Poisons and Loss of Trust
The people worried that their prescription medications were unsafe. They suspected that most of their advanced medical treatments were poorly tested and ineffective, and that the food they ate was poisoned with toxic substances and strange microbes.
    Thus the citizens of Safety Last no longer trusted most doctors. Many doctors had become enslaved handmaidens to the purveyors of prescription drugs, medical treatments and foodstuffs. The pursuit of bushels of money and fame had become the new medical mantra.
    Legend has it that before the time of the Great Event, some people still stubbornly believed in the good will and social responsibility of their Protectors. But in their hearts, they sensed they were living a life of fantasy.

The End of Responsibility?
And then it happened, that dark day of infamy. The noble leader of Safety Last was caught dancing naked in the Enchanted Forest with Gwendel the Grand Seductress.
    The noble leader denied this, and the politicians screamed “lies, lies and more lies.”
    And the media overlords seized upon the moment and filled the airwaves and print columns with a steady stream of expert “commentary.”
    In the weeks and months and years that followed, there was only talk of what the noble leader did or did not do to Gwendel. Nothing else seemed to matter.
    As time passed, the health concerns of the people were totally forgotten.

Forget About It
It didn’t matter that a drug used by pregnant women caused horrible deformities.
    That the badly made materials implanted in women’s breasts to make them larger turned out instead to rot, burst, harden and deflate and cause many serious symptoms and illnesses.
    That a drug used to treat impotence was linked to the deaths of elderly men with heart conditions who should never have taken the medication in the first place.
     That it had become apparent that milk produced by cows injected with a genetically engineered hormone might contribute to certain cancers. No one had bothered to conduct proper safety tests, or ask whether the extra milk produced by the hormone was really needed.

Lost Time
Many of the doctors, corporations, politicians and government bureaucrats defended products like these. They argued that if you couldn’t prove harm at the outset, it was OK to market the product — it wasn’t necessary to prove safety first in the land of Safety Last.
    Somewhere deep in the recesses of their collective brain was the reminder that this stance was topsy-turvy. But the Great Event further blurred their focus.
    Legend has it that it took another two centuries before the Great Event was forgotten and an era of Good Will and Social Responsibility returned to Safety Last.

Nicholas Regush produces medical features for ABCNEWS. In his weekly column, published Wednesdays, he looks at medical trouble spots, heralds innovative achievements and analyzes health trends that may greatly influence our lives. His latest book is The Breaking Point: Understanding Your Potential For Violence.