Thursday, December 30, 2004
Good liability reform link
Just got a copy of American Medical News with an article about Tort Reform, Expert Witnesses, etc. A friend of mine, a lawyer, once told me in an unguarded moment that "there is no smellier swamp than the expert witness system." I found a link to tort reform/liability crisis issues that is here.
And in case I haven't posted it here yet, my father tells me that liability reform is needed in places other than medicine. The Vioxx thing is going to be a nightmare--the sharks are circling and there will be a multibillion dollar feeding frenzy.
For those of you who do not know, ALL drugs have side effects. Just look through a PDR. Would you like to ban penicillin because a small number of patients have bad allergic reactions? Would you like to ban aspirin because if you give it to a child after a cold, they might get Reye's syndrome and die of liver failure? NO drug is absolutely safe. Merck did a good job of handling Vioxx, although frankly I wish it was still on the market. It is a highly effective pain medication, which causes less stomach upset than aspirin or ibuprofen and does a good job with postsurgical pain. I understand their decision to pull it but wonder if by doing so juries will interpret that as some kind of admission of guilt and punish them. What a shame.
And in case I haven't posted it here yet, my father tells me that liability reform is needed in places other than medicine. The Vioxx thing is going to be a nightmare--the sharks are circling and there will be a multibillion dollar feeding frenzy.
For those of you who do not know, ALL drugs have side effects. Just look through a PDR. Would you like to ban penicillin because a small number of patients have bad allergic reactions? Would you like to ban aspirin because if you give it to a child after a cold, they might get Reye's syndrome and die of liver failure? NO drug is absolutely safe. Merck did a good job of handling Vioxx, although frankly I wish it was still on the market. It is a highly effective pain medication, which causes less stomach upset than aspirin or ibuprofen and does a good job with postsurgical pain. I understand their decision to pull it but wonder if by doing so juries will interpret that as some kind of admission of guilt and punish them. What a shame.
Tsunami relief
Isn't it amazing? When we in the US have a natural disaster, there are six deaths and a special interest story about the rescue of a family pet. When there is a natural disaster in India or Southeast Asia, the deaths number in the tens of thousands immediately, with who knows how many from Cholera, Typhoid, malnutrition, etc.
What do we do? We can contribute to relief organizations. Hugh Hewitt has links to World Vision, which is a good group. A physician I know has worked with World Relief and has good things to say about them as well.
Consider it! We in the United States are blessed beyond all imagining. We are well taken care of. It's the right thing to do.
And in keeping with the Right Wing nature of this board, please consider how it looks to the rest of the world when armies of Americans contribute vast sums to helping...muslims and hindus and animists and buddhists. Also if you do it quick you can get a tax deduction!
What do we do? We can contribute to relief organizations. Hugh Hewitt has links to World Vision, which is a good group. A physician I know has worked with World Relief and has good things to say about them as well.
Consider it! We in the United States are blessed beyond all imagining. We are well taken care of. It's the right thing to do.
And in keeping with the Right Wing nature of this board, please consider how it looks to the rest of the world when armies of Americans contribute vast sums to helping...muslims and hindus and animists and buddhists. Also if you do it quick you can get a tax deduction!
Monday, December 27, 2004
War coverage by press and blogs
Unless you are totally indoctrinated, it's fairly obvious that press coverage of the war in Iraq is, shall we say, slanted. Here is a nice example. A terrorist walks into a tent and detonates himself, killing and wounding Americans. The doctors, nurses, and other Americans and Iraqi's work themselves to exhaustion helping their fellows. The army sends out a press release about the heroics of our docs and almost nobody picks it up...not interested.
It's hard not to ask questions like, "what does our press WANT to happen in Iraq?" I think, frankly, that a significant number of them want Iraq to fall back into chaos or totalitarianism. Bush being proven right is so abhorrent to some of them that they would be willing to have women enslaved again, children killed in front of their parents, and "insurgents" (why don't they EVER call them "terrorists?") ruling the streets.
Here's another question. What have you heard from Afganistan? Remember them? They had national elections a couple of years after the Taliban butchers were running things? The Taliban that forced women to walk around in tents with slits for their eyes? The Taliban that destroyed irreplaceable works of Buddhist art? There should have been feminists cheering in the streets. There should have been big coverage of the first elections in that war-ravaged country's history. But, that might have made Bush look good, you know, and that's really the only important factor...
It's hard not to ask questions like, "what does our press WANT to happen in Iraq?" I think, frankly, that a significant number of them want Iraq to fall back into chaos or totalitarianism. Bush being proven right is so abhorrent to some of them that they would be willing to have women enslaved again, children killed in front of their parents, and "insurgents" (why don't they EVER call them "terrorists?") ruling the streets.
Here's another question. What have you heard from Afganistan? Remember them? They had national elections a couple of years after the Taliban butchers were running things? The Taliban that forced women to walk around in tents with slits for their eyes? The Taliban that destroyed irreplaceable works of Buddhist art? There should have been feminists cheering in the streets. There should have been big coverage of the first elections in that war-ravaged country's history. But, that might have made Bush look good, you know, and that's really the only important factor...
