Now that there is government health care for all (of me), I’ve begun paying closer attention to those drug commercials on TV that I always ignored because I knew I couldn’t afford them. Because, hey, you never know what ailment you’re going to discover you have after Googling some disease and thinking, hmmm, yes, I could very well be sick with that.
But then you hear the fine print. Such as the possible side effects, which the announcers read really fast as if they think you’ll miss the parts about projectile vomiting, intense diarrhea, excruciating pain, hair loss, and potential heart stoppage. But not to worry! You’ll have clear skin and white teeth!
My favorite disclaimer, however, is the one that says “Don’t take this drug if you are allergic to it.”
Really? That’s ridiculous, because it assumes the drug-taking citizenry is too stupid to know better than to take something that’s bad for them.
Wouldn’t a better disclaimer be “Don’t take this drug if you can’t afford it” because we all know the pharmaceutical industry is not just scraping by selling life-saving drugs at barely above cost.
And why is medicine being advertised on TV like any other product, anyway? I mean, they tell us to ask our doctor about such-and-such drug; am I supposed to go in and say, “Hey, Doc, I heard about this really neat drug on TV that is supposed to help me have a healthier lifestyle. Think I should try some? Got any free samples?”
In olden days they had these hucksters travel from town to town conning the rubes into buying secret elixirs and special potions that would supposedly cure whatever ailed you. These cure-alls usually were made up of odds and ends mixed in with cheap liquor.
We’ve come a long way from those days of gullibility and lack of regulation: You don’t even get any liquor in your medicine now.