Whom to believe in the era of Reductionism and Hyper-Novelty and The Tyrrany of Experts

Open Letter to Heather & Bret of Darkhorse Podcasts

Whom to believe in the era of Reductionism and Hyper-Novelty is a question that conjures the title to William Easterly’s book The Tyranny of Experts where hubris develops a policy with very little understanding over the circumstances to which it is to be applied. This conjuring then leads to Friedrik Hayek’s knowledge problem in economics. More conjuring over Hunter Gatherers Guide thesis that evolution has a cultural component fits in nicely with Thomas Sowell’s Knowledge and Decisions political argument over affirmative action’s uselessness.  

I have been pondering this Tyranny of Experts issue over various fields and feel I have a good grasp over the argument in economics and education but not in health, until now after reading your book and viewing your podcasts, particularly why Ivermectin is so matter of fact rejected by the Health Insurance and FDA complex (HIFDA is alternate yet similar to President Eisenhower’s Military Industrial Complex) whose high barriers to entry allows monopoly prices and poor service in American Healthcare where we spend much more per capita with mediocre result.  Ivermectin is rejected because there is no incentive, exclusivity patent, for a drug company to pay for a definitive study of its efficacy for Covid or any other condition. It probably never had a drug company’s sponsorship.  Vaccines on the other hand gave big Pharma the equivalent of a moonshot in funding from the government.

Examples for just how abusive the HIFDA complex is are the opioid epidemic whereby Purdue Pharma gets the FDA to approve their addictive painkiller and promote fifty (50) pill prescriptions that were sure to cause an addiction problem. And just recently Biogen just forced through a positive FDA decision, so controversial some FDA analysts resigned over it, to approve Phanul an early onset to dementia prophylactic and price it at $50,000 per year treatment with no real end for the patient receiving it other than death and force Medicare to pay for it even though it will probably be prescribed by Phanul mills promoted by Biogen’s sales team to prescribed to anyone walking in saying they are suffering from a brain fart.

Abuses aside, the HIFDA complex directs its expensively approved drugs as the solution and puts blinders on health professional’s view of health. I was diagnosed with Afib over ten years ago. My in network heart doctor concerned about my blood pressure suggested a Cumadin regimine to reduce the possibility of my suffering from a stroke. I discussed his plan with my out of network general practitioner who I knew to be resistant to the complex’s pharma solutions and he asked that I wait, moderate my drinking and replace my sugar intake with protein such as bacon and eggs instead of cereal for breakfast. And finally and most importantly he prescribed weight training three times a week with a trainer so that I didn’t hurt myself. A year later my heart doctor declared  “your trainer is putting me out of business” while reviewing my vitals and so my blood coagulates normally when I cut or bruise myself while practicing an active outdoor lifestyle.