JetBlue attendant slides to freedom....er...jail. Statins: are these cholesterol-reducing drugs helpful or overprescribed? Are we losing our religion? Later, debating The Great Ape Protection Act: is using chimpanzees for medical testing a necessary evil?
JetBlue flight attendant slides to freedom…err…jail
Following an argument with a passenger on the tarmac at JFK Monday, a JetBlue flight attendant dramatically stormed off the job. After cussing the passenger out over the intercom, flight attendant Steven Slater activated the plane’s emergency slide, grabbed a beer from the galley and slid off the job. Slater has become an instant hero to disgruntled employees everywhere. But his heroism may result in criminal mischief, trespassing charges and up to seven years in jail. Was it worth it? A smiling Slater appears to think it was. Have you ever pulled a slater? Even in this terrible economy, are some jobs worse than no job at all?
Zocor, Lipitor, Pravachol and Mevacor: Probing the effectiveness of statins
In 2009, pharmacists filled over 200 million prescriptions for statins, the drug that’s thought to prevent heart attacks and strokes. And, manufacturers of the drug, more commonly known as Zocor, Lipitor, Pravachol and Mevacor, take in $26.2 billion a year from the pills’ sales. Though these medications are hugely popular, their effectiveness has come under tough scrutiny. Researchers question how safe statins really are and recent studies show that users of statins might not get the results they’re promised – indicating that drug companies are neglecting research, and pushing for doctors to recommend the drug in order to boost sales. How much are patients benefiting from taking the cholesterol-reducing medication? Are statins vastly overprescribed?
Guest:
Dr. Sanjay Kaul, MD on the FDA panel about statins, wrote about statins for Journal of the American Medical Association, a cardiologist at the Cedars Sinai Heart Institute.
Faltering faith: are we losing our religion?
Is Anne Rice just the beginning? The novelist found religion in the years after writing macabre vampire tales—and recently announced on her Facebook page that she will hereby “quit Christianity,” although she will continue to pray privately. With scandals surrounding the Catholic Church, and an increasingly secular society, is faith on the wane in America? Bill Lobdell writes in the Los Angeles Times, Rice is now one a growing number of “unaffiliated” worshippers. Do you call yourself religious—and if so, do you align with a particular church?
Guests:
William Lobdell, freelance journalist whose opinion piece The Anne Rice defection: It's the tip of the religious iceberg ran in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times; author of Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America — and Found Unexpected Peace
Alan Cooperman, Associate Director of Research, Pew Forum
The Great Ape Protection Act
Approximately one thousand chimpanzees are currently housed in U.S. laboratories for use in medical research, at a cost to taxpayers of over $60 million a year. A bill recently introduced in the Senate, and an identical House bill from a year ago, would phase out invasive research and testing on these animals and retire them to sanctuaries. Not surprisingly, the bill has the support of the Humane Society and other animal rights advocates, who say the apes experience physical and psychological pain as a result of their confinement in labs. But a consortium of researchers opposes the ban. They maintain that chimpanzees serve as a critical research model for the development of vaccines for hepatitis, malaria, cancer and other diseases. Do the potential benefits to humans outweigh the well-being of animals? And should taxpayers support medical research that might induce harm to its subjects?
Guests:
William Talman, MD, President, Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB)
Kathleen Conlee, Director of Program Management, Animal Research Issues, The Humane Society of the United States