Prescription drug commercials, Hawk Jensen, Follow the Science: Lockdowns Go Viral, AMA trust, Two UFOs shot down, Balloon-mania, Black market diabetes, Young people heart attacks, New Keanu Reeves molecules and MORE!
February 13, 2023 3-5PM ET
Monday on The Robert Scott Bell Show:
The bizarre Americanness of prescription drug commercials Long before I knew what Ozempic did — or had read the deluge of stories about the drug’s off-label weight loss promise — I knew the Ozempic song. Set to the tune of the ’70s Pilot hit “Magic,” the song from the ad has permanently imprinted the name of the medication in my brain. That’s the point — it’s probably one of the reasons Ozempic, which was originally developed and is still sold nominally as a diabetes drug, has taken center stage in the current cultural debate over weight-loss medications rather than Wegovy, which is the same drug, made by the same company, but approved for weight loss. If you are not from the United States (or New Zealand, the only other country that allows drugmakers to market their prescription products directly to consumers), the volume of drug ads on television in America can feel jarring. When Oprah Winfrey’s bombshell interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle aired in March 2021, the British tuned in, and many were gobsmacked at the number of drug commercials they saw. “American medical adverts are some real dystopian shit how you gonna tell me I might die,” one person tweeted. “American healthcare truly is a business,” remarked another.
Special Guest Hawk Jensen
Adam Hawk Jensen is an award-winning journalist, writer, producer, director, editor, teacher, artist and activist with over 20+ years as a journeyman Los Angeles filmmaker. He has spent the last decade focused on documentary films within the human rights advocacy and human freedom communities. Hawk got his film industry start working in the trenches of commercial productions (Riot House, Epoch Films, The Hayes Office, Straw Dogs) and on music videos (Moby, Li’l Kim, Atomic Kittens). His work in the early 2000s included: PA, production coordinator, set photographer, location manager, location scout (Local 399) and 2nd unit director. Working in parallel on several independent feature films, Hawk became a 2nd assistant director, 1st assistant director, and associate producer. Breaking into studio feature films and television, he progressed through the creative ranks as an assistant to the director on Bubble Boy (Bandeira/Touchstone) and Fearless (Jerry Bruckheimer/Warner Bros), as title sequence producer and SFX unit producer on Push, Nevada (LivePlanet/ABC), and as writers’ room assistant on What About Brian (Bad Robot/Warner Bros). Working with a writing partner and representation by CAA and Magnet Management, Hawk began screenwriting full time in 2006. He sold an original one-hour pilot script to Warner Brothers (2008) and won a writing award from the DGA and WGA (associate member) for an original half-hour comedy script (2008).
Seeking storytelling more meaningful than mainstream entertainment, Hawk became a full-time documentary producer, director and journalist with Reason TV (2009). There he produced dozens of short films advancing human rights and freedom and won a Southern California Journalism Award and Nomination with Radley Balko and Zak Weissmuller for work advancing photographers’ rights. Hawk founded his own production company, Smock Media, in 2012. Through Smock, Hawk led or collaborated on many projects for organizations such as Digicel, Freethink Media, Human Rights Foundation, The Moving Picture Institute [MPI], The Institute for Humane Studies, Cuba Decide, and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation [VOC]. In 2012, Hawk edited and co-produced his first feature film documentary, Honor Flight (2012), produced by Freethink Media. Amongst its many awards and public accolades, Honor Flight premiered in front of a Guinness World Record film screening audience of 28,422 people. Hawk co-founded a dissident artist network in 2021 called SoundMind Creative Group, which is producing the explosive docu-series Follow The Science. Hawk is attached as the director.
The AMA Said Trust Your Doctor on Smoking The American Medical Association (AMA) urges physicians to promote COVID-19 vaccines and bivalent boosters. The AMA even supplies members with social media talking points and strategies to deal with vaccine detractors. It is not the first time that my profession has endorsed a product that may be hazardous to your health. For most of the 20th century, the AMA turned a blind eye toward the dangers of tobacco use. During the 1930s, 40s and 50s, tobacco companies paid handsomely to advertise cigarettes in AMA’s journal, JAMA. In a 1948 editorial minimizing the ill effects of smoking and justifying tobacco advertising in its publications, JAMA noted that “cigarette business is a tremendous business,” as if the size of the bottom line can mitigate a conflict for an organization founded for the “betterment of public health.” The connection between smoking and lung cancer was recognized early in the century. At the same time, the AMA became increasingly dependent on money generated by tobacco sales. Tobacco companies sponsored meetings of medical societies, setting up their booths alongside exhibitions of the latest medical treatments. Free cartons were distributed at physician meetings. Cigarette makers even paid for publication of pseudoscientific reports claiming the health benefits of their products.
Hour 2
Two UFOs shot down today over North America… and CNN is openly talking about it… what’s going on? With a hat tip to the ZGoldenReport account on Brighteon.social, here’s a short list of some of the insanity happening just today: WTF is happening today? 1. A new Norovirus that is a Contagious Stomach & Intestinal Virus that is now a thing! 2. Massive inflation protest in Portugal 3. Jesus Statue got nailed by a lightening bolt 4. (Brazil’s) Lula pushing the Mark of the Beast 5. Historic protest against the new pension reform all over France 6. Two UFOs shot down between Montana & Canada border! 7. Turkey’s earthquake was 800 times more powerful than the Hiroshima explosion 8. X-1 Solar Flare going to hit Latin America Breitbart.com is reporting, “U.S. Jet Takes Down ‘Unidentified Object that Violated Canadian Airspace’,” saying: An American jet shot down “an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace” Saturday after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ordered it to be taken down. The alleged infringement on Canada’s airspace comes a day after NORAD shot down an unidentified object over territorial waters off Alaska’s coast and a week after U.S. forces shot down a Chinese Spy balloon that traversed the country for days.
Both ‘objects’ shot down over Alaska, Canada believed to be balloons, US says The unidentified “objects” the U.S. shot down over Canada and Alaska are both believed to be balloons that were carrying a payload, a senior U.S. official confirmed to Fox News on Sunday. Details regarding the object that was flying through Canadian airspace were scarce throughout the weekend, but U.S. officials now describe it as a “small metallic balloon with a tethered payload,” the official told Fox News. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he received a briefing on the issue Sunday and was told that the object in Alaskan airspace on Friday was also believed to be a balloon. The objects were “much smaller” than the Chinese spy craft shot down more than a week ago, Schumer told ABC’s “This Week.” President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ordered the objects shot down. U.S. and allied forces had been tracking the object over Canadian territory for more than a day by the time it was shot down on Saturday. The U.S. and Canada say the craft’s origin is unknown; attempts to recover debris from the vehicle are underway. The White House released a readout of a call between Biden and Trudeau shortly after the Saturday operation. “Out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of their militaries, President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau authorized it to be taken down,” the readout said. “President Biden authorized US fighter aircraft assigned to NORAD to conduct the operation and a US F-22 shot down the object in Canadian territory in close coordination with Canadian authorities.”
The high cost of diabetes drugs has led to a flourishing black market When Rena Rossi, 41, was diagnosed with a rare type of diabetes at age 36, one of the first things she did was seek out other people living with the illness. The easiest way to do that was through social media and online groups dedicated to diabetes. The groups she joined and the accounts she followed had what one might expect: information about different equipment and medications and posts about difficult days and triumphs. But something else surprised her: thousands of posts asking for the arsenal of supplies people with diabetes need to stay alive. Right away, Rossi said, she knew she would help when she could. “I knew I was going to share when I saw a need. That’s how the community works,” said Rossi, a teacher in Rhode Island. And share she did. “I’m at the point now where I’ve had messages on Instagram from people I had never even heard of because people know that I know people who have stuff,” she said. Without anywhere else to turn, online communities dedicated to people living with diabetes often become platforms where those in need of insulin and other diabetes supplies can connect with those who have extra. Sometimes, used equipment — such as insulin pumps and glucose monitors — is for sale at deeply discounted prices. Other times, people like Rossi have extra insulin that they’ll donate to people who can’t access it.
Young people are more likely to die of heart attacks post-COVID, study finds. But why? When Demi Washington, a basketball player at Vanderbilt University came down with COVID-19 in late 2020, her symptoms were mild, just a runny nose. But to ensure her safe return to the court, the school required her to undergo an MRI. The results brought Washington to tears. Following the infection, the now college senior had developed myocarditis — when the heart muscle becomes inflamed, which can decrease the heart’s ability to pump blood. The condition can lead to stroke or heart attack, according to Mayo Clinic. Washington was not vaccinated against COVID-19 at the time. “I was scared because any internal organ, you’re like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I need that to live,'” she recalled to TODAY. “I didn’t really know what was going to come of it, how long was it going to take for it to resolve.” Washington had to skip the rest of the 2020 to 2021 season, but ultimately she was grateful. “I think about the fact that Vanderbilt does do the MRI and a lot of other schools didn’t,” she told TODAY in a segment aired Feb. 9. “The fact that I could have played if we didn’t is hard and scary to think about.” Washington’s doctor never told her that she was at risk of dying, but he did stress the importance of rest and keeping her heart rate under a certain pace. She had to wear a watch to track her activity. Even though COVID was especially new at the time, Washington said her doctor felt confident her condition was due to the coronavirus, as he’d seen something similar other college athletes.
New Keanu Reeves Molecules Are Deadly Weapon In The Fight Against Fungi A natural product made by bacteria in the genus Pseudomonas has been found to have antimicrobial properties. The substances, named keanumycins, have been shown in a new study to be effective against fungi that cause disease in both plants and humans. The rise in antimicrobial resistance means there is an urgent need to find new ways to combat microbial pathogens. We often hear about antibiotic resistance, but fungal infections are also an increasing threat to human health – and not only for their zombification potential. Beyond that, fungal pathogens are a major cause of crop losses across hundreds of plant species. “We have a crisis in anti-infectives,” explained study author Sebastian Götze, of the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology, in a statement. “Many human-pathogenic fungi are now resistant to antimycotics – partly because they are used in large quantities in agricultural fields.” The authors of the new study had been working with Pseudomonas bacteria for a while, as it was known that they were toxic to certain amoebae (Dictyostelium discoideum). The researchers have now been able to isolate one of the groups of natural products responsible for this toxicity. These newly discovered lipopeptides are such efficient killers that only one name seemed appropriate: keanumycins, inspired by Keanu Reeves’ iconic portrayal of hitman John Wick. Since amoebae and fungi share some characteristics, the researchers suspected that keanumycins might also be effective at killing fungi. This suspicion was confirmed when fluid containing keanumycin from cultured Pseudomonas bacteria – called supernatant – was able to combat gray mold rot on hydrangea leaves.
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