How do you know the FDA is a captured agency?

Just have a look at its home page. Why were these topics chosen? Prepare to laugh.

How sweet—the FDA shows us a multiracial July 4 barbecue, warning us about the possibility of food poisoning when sharing food with friends. (I had to chop off the heads of the partiers so the page would fit on the screen, but believe me there was a red, white and blue theme.)

Of all the issues FDA has to deal with: food, drugs, medical devices, cosmetics, what do you think might be most important? What do you want to tell the public about?

Maybe drug shortages, or drug recalls? Drug side effects? Food recalls? Medical device problems? New drug approvals?

Nope.

First we get the kindergarten lessons, telling us the difference between hot foods and cold foods. Message: worry about your food.

Second, we hear about avian flu, though no one has ever caught avian flu from eating or drinking anything. Let no opportunity to scare people about avian flu get wasted! If you click on the page you get a bunch of fluff and this:

“Collectively, these studies provide strong assurances that the commercial milk supply is safe.”  So why even mention it?

Third, we are told to stop the spread of misinformation. Did you know that FDA has a Rumor Control service where you can be helped to snitch to social media companies about misinformation on their platforms? Isn’t this a First Amendment violation? Who knows, these day?

Fourth, we are reminded to worry about measles. I think only 1 American has died from measles (and the information is rather odd about that one case, in an immune-compromised woman in her 50s diagnosed post-mortem) in the US in the past 20 years. Are there many cases? Some cases always develop from people arriving in the US who are incubating measles, so it can never be wholly eradicated.

Let’s get more granular and forget those early years. The US has on average 20 small measles outbreaks every year.

Is measles a big problem? Maybe compared to H5N1 bird flu, since no American has ever been hospitalized or died from bird flu.