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Time warped

What I thought would be a few days has now turned into a month. And so where are we today? Hmm, let's see. The epicenter of the Middle East was changed yesterday as the secular state of Israel continues to respond to Arab frustration over the Palestine issue with bombs, death, and mayhem. You would think that after several thousand years we could think of some other way to resolve conflict. Well, don't count on the US administration to help there. We're still squandering $8 billion per month on the US disaster in Iraq, a thoroughly devastated country right in the middle of a bleak and bloody civil war which we helped to make. We haven't made any progress on a national health plan for all US citizens, our elected representatives can't figure out the difference between a minimum wage and a living wage, and gas is topping $3 a gallon again, as we watch, mouth open, while Big Oil continues to refine crude oil into gasoline/diesel for the international market (aka the rest of the world). And the war on terrorism is in its last throes, like the war on drugs, and the war on poverty ....

I'm also waiting by the mailbox for my blue bracelet from Northfield Labs. Apparently, I need that bracelet in order to keep me from being injected with an artificial blood substitute if I should happen to require whole blood during an emergency in any of the hospitals where Northfield might be conducting its phase III clinical trial on patients without first getting informed consent. It turns out that, with FDA approval, hospitals that are participating in this study are able to administer Northfield Lab's PolyHeme® artificial blood in place of whole blood—and they don't have to let you know that they're doing it.¹ Well, admittedly you probably won't be in a position to give your informed consent in a trauma center, but that's why this situation is so exasperating. ABC News says that Northfield says that "extensive information on the study has been made public."² You have to contact Northfield Labs, or one of the hospitals in twenty cities in the US, and request a blue bracelet which exempts you from the trial.

Meanwhile, I got to watch the 48th annual Pepsi 400 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series stock car race on Saturday, July 1—on a giant 52-inch LCD TV at a friend's house. This was also my first restrictor-plate race.³ Since I was also in a room full of neoconservative Republicans, my friend Phyllis made me pledge not to say anything while Dick Cheney made his appearance at the start of the race, and so I think I held my breath longer than the illusionist David Blaine.

Really, I think the NASCAR race is the archetypical modern American sport. One, it features cars, and Americans love cars, especially cars going fast. Two, the cars are literally covered with advertisements. Three, the cars are almost all sponsored by corporations, if only because it costs a lot to burn $3-a-gallon gasoline in a 400-mile race, on tires that get changed every few minutes, and in expensive race cars that easily dent, crash, and burn. I thought it was funny that this macho competitive sport has some guy coming up behind a competitor with the M&Ms logo on his hood. In any case, the sport has "America" all over it: fast cars, corporate money, and ads everywhere. My favorite part was the end. Tony Stewart is in the winner's box and being interviewed and there's the Pepsi 400 sign in the background and he casually takes a swig from a 2-liter bottle of Coca-Cola®.

1.  PolyHeme® is "a human hemoglobin-based temporary oxygen-carrying red blood cell substitute in development for the treatment of urgent, large volume blood loss in trauma and resultant surgical settings, with a particular focus on settings where blood is not immediately available." Says Northfield Labs: "The trial is being conducted using an exception from informed consent requirements under 21 CFR.50.24. / This provision is granted when patients are in a life-threatening situation requiring emergency medical intervention, available treatments are unsatisfactory, previous studies demonstrate the potential to provide a direct benefit (in the form of increased survival) to enrolled patients, the risks are reasonable in relation to what is known about the patients' medical condition, the risks and benefits of standard therapy, and the risks and benefits of the proposed intervention. It is expected that patients enrolled in this trial will be unable to provide informed consent because the nature and extent of their injuries." Information about the FDA waiver is available by searching this FDA website.
2.  ABC News 20/20, July 7, 2006: "At one point, it was being tested in as many as 27 cities; it is still being tested in 23 hospitals in 20 cities." Northfield Labs issued a public response to the ABC News 20/20 segment at its corporate website.
3.  The restrictor plate is a strange arrangement designed to prevent cars at NASCAR super-speedway races from going too fast. It's a physical plate that's placed in front of the engine's air intake to limit horsepower.