The Daily Scribe

The FDA indicates that it will take nine months to complete its evaluation of Singulair, the popular drug used to treat asthma and hay fever symptoms. Sadly for Cody Miller and his parents this has come too late. Cody Miller was an active boy who took his life on August 4, 2007, seventeen days after taking Singulair.

Merck dismissed the incident as a mere coincidence, but two months after Cody’s death, updated the warning for Singulair to include suicidal thoughts and actions. In the past year Merck has also added anxiety, depression, tremors, along with suicidal thinking and behavior to its list of adverse effects that it provides to doctors about the drug.

Several puzzling questions come to mind:

1.      How long has the company or the Food and Drug Administration been receiving anecdotal reports about suicidal tendency of patients taking Singulair?

2.      The FDA has asked Merck to look at Singulair study data to ascertain more information about mood changes or behaviors in patients that took the drug.  Given the fact that Singulair had sales of 4.3 billion last year … does the FDA really expect Merck to be objective in evaluating the data?

3.      Reports have come, “despite being subjective” to Merck from physicians, patients, and patient’s relatives.  Were they fully investigated?

4.      Why weren’t the labels updated to reflect these changes quicker? A Merck spokesman stated that they received post marketing events and changed the label inserts, ads and brochures. The spokesman also added that the reps were instructed to pass on the information regarding the updates. Doctors and pharmacists claimed that they didn’t know about the updates.           

The FDA is not suggesting that patients stop taking Singulair, but recommends that they talk to their doctors if they have any concerns.           

It seems that Merck has all the answers.           

But for the mother of Cody Miller, who entered her son’s room—to find that he had hung himself. Where does she turn for answers in the death of her only child?           

As the Millers sit in Cody’s empty room … Merck’s updates and the FDA proposed nine months to complete its evaluation … have come way too late.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, wireless companies show what matters most to them.

Not the safety of their customers—by trying to find a solution to the FCC mandate that cell towers and sites be equipped with eight hours of backup power. Nor rescue workers inability to communicate, which accounted for numerous delays and incalculable lives lost during Hurricane Katrina.

Wireless companies have shown through their actions that BOTTOM LINE PROFITS take precedent over averting human casualties.

Two and a half years after Katrina, imagine the scene that has taken place. Wireless companies running to court——claiming that the FCC has overstepped its authority. Although they agree that their networks are desperately in need of an upgrade … the FCC mandate would impose … A TREMENDOUS ECONOMIC and BUREAUCRATIC BURDEN on them.

Strangely enough, the company notorious for its excessive amount of dropped calls … definitely dropped the ball on this one. Instead of doing right by their customers, Sprint Nextel stated the FCC rules would cause “STAGGERING and IRREPARABLE HARM” for the company.

It has been eight months since the FCC released its regulations and the two sides are no closer to a resolution. The U.S. Court of Appeals granted Sprint Nextel’s request to stay the regulation as the case proceeds. We can only wait in eager anticipation as to what will play out in May, when oral arguments begin.

Verizon Wireless should be commended. The company has a history of installing backup batteries and generators to its cells sites. Most notably during the 2003 blackout that kept parts of the Northeast in darkness for several hours, Verizon customers were still able to communicate.

AT&T, the nation’s largest wireless carrier has remained silent on the FCC regulations.

As for Sprint Nextel….Perhaps, just as easily as they track dropped calls, the loss of—is just another line on the company’s ledger.

The validity of this statement could not have borne any more fruit than what was witnessed in New York today.

Depending on what part of the city you were in, you were either greeted by people, who were in utter disbelief and shock that a man who had been at the forefront of the fight against corruption, would have fallen from grace because of his inability to control…

Eliot Spitzer, the governor of New York resigned today. For some it was a day of mourning, for others a day of jubilation. Our hearts and prayers go out to his wife and three daughters, and perhaps, some may have a tinge of sympathy for Mr. Spitzer as well … but today, belong to the people of New York.

It was time to take a deep breath and reflect on what lies ahead. A budget that has be ratified by April 1. A bureaucratic system embroiled in anarchy almost from the inception of Mr. Spitzer taking office, will undoubtedly welcome the change.

New Yorkers can now try to turn the page and welcome a man, who some believe will have a calming effect on the state of New York. In Harlem, its venerable citizens rejoiced, not due of an avarice to see one of their own ascend to such a lofty position, but simply because the seed had been planted so long ago, and today the harvest bore fruit.

The challenges that lay ahead for the new governor will of course be daunting, but for most of the citizens of Harlem, who have watched the political rise of David Patterson; they extol him as a man of moral fiber, integrity, and the temperament to mediate across bipartisan lines, attributes they claim, that will enable him to fulfill his role as governor.

Is Lieutenant Governor Patterson a breath of fresh air? Will his administration bring about a sweeping change in the way things are done in Albany?

The camera has flashed, the negative is developing, and the picture … remains to be seen.

It is with a great deal of reservation that I pen my first post. This subject has inundated the airwaves for weeks. The media has propagated this story by using anything as fodder, to fuel interest in something that most fans of America’s favorite pastime, wish would simply go away.

The reason why I share my thoughts on this subject is to see if others perceive what I read today in the same light as I did.

Roger Clemens, a baseball icon has been shamed! And because his reputation has been tarnished in the eyes of the populace, he should not have to face the indignity of being investigated by the Justice Department, to determine if in fact the statements that were made before Congress was anything less than credible.

Barry Bonds has not been given that option. Marion Jones was not given that option. The pundits undoubtedly will raise their voices in uproar, how could I make such an outlandish statement. Surely each case is judged on its own merits, will be their point of contention.

The sad truth of the matter is not whether any of these individuals lied or not. What is most disturbing, in a nation where athletes are idolized, a multitude of young minds might be deceived about the dangers of performance enhancing drugs, simply because their hero … and got away with it. 

B.Booth