One of my favorite quotes is by Walt Disney. He was quoted to say that “it’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” Disney would point out that you need to focus on the big picture and it takes courage to fight for your dreams. He successfully won 22 Academy Awards. His first Academy Award was in 1932 for the Best Short Subject (Cartoon) for the film Flowers and Trees. He was given an Honorary Academy Award the same year for his creation of Mickey Mouse. In 1939, he received an Honorary Academy Award for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. His only Best Picture Academy Award was in 1964 for Mary Poppins.
Although he had success, Disney’s beginning was a bit turbulent. Most people would have given up after their first company went bankrupt and 300 bankers turned him down for the funding of Mickey Mouse. Others might be inclined to quit on a project like Disneyland that took seven years to plan but successfully opened on July 17, 1955. Disney World turned 50 years old in October 2021. Walt Disney was truly a man that exemplified that it is fun to do the impossible. One author commented that “when you do something that seems impossible, it is not in proving others wrong but rather proving yourself right.” How does Walt Disney and the impossible apply to the pandemic?
There are scientists and health care professionals who spend years of their life doing the impossible. Training to become a physician, pharmacist or nurse can take four to twelve years to complete. The PhD scientist takes four to six years to complete their degree beyond their four years of college and often do another one to three years of postdoctoral fellowship before taking a research position. These scientists have made discoveries that change our world for the better. A group of economists in a 2010 article were able to identify that new drug discoveries like sulfa and penicillin were responsible for life expectancy improvements. They identified that sulfa alone decreased death from birth infections by 24-36%, pneumonia by 17-32%, and scarlet fever by 52-65%. Sulfa was widely used during World War II and was standard in first-aid kits. Penicillin was introduced in 1945. The average life expectancy in 1900 was 46.3 years in men and 48.3 in women. By the 1950s the average life expectancy was 67 years for men and 72 years for women. In both 2014 and 2019, life expectancy hit an all time high at 78.9 years. The FDA approved 206 novel drugs between 2017 and 2020. Scientists work at doing the impossible by developing new drugs that have no equivalent for treating diseases. Drugs that cure cancer, slow debilitating disease, control seizures, or prevent disease from ever occurring.
One of these amazing scientists was a physician with a PhD in pharmacology named Frances Oldham Kelsey. She was awarded the President’s Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service by President John F. Kennedy. She was awarded this honor as an employee of the FDA for preventing a major tragedy of birth deformities. She was the scientist that reviewed a new drug application for thalidomide. With her training, she was suspect of the safety of the drug in pregnancy and blocked its approval in the United States even though it was being used in Europe. Later, it was discovered that the drug indeed caused birth defects when used in pregnancy. A scientist doing the impossible!
As a pharmacist, I saw a post on Facebook that really disturbed me. The post was “every drug recalled by the FDA was first deemed ‘safe and effective’ by the FDA”. This statement is riddled with errors and its intent does not reflect the FDA or its mission. The mission of the FDA is to be responsible for protecting the public health by ensuring safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, and medical devices, as well as agricultural products. The FDA evaluates evidence to promote the safe and effective use of medications and vaccines. Science is an evolving paradigm and yes, as new evidence is discovered the FDA will withdraw a drug. It is nice to know that we live in a country that actually monitors safety. Withdrawing a drug from the market is very rare and is quite different from a recall. Recalls happen on a daily basis as part of the FDA protection of our safety. Recalls can be for food quality issues, labeling errors for food or medications, other quality issues, or supplements that contain dangerous and illegal ingredients. Recalls are not withdrawing a drug from the market. The person posting this statement does not understand the FDA mission. So, to extrapolate that the FDA is not looking at the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines is a major injustice.
The average life expectancy has dropped 1.6 years due to COVID-19 and the disease is not stopping. There are scientists who are working hard to do the impossible and stop the pandemic.
Feel free to call the ONU HealthWise Pharmacy or talk to your health care professional. ONU HealthWise is offering walk-ins for COVID-19 and flu vaccines. We are here to take calls and provide the best information possible. Please call the pharmacy to get more information on getting vaccinated.
ONU HealthWise Pharmacy
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