I have been a pharmacist now for 35 years. I have had a pen in my pocket as a pharmacist for 35 years. In 35 years I have never once had a drug company pen in my pocket. I have never accepted any kind of gratuity from Pharma that I didn't repay with in kind labor (i.e. give a talk). And I have never given a pharma sponsored talk that I didn't exclusively control the content of the talk. I have accepted grants from pharma for research, but the research design has been 100% my own, even all the way back to my fellowship project (though the idea was my fellowship director's). Why have I been so fastidious about this? Because I have been on P&T committees and been in positions to influence the purchase of millions of dollars of pharmaceuticals. I've also been in the position to influence prescribing and treatment of patients bother directly as a prescriber and indirectly as a consultant. And in none of those positions did I want to give any appearance of impropriety or that I was influenced inappropriately in any way by pharma or anything other than clinical science and what is best for patients.
Given what we know about Clarence Thomas can he say that he is without any appearance of political impropriety or influence?
I am bitterly disappointed in Thomas. This is at best an ethical violation, at worst it is criminal (tax evasion among other things). I say again, I stand with AOC on impeachment.
