Final Blog - Syeda

I’ve always been science heavy in my thinking and in everything I do.  Aside from faith, I tend to rely on science before I accept movements or claims for truth.  GMOs being bad?  Well, it seems that research in favor of them outweighs any research--so yeah, right mhm, next.  It’s already a tired argument.  Why do we still have to have a discussion?  And organic foods?  They might be good, but where’s the proof that they’re worth the price hike?  Global warming?  The evidence is there, why would I ever believe otherwise?  So I tend to be cut-and-dry with the facts presented to me, without necessarily thinking of the depth behind certain details and products.  As such, our discussion of GERD bothered me a lot.  I can’t put my finger on exactly why, but it felt jarring that something that is marketed to treat a physical condition, like omeprazole treats GERD, has so much room for capitalism and unethical business practices.  First, the fact that GERD may not be a legitimate medical condition but has medications to treat it amounting in the range of billions of dollars in profit, and second, that Astrazeneca produces omeprazole’s enantiomer esomeprazole, even without increased clinical efficacy, and patented it just for more profit, doesn’t sit right with me.  Plainly, it’s completely oppositional to my world-view that something with intentions that could be so pure, to help people with medical conditions, can instead be so predatory and unfair.  I’m used to wars that claim to liberate a region but only work to serve that invader’s own interests so the idea isn’t new, but the application to medicine remains more jarring because I'm starting pharmacy school at University of Illinois at Chicago this Fall.  It had me thinking, this is what I’m spending my future on.  How much of my field is like this?

So going forward, my biggest take-away from this class is that I’m fortunately and unfortunately more skeptical, and perhaps more realistic and critical of the information that surrounds me.  It’s depressing to acknowledge that the world isn’t motivated by benevolence or good intentions, but rather by greed and selfishness, but at the same time, this empowered me to realize that there’s always an underlying motive or bias behind products or ideas that are sold to us.  Whether it be omeprazole or the Iraq War, we are sold ideas of good health or ideas of freedom, paying for one product and supporting another with tax dollars and political support.  Now, it’s a matter of finding out what that bias is rather than questioning if one exists in the first place.  With this in mind, I truly do feel that I am a smarter and more realistic consumer given the ability to question the “why?” behind everything.  There are always connections between science, culture, politics, and economics, and now, it’s a matter of deciphering what those connections are.