Pfizer realises blacks die of heart disease too

Someone tell me if I’ve got this all wrong.

I read:
Fewer Americans dying of heart disease in last decade, but blacks lag behind

I understood:
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Dear Black American Consumer,

We understand that you don’t really have the income for non-curing rest-of-your-life medication, and ARE currently kicking ourselves for having neglected the market for so long, but our previous cash-cow market is largely saturated, and we need to sell more drugs. So, please buy some. Now!

Sincerely,
Pfizer

P.S. Stop thinking you’re healthy. You’re not. Our research proves it.
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Are you blaming Pfizer for this?

A lot of doctors have thought of it as a “Man’s Disease”, so perhaps there is the subtle thought that it is also a “White Disease”?

Strange, I thought it had been well-established for years that blacks were more prone to hypertension.

Is the OP suggesting Pfizer had previously refused to sell their medication to blacks? A more likely reason behind the disparity is either blacks don’t seek medical treatment for hypertension (which could be addressed by better marketing and education) or that for some genetic reason, they don’t respond as well as whites do to the established medications. The solution seems obvious enough: spread more information, encourage blacks to seek medical advice and continue pharmaceutical research.

So, yes, you’ve got it all wrong.

Incidentally, the market for these drugs isn’t even close to “largely saturated”, as a large chunk of the U.S. population (the baby boomers) is just now approaching their sixties.

An even more obvious reason would be that blacks are, on average, less wealthy than whites, and therefore do not have access to the same levels of nutrition, health care, and healthy lifestyle opportunities, which of course would make any drug treatment less effective.

How that can be blamed on Pfizer boggles the mind.

But…but…Pfizer’s a DRUG COMPANY!

It must be their fault.

Hey Rick!

nitpick. got a cite or were you being sarcastic… ?

Phlosphr, you’re kidding, right? I mean, you do realize blacks in the United States have lower incomes than whites? You’re heard of racism and its effects? And it does follow that people with less money can’t buy health club memberships and expensive food.

I suppose I can provide some cites, but one usually does not provide cites for commonly understood fact. Blacks in the United States are disproportionately disadvantaged, and always have been. The disparity is huge; the average black household in the United States makes 35% less than the average white household.

Cite:
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/img/incpov00/fig06.jpg

You need a cite for which part? That blacks are, on average, less wealthy than whites? Or that folks with less money don’t get care that’s as good as folks with money?

The first one is fairly common knowledge. The Census finds that blacks are disproportionally poor, although that is becoming less and less the case every year. Their poverty rate is about the same as Hispanics, though.

I have no cites for the second one, but I’m going to assume it’s true.

Well, asking for a cite did seem odd, but I suppose is defensible if on e wanted to establish the degree to which there is a disparity, but did you really think RickJay might have been being sarcastic???

I was talking about the degree of disparity to which the two races are separate. I happen to live in an area with quite a few affluent African Americans. I agree they are getting closer. I think what prompted me to quote Rick was the bluntness of his first paragraph and my propensity towards being overly optimistic even in the face of bonafide facts…Sometimes I type before I think.

carry on.

But even when you adjust for income, insurance, etc. once inside the doctor’s office, you’re going to get better treatment if you’re white and male than if you’re not:

Racial and ethnic minorities tend to receive lower-quality health care than whites do, even when insurance status, income, age, and severity of conditions are comparable