Dear Kerry,
I was among the many people that visited
the Dramaten theater Friday night, and it was amazing – to say the least. I
have visit the national theater quote many times, and this performance was among the best ever - maybe some Bergman theater
could have stronger, but this time some
of the best Swedish actors that were
participating Friday night.
Earlier during the day I also visited the
photo – exhibition, and that was a great test before the evening.
You and I had a small contact on Twitter-
Facebook before you came to Sweden, when I told you and the people at the Facebook side, that I got that
last ticket to the performance.
I was also the older white-hairy man that tried
to take a photo of when you arrived to the Dramaten, but at that moment my flash didn´t work. Quite unbelievable
I have the talk show where you were a part
of - with the Norwegian journalist Fredrik
Skavlan. I think he is one of the best we ever have had. He has around 3
millions watchers ever Friday – both in Norway and in Sweden. I also liked to see you and your brother in another TV channel, Great to see and listen to you na dwhat you have to say.
I did like watching you in the program and
it was very nice to hear John Irving talk about your father and how he
influence us youngsters at that time. Irving is sex months older than I am. I
was very interested in politics from 13 -14 years and have some memories from
the Presidential election 1956. My father was a fan of Adlai Stevenson and so I
was.
I was in high school and a member of the
young liberals when JFK became my hero. From early 60th I started to buy books
about your family. And I have continued during all the years. I looked today at
a part of my bookcases and found around 2,5 meters with books about you family,
it is around 90 titles, they are both in Swedish and in English.
One of the first books I bought was JFK´s Profiles in Courage “Studier I mod” in
Swedish. The book came out in Swedish first time 1961, but I bought the new
edition with a foreword of your father – written December 18, 1963 – and the
book came out 1964 after the murder of the President.
This book have meant very much to me, very
much.
This book also remains me of your father, he was my second hero and I have read lots about him, and I found the book about the friendship between Ken O'Donnell and you fatther just great, just great. And I know that your family helped the daughter of Ken O´Donnell with lots of data from your family-archive
I can say – without to be presumptuous – I
hope - that my wife and me – have tried to show courage in our research when we
challenged one of the Big Pharma in US - Eli Lilly. We started our research on
the painkilling substance Propoxyphene -
Darvon and Darvocet - 1994 and we found
a very toxic drug in our reasearch at the Forensic Medicine Department in Uppsala Sweden. We
became Ph Students - for me almost the day I got 50 years - and we wrote seven
scientific articles about the substance, and we alos wrote and defended two
doctorial dissertations and we got our Ph D´s in 2000 for my wife and 2001 for
me.
Our goal with the research was to stop the
substance in Sweden and then - see
if we were able to do more. The drug was then phased out in UK, then we raised the question in the European Union Parliament and the drug became banned in all the 27
member states in EU.
Two year ago - Nov 19th 2010 - the drug was
banned in US and now hundreds of
lawyers have been working for the coming trials and today there are more than
200 coming trials to wait.
There ought to be damages for maybe billion
of dollars.
I have been in US –Washington DC - four
times during the last ten years to promote our research and to inform media
about what terrible things the drug has caused in US since 1957.
Twice I visited Senator Kennedy´s office -
but I did not meet the Senator himself but his man in Public Health - David D
Dorsey 2003 and 2004. Now David is one of the top guys at FDA.
I also visited FDA, Nora Volkov at NIDA -
National Institute for Drug Abuse - DEA, and Public Citizen also twice. They
wrote two petitions to FDA to stop the drug Propoxyphene and we are co-signers.
As a matter of fact our research gave them another opportunity to fight against
Propoxyphene. That has been a congressional hearing 1980 – but the drug was not
banned.
If you want to know more - please go to our
CV, there you will find all data about us and the research. bit.ly/NUSPQ4
My third trip was 2007 and my fourth 2011 –
during the earthquake in DC - and now I have planned my fifth trip, I leave Sweden Sunday
Nov 11th and I will stay in US until Monday 19 th.
The hardest part with the research has been
to get US media interested. It seems they do not want to believe some unknown
researcher from small country called Sweden.
And it is hard to believe the horrifying data we have. They are really
HORRYFYING.
Our studies have mostly been at the
Forensic Medicine Department of the University of Uppsala. The university was
founded 1477 and is the oldest in the Nordic countries. The simple truth with
our research is that the Swedish organization in this field is updated, modern
and very good, among the best in the world with data, we have one federal law
about the four branches of forensic medicine.
The US organization in the Forensic
Medicine field is not good at al. You have two different systems - medical
examiners and coroner (very old-fashioned). There are different rules in
different states and some decisions are take on the county-level. There are
more than 3000 counties in the US.
In Sweden you take a blood test on every
person that is brought to a forensic autopsy – according to the law – and this
blood test is screened against all legal prescribed drugs - and Propoxyphene is
one legal drug. And therefor we find this special drug in the blood.
In US the decision to take a blood test is
often taken on the county level, and it cost money, so why take a blood test –
if you see that the person already is dead.
The drug has been around in US since 1957
and it is possible that there could be more than 100 000 fatalities during
the 53 years.
Last Friday
when I was in Stockholm I also was interviewed by a producer and journalist
from UK and now one of the best medical journals will investigate our data. It
seems as media in UK take our research more serious than US media does.
More about my coming trip:
I have decided to spend two days in Boston,
visiting both the Library about the President
and the quite new institution presenting Ted Kennedy, probably Nov. 14 th – Nov
15.
As far as I now you have one office in Washington
and one in New York about your father, and I will also visit one of this places.
I also plan to write a blog – and a
Facebook page about my trip. I will call it "The Kennedys– with my eyes" – or something
like that. I want to focus more on the persons – the private persons.
Would it be possible to meet you somewhere,
to take a cup of coffee as we put it in Sweden?
Please go to:
Look forward to hear from you
Kind regards
Ulf J
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Ulf Jonasson
Doctor in Public Health (DrPH) and Journalist
Lövdalsvägen 5, SE-640 20 Björkvik, Sweden
Phone:+46(0)155 714 55 Cellphone:+46(0)730 23 26 00
http://ulfjonasson.nforced..com/
Lövdalsvägen 5, SE-640 20 Björkvik, Sweden
Phone:+46(0)155 714 55 Cellphone:+46(0)730 23 26 00
http://ulfjonasson.nforced..com/
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