Jesse Jackson Takes a Swipe
1 CommentBy Ed Silverman // February 13th, 2007 // 6:20 am
He slams drugmakers for not doing more to cure HIV/AIDS, while speaking at a conference underwritten, in part, by…guess who?…drugmakers.
“They may have an interest in more medicine and less cure,” Jackson told the National Conference on African-Americans and AIDS, which took place at a Philadelphia hotel next door to GlaxoSmithKline’s U.S. headquarters. “Ultimately we don’t want the medicine. We want the cure.”
Jackson didn’t mention that the conference, now in its ninth year, is partly underwritten by some drugmakers. GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer are among the major sponsors of Minority Healthcare Communications Inc. in Fogelsville, Pa., the nonprofit health-education organization that produces the conference.
He urged the hundreds of medical professionals and AIDS activists in the audience to buy stock in drug companies and attend stockholders’ meetings to push for “a cure,” instead of the cocktail of drugs used to treat AIDS, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Next time, Jackson should tell the crowd who’s paying for their meal. No word, though, on whether he received a speaking fee.
[tags]AIDS, GlaxoSmithKline, Jesse Jackson[/tags]
Melody
Way to go, Jesse! When a non-profit organization promoting health-education is sponsored by Big Pharma, you can BET there is a symbiotic relationship lurking in the background. First, I would expect the non-profit organization to disclose who is paying for the “free meal.” Second, Jesse, speaking truth to power, may blaze a trail for those who Big Pharma seeks to purchase. If more politicians and activists would take the money and stray from the corporate dogma to whatever degree is necessary to expose reality, perhaps pharma would quit sponsoring these “pseudo-educational” ventures geared primarily to cast their products in an advatageous light.