My Life on this planet.

This article is a follow-up of my previous article to illustrate how the product information of medication is never final but pharmaceutical companies continue to update the information to be sure healthcare professionals and patients can trust that the information is up-to-date and medications are safe to use.  When companies want to make changes or government medicine agencies tell them to do so, companies must submit dossiers to these agencies and pay for the assessment of the suggested changes and after their approval, the updated product information will be published on the website of medicine agencies but also printed in the leaflet that is enclosed in the packaging of the medication. And yes, civil servants working at those agencies declare each year that they have no conflicts of interest and thus are independent from the companies to work in the interest of society.   Codeine can be taken as example of what happens after medications receive their authorisation as the public

The anti-science and anti-companies or, more general anti-establishment movements continue to grow and not only in the USA when you see on social media the growing numbers of conspiracy theories that question e.g. pharmaceutical companies but even doctors and nurses . Yes, it is correct that some (people working in) pharmaceutical companies think more about profits than about helping people, or at least that impression we have. But the majority in those companies are people who want to help people to reach an old age in good health.  Pharmaceutical companies as friends People claim that pharmaceutical companies should be more open and even question whether patents should exist while patents earn companies money that they invested in past research but also will invest in future research while they have to pay their legal obligations and their employees and investors ( this article  projects what pharmaceutical companies may earn from the Covid-19 vaccines while I am not naive  as big

2020-11-11: Herdenkings- of Wapenstilstandsdag, omdat we degenen die in oorlogen stierven om de vrijheid van anderen te verdedigen niet mogen vergeten. Maar sommige mensen vergeten om de mensen die vandaag leven te vergeven voor wat hun voorouders deden, vaak omdat ze vinden dat de offers die hun volk brachten onvoldoende worden erkend. De afgelopen maanden waren er protesten in de VS en in andere delen van de wereld nadat videobeelden lieten zien hoe een zwarte man werd vermoord door een blanke politieagent. Aangezien soortgelijke arrestaties met dodelijke afloop eerder plaatsvonden en daarna doorgingen, zijn mensen boos omdat zij en vrienden nog steeds racisme ervaren dat hen eraan herinnert hoe slecht hun voorouders werden behandeld, d.w.z. gedwongen deportatie van Afrika naar elders om te werken in het voordeel van hun blanken (en andere) meesters. Maar ook protesteren veel blanken omdat ze boos zijn dat zwarte vrienden nog steeds anders behandeld worden dan blanken. Inderdaad, ons

2020-11-11: Remembrance or Armistice Day, because we must not forget those who died in wars to defend the freedom of others. But some people forget to forgive the people living today for what their ancestors did, often because they feel that the sacrifices their people made are insufficiently recognized. In recent months, there have been protests in the US and other parts of the world after video footage showed a black man being murdered by a white police officer. As similar fatal arrests took place before and continued after that, people are angry because they and friends still experience racism that reminds them of how badly their ancestors were treated i.e. forced deportation from Africa elsewhere to work for the benefit of their whites (and other) masters. But also many white people protest because they are angry that black friends are still treated differently from whites. Indeed, our behavior today determines whether people forget or continue to be reminded of the evils of the pa

A film has been made about Greta Thunberg , Swedish climate activist. Like her or not but one has to admit she was a towering figure during the past years who managed to mobilise worldwide people to tell those in power that they don't want to earn even more when that means they die on a dead planet but instead protesters informed people in power they have the approval to act to reduce more damage to the environment and halt climate change. Below some commentary and extracts from the article.  Remember the UN summit in New York when an angry Ms Thunberg who says she is rarely angry, told delegates:  " People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairytales about eternal economic growth. How dare you! ".  Indeed, eternal growth isn't possible because it results in greed to have always more that drives people crazy and destroys as I discussed before while economies need to be c

A long article about the divisions in US's society where for centuries white Christian males were power and decided who could rise or be imprisoned. No longer. Concerning the male dominated society, journalists mostly refer to Mr Biden's choice of Senator Kamala Harris as running mate as potentially the first black Vice-President in case Mr Biden becomes the next president. But, that is no longer really remarkable because a black man, i.e. Mr Obama, became even president. No, what really matters is that she is not only black but also an intelligent woman, someone who may increase Mr Biden's chances. Compared this with Mr McCain's choice of Mrs Palin who destroyed his chances to become president. And thus it may be the first time such a high positon for a non-man with the possibility that she becomes the first black FEMALE president in case Mr Biden dies, a possibility at his age. Thus, for misogynistic people, Mr Biden must survive. Or, they may vote fo

I wrote a number of posts about abortion and why it should be possible in exceptional situations such as after rape, to save the mother's life when things go wrong and when the foetus has a serious illness. Abortion shouldn't be another way of birth control as for this contraceptives should be used although I understand the pregnancy may be an accident and thus unwanted or the mother doesn't have the finances to support a child. A growing  opposition to abortion is worldwide , including in Europe and the Americans but again and again people protest against stricter laws such as earlier in Spain  and Alabama . I also understand people who oppose abortion as it concerns unborn children; unless when it concerns a foetus with abnormalities because people who love children don't want that people will suffer their entire life after birth. In addition, techniques are now available that can detect genetic defects in foetus so only healthy foetuses are implanted in the mother ,