Like many of you, I grew up with Johnson & Johnson products, and have bought their cotton buds for longer than I can remember...
But you are no doubt asking, what could Johnson's baby powder possibly have to do with eyes?
Trust me, the dots will join up by the time you finish reading this
In 2016, when Optical Express blatantly began to refuse aftercare to damaged patients en masse, and discontinued their guaranteed lifetime free eye tests, a reliable source told me that David Moulsdale was consolidating his assets in preparation to exit Optical Express.
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The IMAB [International Medical Advisory Board] consists of several of the world’s leading ophthalmic surgeons and opinion leaders, who provide our surgeons with continuous assessmentand education*, allowing them to stay at the forefront of corrective eye surgery.'
www.opticalexpress.co.uk/about/IMAB
Don't be fooled, IMAB is not a recognised scientific body in the UK - or anywhere else, nothing more than an OE advertising tool to impress customers, because with ‘international surgeons' on board the uninformed would naturally accept that OE must be highly respected worldwide. Whereas the truth is, it’s all about money for each and every one of them!
*I once wrote to David Moulsdale asking him to provide IMAB's assessment criteria for surgeons, and dates of such assessments, but strangely enough he didn't answer me.
And two OE surgeons told me when I asked that they had NEVER attended an IMAB assessment in all the years they’d been there, and not once invited to an overseas conference!
One for the ASA methinks.
The members of this sham International Medical Advisory Board are paid approx £20k a year, for their names to be used by OE and to attend annual conferences (in reality a party for the boys, with only one female member, and I’m told that very few of the men take their wives along.)
Refractive ophthalmologist Dr Stephen Coleman is a member, usually found on the tennis courts at IMAB conferences.
www.colemanvision.com/about-coleman-vision.html
In 2016 I was contacted by lawyers in New Mexico representing one of Dr Coleman's damaged patients. They wanted info about Dr Steve Schallhorn who was acting as Coleman’s medicolegal expert, both IMAB members and another perfect example of the incestuous nature of this sickening industry.
As usual, the case was settled out of court in 2017 and the damaged patient signed a gagging order.
For newcomers, Steve Schallhorn was OE's Global Medical Director before jumping ship to work with his buddy Jim Mazzo at Carl Zeiss, and according to OE’s website Schallhorn surprisingly remains as IMAB chairman, although I’m told that German IMAB member Burkhard Dick has taken over in all but name. But hey, what's in a name... (C’mon, you couldn't expect me to ignore that!)
www.opticalexpress.co.uk/about/IMAB/steve-schallhorn
David Moulsdale hosts the IMAB conferences in whichever part of the world he can afford - Cayman Islands in 2012, and Glasgow in 2013. So with his company finances still in crisis, you might be surprised to hear that next month's IMAB conference is apparently being held in Washington.
And finally we reach the connection to talcum powder!
As mentioned in my 16 March post, Johnson & Johnson acquired Abbott Medical Optics (AMO) in 2016. Steve Schallhorn and Moorfields surgeon Julian Stevens both lucratively paid consultants for AMO, and Schallhorn holding shares in the company btw.
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The all-cash $4.325 billion acquisition was originally announced Sept. 16, 2016, and includes ophthalmic products in three areas of patient care: cataract surgery, laser refractive surgery and consumer eye health. These product lines will now join with the world-leading ACUVUE® Brand Contact Lenses business, and the combined organization will operate under the brand name Johnson & Johnson Vision (J&J Vision).'
www.jnj.com/media-center/press-releases/...bbott-medical-optics
OE internal sources have told me that David Moulsdale is allegedly negotiating with Johnson & Johnson to buy Optical Express, meetings planned while he’s in Trump country for the IMAB conference (makes sense to save on air fares when your company is in deep sh*t financially).
When looked at under this new light, OE’s withdrawal of aftercare and lifetime eye tests for their customers makes more sense, because although not my area of expertise even I can appreciate that no-one would want to buy a company haemorrhaging money, burdened with countless damaged patients and giving free aftercare to tens (100s?) of thousands more!
If Johnson & Johnson Vision are in negotiations to acquire Optical Express, I suspect that David Moulsdale has not been entirely honest about the true state of affairs within his company, and I think that they, and their shareholders, should be enlightened.
Not least because Johnson & Johnson have enough bad publicity with legal claims of ovarian cancer caused by their talcum powder - 5,500 according to press reports - do they really want more?
www.cnbc.com/2018/02/05/johnson-johnson-...owder-documents.html
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4810494...m-powder-cancer.html