From the May 2005 Idaho Observer:

NIH budget doubles in war time to perpetuate disease scary-go-round and deliver the nation into a state of medical martial law

by The Idaho Observer

Statements before the Senate Subcommittee on Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations on April 6, 2005 by the director for the National Institute of Health (NIH), Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, for justifying its budget increases for FY 2006, reveal the clearly biased direction our tax dollars are directed in terms of research grants awarded.

While thanking the committee for continuing support of NIH through the unprecedented doubling of its budget, Zerhouni claims that NIH has been able to support remarkable, life-saving research.

While it is clear to a growing majority of Americans that excessive reliance on pharmaceutical solutions and poor dietary choices are major contributors to the diseases plaguing America, NIH is already committed to research proving that diabetes, Alzheimers, breast cancer, autism, Parkinsons, cardiovascular disease and obesity all have there roots in genetics coupled with environmental factors.

For instance, Zerhouni cites that a shocking 65 percent of U.S. adults—or 130 million people—are either overweight or obese. He tells the committee that this epidemic of obesity will cost the nation a whopping $117 billion in direct medical costs and indirect costs such as lost wages.

"Obesity is not an easy problem. It requires multiple approaches. The obesity epidemic represents a complex interplay of behavioral, socio-cultural, economic, and environmental factors against a backdrop of genetic and other biological factors. The NIH Strategic Plan for Obesity Research exploits the breadth of expertise available from a wide range of disciplines at the NIH, engaging 19 institutes and centers to set an agenda for this research.

"NIH-supported scientists are continuing to make significant progress in obesity research. For example, our investigators are identifying an elaborate network of hormones and other molecules that connect the brain, gastrointestinal tract, fat cells, and other parts of the body to achieve energy balance. An increased level of one of the appetite-inducing hormones was found in obese people following diet-induced weight loss. It may explain why some people may have difficulty ‘keeping weight off’ after dieting. Such hormones are now ‘targets’ for drug design. New drugs could affect appetite, food absorption, and/or energy expenditure," Zerhouni stated.

More drugs

Although Zerhouni addresses conflicts of interest that have plagued the NIH and resulted in the December 2004 LA Times shocking expose, "Stealth Merger: Drug Companies and Medical Research," he admits that NIH’s direction of research is development of new drugs to cure America’s health problems.

While $96 per person each year is invested in the NIH for the "future health of our country," Americans spent $1.553 trillion on medical/health care drugs and services in 2002 (divided out to $5,440 for every man, woman and child that year.) This shocking figure is close to 15 percent of the nation’s total GDP – gross domestic product – of $10.45 trillion for 2002.

For comparison, the nation’s expenditures for medical/health care is now over 40 times what it was in 1960, when national medical/health care spending was $26.7 billion, or 5.1 percent of the total GDP. It must be noted that these figures do not include Americans’ expenditures for nutritional supplements and organic produce.

Since it is clear to most Americans that NIH has thus far failed the American people its their research efforts to find cures for cancer, AIDS, heart disease, autism, diabetes and other chronic ailments plaguing our nation, it would be wise for Congress to eliminate this worthless scientific boondoggle. So far their research efforts continue to point towards drugs as cures when there has never been a drug that has "cured" or eliminated any dis-ease.

"To give a sense of perspective about our task, I look at the total $29 billion for NIH — nearly half the discretionary funding for all of HHS [Health and Human Services] — and I know I need to make sure that such a large investment is used in a strategic and systematic way to maximize the chances that better treatments and cures are rapidly developed to stem the rising burden of disease, as health care costs consume over $5,500 per person per year and are rising. NIH is currently using this investment for research to attack hundreds of common diseases and an estimated 6,000 rare diseases or conditions that affect approximately 25 million people in the United States — diseases and disorders that may strike any of us, our parents, our children or our friends. In recent years, we have taken on new challenges such as biodefense," Zerhouni said before the committee.

NIH and biodefense

NIH is now developing countermeasures to address microbial, nuclear, radiological, and chemical threats. According to Zerhouni, NIH-supported investigators uncovered the three-dimensional structure of the anthrax toxin complex in only three weeks which they are hoping will give scientists the means for blocking anthrax’s deadly effects. NIH is also conducting research on other potential biological weapons such as smallpox, plague, tularemia, hemorrhagic fevers, and botulinum toxin.

"In this past month, newspapers have been filled with reports about avian flu. NIH is vigorously supporting research to develop responses to these threats. Last year I described how we responded, within weeks, to SARS. I am pleased to report that one of the three new NIH-developed candidate vaccines is now in its first human clinical trial.

"Last year, worldwide, 4.9 million people became infected with HIV and 3.1 million died due to AIDS. We have developed treatments that transformed HIV/AIDS from a death sentence into a debilitating chronic disease. We must do better — we must prevent HIV infection. We have been working for years to develop an HIV/AIDS vaccine. Now, we have six viable candidates and testing them is our highest priority. Accordingly, we plan to increase the portion of our budget devoted to HIV/AIDS vaccines by $100 million or 20% to seize this ripe scientific opportunity for progress," Zerhouni asserted.

The disease scary-go-round

Here we go. Dis-ease can strike any of us since pathogens are their admitted cause of the problem; not lifestyle choices, diet, the chemicals and pesticides sprayed on us and our food supply, or the cumulative effects of fluorides in our water.

Ozone therapies, oregano oil, vitamin C, colloidal silver, and other immune system enhancing products are ignored by these NIH scientists since their research was (and still is) focused on developing products that can be patented by the pharmaceutical industry—after they pass their taxpayer-funded research onto them for commercial development. But the scary part is NIH’s obsession with research into vaccines and drugs as the solution to the looming threat of bioterrorism, especially in light of its insistence on using the oil-based adjuvant MPL in the newer vaccines they are busy creating (See "Squalene: The next wave of global pharmacological warfare" in the March 2005 edition of The IO).

The following statement from Zerhouni signals the death knell to our right to own our own body in the face of a "public health" threat: "A former colleague of mine has contrasted the roles of physicians who save lives ‘one patient at a time’ with those who serve in public health and who save ‘millions of lives at a time.’ At NIH, and through our investigators in every state and through their more than 3,000 institutions that include universities, medical schools, hospitals and other research facilities, we are providing the research firepower to do both."

NIH researchers should be more concerned with biochemical differences in individuals than in a one-size-fits-all vaccine and drug development policy. If they focused on individuals who survive infectious diseases or examine the health of those who do not "catch" the flu during an epidemic, they will truly be serving the greater good. But the incestuous relationship between the chemical and pharmaceutical corporations and our federal agencies have taken us in an entirely different direction as medical martial law, under the "suspected" threat of a bioterrorist attack, appears to be the end goal of this incestuous cabal.