Denialism Blog

Author: denialism_bv2x6a

  • Scene II, in which I clarify my previous statement

    My Scibling DrugMonkey brought up a half-valid point. The half that was valid was that none of the medical bloggers spoke out about the surgeon who assaulted a patient. The half that was insane was where this is used as further evidence that doctors are arrogant pricks. Based on this comment and those of the commenters on my blog, some further clarification is needed.

    I can’t speak for other doctor-bloggers, but the story of the surgeon who tattooed a patient wasn’t that interesting to me because of its isolated nature. When looking at antivaccine claims, altmed claims, and all manner of woo, we look for patterns of thought and behavior not in individuals but in society and in movements. If it were found that there were a true sub-culture of surgeons doing this to patients, I would probably rant for days about it.

    That being said, there are certain aspects of the incident which seem to confuse our readers.
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  • Scene I, in which I defend my profession

    Our Scibling PhysioProf has launched the opening salvo in what may turn out to be a rather bloody flame war. In the interest of actually gaining something from this other than venting my own anger and frustration, I will beg your indulgence here as I explain why my colleague is so utterly misguided.
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  • DROP THAT CELL PHONE NOW!!!11!!!

    DROP YOUR CELL PHONE NOW!!!!111!
    (don’t send me the bill for the replacement)

    I’m sure others will cover more of the scientific details, but science aside, we should examine why today’s statement on cell phones out of Pittsburgh is so ridiculous. Setting aside the lack of data connecting cell phones and health problems, this is horribly irresponsible.

    Here’s the thumbnail: an alarmist report was released by the UP Cancer Institute’s Center for Environmental Oncology. It was apparently targeted at the university community, and stated that despite lack of current evidence, the community should worry about cell phones this instant.
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  • The end of ignorance

    The folks at bloggingheads.tv whoring for some link love sent me an interesting link. They had a talking heads session (“diavlog”—damn, that’s hard to say) between John Horgan and some other guy (sorry, “Some Other Guy”). Horgan is the guy who brought us The End of Science, a book which was more widely criticized than read. I haven’t read it either, but after watching him, I think I need to do a little reading. He’s a bright guy, and interesting to listen to, but as live chats often go, there were some errors that deserve parsing, not just because they are errors of fact, but because they reveal a certain disappointing line of thought.
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  • The Joys of the Skymall Catalog

    I just returned from a wonderful trip to Turkey and London, and the flight gave me the opportunity to spend hours with one of my favorite diversions, the Skymall Catalog. Admit it! You look at this thing full of wonders, and wonder who in the world buys them!

    i-49c0612e28d87b7ed4ef2006815eece3-bogus.jpgCheck out this whopper: the “Aculife Therapist Deluxe.” For a mere $179.95 you can “Help strengthen your health with the latest ancient technology.” Yes, the latest ancient technology!

    It continues: “Otzi, a 5,000 year old mummy found in the Alps during 1991, has spurred a whole new vigor into modern research of the Ancient Chinese medical practice of acupuncture. Recent examinations of the mummy found that Otzi has a number of tattoos that coincide with acupuncture points that would be used to treat various ailments from which he was suffering.” And Otzi was really sick! Looks like he needed help with “livers,” coffee-ground vomitus, and gynecological problems.

    So, what does this thing do? It, “send[s] a signal to the operator when a qi point that needed stimulation was touched and (2) could be switched to another setting that would pass a light electrical pulse into the point that required stimulation.”

    Brilliant! Sign me up.

  • Karadzic captured

    Radovan Karadzic, one of the worst mass-murders of the post-WWII era, has been captured, or, perhaps more properly, has been allowed to be captured. Karadzic was responsible for orchestrating the murders of tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslims during the Balkan Wars.
    i-9d0e3366dd520cbfbae38bea2aa3b1b9-rt_karadzic_080722_mn.jpg
    A close friend of my family grew up in a small Bosnian city during the war. She lived in basements, and came up dodging sniper fire and grenades only when they couldn’t wait any longer to find food and water. Her mother suffers osteoporosis from years of malnutrition. He brother-in-law died of complications of war wounds. Her father, now dead of other causes, was in his home village at the beginning of the war. The Serbian army came to the village and separated the women from the men and boys. He took off running behind the women and escaped into the woods, while all the remaining males were shot to death.

    The Balkan Wars and the genocides they produced are still an open wound in Europe, but Serbia is apparently ready to join the European community and finally allowed Karadzic to be arrested.

    Oh, and guess what he’s been up to…

    That’s right, he grew a beard and has been practicing alternative medicine. Draw your own conclusions.

  • Propaganda

    Here and in other venues, we’ve written quite a bit about the tactics used in the anti-vaccination movement (or as I like to call it, the “infectious disease promotion movement (IDPM)”). Let’s examine some less subtle tactics.
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  • Vaccination and morality

    Who has the moral high ground in the vaccination wars?

    My initial response is that I do, “I” meaning the medical and public health fields—those of us who prevent disease, disability, and death.

    But it’s much more complicated. Many anti-vaccine activists are “true believers”. They really believe that vaccines do more harm than good. But, without getting all Godwin, being a true believer doesn’t insulate one from moral responsibility.
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  • Where did we go wrong? Framing vaccination

    I’ve had a bit of writer’s block lately, but I’ve learned to take my own advice and just wait it out. And so I did. Then, today, I read Orac’s piece on framing the vaccine problem. It set my mind a-whirring, so I’ve put the coffee on, and I’m setting fingers to keyboard.

    I don’t care about the whole “framing science” thing. The systematic evaluation of science communication is too far outside my field. I am stuck being a “empiric framer.”

    (Jargon alert! Outside of the blogosphere, my communications are basically one-on-one, doctor and patient. My framing is the equivalent of a RCT n=1 trial—I get a chance to intervene with a single subject and evaluate the response, but I don’t get the chance to study larger sample sizes and do statistical analyses of my work. End jargon)

    The vaccine problem is currently an n=1 problem. Individual medical professionals work hard every day to educate individual patients. Decades ago, we didn’t need to convince anyone to get vaccinated—the need was so blindingly obvious that people lined up for their shots and prayed there would be enough to go around. Everyone saw polio, saw measles, saw people becoming disabled or dying from infectious diseases. Everyone watched as our public health improved with the wide-spread administration of vaccines. And now we are the victims of our own success—people don’t fear vaccine-preventable diseases because they no longer know them.
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  • The stupid continues at Channel 7

    Right now, I’m looking out my window to see the spreading pall of burning stupid rising over Channel 7’s tower in Southfield. And the stupid isn’t just for Steve Wilson anymore. What reporter Carolyn Clifford lacks in adiposity, she easily makes up for in credulity. Her “investigative report” tonight on the HPV vaccine Gardasil is another example of embarrassingly bad health reporting.

    A few preliminaries:

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