Irony. What is it? Do you remember the first time you were introduced to it? I do. I was 5 years old. I remember sitting at my kitchen table in Cali, Colombia, having my usual afternoon treat: the occasional dip of golden, toasted bread in my mom’s coffee and reading the comics in El País.
This particular day had an interesting comic. There was a prominent figure depicted sitting naked on an English-based airplane. Apparently, he had just taken off his tuxedo. Why? Well, in Spanish the word for tuxedo is “smoking.” So when the “no smoking” sign came on during the flight, this figure made a fool of himself by erroneously interpreting what to do. I remember initially being completely perplexed by the comic, and I distinctly remember my mom giving me the explanation above. Moreover, I remember how my world changed after that day. Even as a 5-year-old, I started noticing ironies everywhere.
To most of us today, irony is an intricate part of our lives. It is an effective means for the portrayal of messages. It completely encompasses all types of literature. It is used in entertainment. It can be seen anywhere at any point in time on any given day. Oftentimes when we tune into this irony, it makes us laugh. But then every so often, every once in a while, it serves a much more profound purpose: It presents us with a dichotomy, a decisive partition.
We are forced to respond aptly or inaptly to a truth it is presenting to us. I’m going to toss a bone out to you today, one to which my organic chemistry professor opened my eyes, and in light of all the present political discussion about how to “fix” our “health care system,” I think it is tremendously appropriate and critical. What will you do with the information? Laugh it off? Try not thinking about it? Do we even have the means to respond effectively? That’s for you to decide.
Do you know what the fourth leading medical cause of death in the United States is? It is prescription drugs, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. What? Yes. Just behind only cancer, heart disease and stroke are prescription drugs. Does this irony not astound you? Further, they concluded that at least an estimated 106,000 hospitalized patients died each year from drugs, which by medical standards, were accurately prescribed and administered. Drug associated “complications” account for up to 28 percent of hospital admissions. Over 10 years ago, the number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral infections was in the tens of millions. What is it at now?
Do any of us read anymore? Or do we just let the hypnotic television tell us what to think? Have you ever read about the Vioxx scandal and how it killed thousands? Did you know that 20 percent of new drugs in the United States are removed from the market for harming or killing their patients? Some of those are not even removed; they are merely placed with a warning label of the “highest degree.”
Have we become lab rats for the pharmaceutical companies? Over 50 percent of new drug withdrawals occur within their first two years. A shocking 51 percent of drugs approved by the FDA have severe side effects not identified prior to approval.
Why does the pharmaceutical industry spend well over twice as much on advertising than on research? What does that tell you and me? Why are the collective profits for the 10 chief U.S. drug companies higher than the collective profits for all the other 490 corporations on the Fortune 500 list?
I’m not a nihilist, and I absolutely do not believe all drugs are bad or evil, but please, when you are taught to say “no” to drugs, which drugs should you say “no” to?
Julio Cespedes is a junior majoring in biological engineering. He can be contacted at [email protected].