Class Action Suit Lottery

TV ads are full of invitations by law firms to join Class Action Suits.  The justification for requiring companies to give millions of dollars to these Class Action pools is that the targeted companies sold products that do harm.

We are currently seeing ads inviting us to pile on the Johnson & Johnson baby powder case linking it to uterine cancer. If you have uterine cancer, you can lie and claim you used this baby powder and collect some money.

Bayer/Monsanto is facing a $2 billion settlement. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a division of the World Health Organization (WHO), says that the chemical is “probably carcinogenic.”

Opioid addiction settlements are proposed at $48 billion. Under the "proposed settlement framework" announced by the four attorneys general, Johnson & Johnson and the four defendant companies that settled with the two Ohio counties early Monday. Cardinal Health, McKesson, AmersourceBergen, and Teva — would pay state and local governments $48 billion in cash and products.

We have seen many products killed and companies ruined by linking them to cancer, but most studies are not based on causation. Most studies are based on correlation statistics that tie patients to potential exposure.   We really don’t know what causes cancer, but prosecuting companies based on “probable cause” is probably a mistake.

To get a lottery ticket, you need to have a diagnosis for the disease and claim that you used the product.

In the 1970s, products made from asbestos and lead paint were removed from shelves with Class Action Suits.  Asbestos was linked to Mesothelioma and Lead Paint was linked to lead poisoning of children who ate paint.  Earlier, Black Lung disease was tied to coal mining.

In the 1980s, Freon was banned from use because it was thought to cause holes in the earth’s ozone layer. The global warming hoax is the poster-child for environmental scams.

In the 1950s, we were offered “better living through chemistry”.  Now we have better living through class action lawsuits.  The practice of Medicine is 4000 year behind the study of Physics. Determining actual causes of diseases requires proving theories using the scientific method of testing hypotheses.  Our current parade of cancer causes appears to be a parade of unproven hypotheses. All patients are different and that leaves us with using “trial and error”. The side effects of treatments can cause more damage than the illness we are attempting to treat.

Consumers will pay the price for this lawsuit epidemic. Companies are used to paying government extortion, but this feeding frenzy could get out of hand. Pharma should roll back on the excessive TV ads and determine what actually does cause cancer.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader