The author of a book detailing the dangers of relying on medications from China is coming to the Reilly Arts Center in Ocala.
Award-winning writer Rosemary Gibson will address those attending the Trump 2020 Tri County Rally on Tuesday, Jan. 7. The event lasts from 5:30-8:30 p.m. Click HERE for more information.
Gibson is the author of “China RX: Exposing the Risks of America’s Dependence on China for Medicine.” She says that millions of Americans are taking prescription drugs made in China and don’t know it. And she says pharmaceutical companies aren’t eager to tell them, either.
“What would happen if China unleashed a bioterrorist attack using anthrax?” Gibson asks. “Where would we get the antibiotic to treat since China would be the source of that medication. This is a national security issue and a serious impact to military readiness.”
Gibson’s book explains how several decades ago, penicillin, Vitamin C and many other prescription and over-the-counter products were manufactured in the United States. But with the rise of globalization, antibiotics, antidepressants, birth control pills, blood pressure medicines and cancer drugs, among many others, are now made in China and sold in the United States.
“China’s biggest impact on the U.S. drug supply is making essential ingredients for thousands of medicines found in American homes and used in hospital intensive care units and operating rooms,” the book points out.
Gibson says it’s “inherently risky” for the U.S. to become dependent on any one country as a source for vital medicines, especially given the uncertainties of geopolitics. She also documents incidents of illness and death caused by contaminated medications that prompted reform.
Gibson also serves as an inspirational speaker and adviser to organizations that advance the public’s interest in health care. Other books she’s written include “Medicare Meltdown,” “Battle Over Health Care,” “Treatment Trap” and “Wall of Silence.”
The 2014 recipient of the highest honor from the American Medical Writers Association, Gibson serves as a senior adviser at The Hastings Center and a section editor for a series titled “Less is More” in the medical journal “JAMA Internal Medicine.” She is a board member of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and serves on the Clinical Learning Environment Review Evaluation Committee to advance safety in sponsoring institutions.
At the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Gibson was the chief architect of its $200 million national strategy to establish inpatient palliative care programs that now number 1,600 – an increase from about 10 in the 1990s. She received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and worked on the PBS documentary, “On Our Own Terms.”
Gibson commonly speaks to public audiences at such venues as the New York Public Library, the AARP National Convention, George Mason University, the Woman’s National Democratic Club, Connecticut Center for Patient Safety, Maine Quality Counts and Maine Area Agencies on Aging. She also speaks to state policy makers at the National Council of State Legislators and the National Academy of State Health Policy.