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Friday 3 September 2010

MRSA - Drug money buys media support

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The British trade and farming press this morning is beginning to fill with opposition to the current Veterinary Medicines Directorate proposals to ban the advertising of antibiotics to farmers.

The continuing amazing dispute between the Danish government and their veterinarians over antibiotic resistance makes publicity here in Britain inevitable.

Some of the trade media relies on the advertising of antibiotics to stay in business, so their coverage is predictable. Some are frank about their need for the revenue from drug advertising.

For the vets it's simply a way of buying support for the continuance of the vast profits they make from dealing in dangerous drugs.

They need a legal way of laundering money to buy support. This is it.

It's not an edifying business and gives little credit to those involved.

Some of the reports go to great lengths to avoid the use of the word "antibiotic." This is to defeat the search engines - manipulation of the Internet has been a feature of veterinary drug issues for some years.

So you are not going to get unbiased reporting in Britain. Both the vets and the associated media are desperate to keep the gravy train on the rails.

The livestock farmers who pay the bills and are first in line for MRSA have little information on the dangers.

It's disappointing, although predictable, to find the NFU (National Farmers Union) quoted as supporting the veterinarians.

All the money sloshing about is on the side of the drug dealers, but we still have the Internet to give an alternative view.