instead of the juice itself. And he’d always refer to it as a “business”. I totally agree with the “slimy” epithet… which is sad, because when we met I thought he was a good, decent human being.

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By: Dan J

Dan J — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:51:40 +0000

I’m sure they don’t feel any guilt. They’ll probably argue now that if the FDA operated properly, it would have stopped Zicam before it was sold to the public, thus saving everyone involved lots of money, and lots of suffering.

They’re a bunch of greedy leeches. The “independent reseller” garbage with the vitamins and supplements is full of multi-level marketing assholes who don’t give a shit what they’re selling, or what it does to people, as long as they get their cut. I have known people into that crap, and I consider them to be among the slimiest of individuals I’ve ever met. Please note that I have never actually met Kevin Trudeau, Ray Comfort, Ken Ham, Casey Luskin, etc., so they can’t be included in my comparison.

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