Seven weeks ago in the wake of Peter Gøtzsche’s dismissal by the Rigshospitalitet, I wrote to Ellen Trane Nørby the Danish Minister for Health. The letter is HERE. She replied on December 11 - See HERE. The response below was sent yesterday, along with the hard copies noted and link to the Welsh Senate proceedings. December 17th 2018 Ellen Trane Nørby Minister of … [Read more...] about A strong and independent research community to the benefit of… patients.
Uninvited Guests
This post is a break in the usual coverage but the contents are just so good they demand to be shared. Uninvited Guests is a brief video produced by Superflux. Superflux have worked and work closely with many of the people that readers of this post are likely to be wary of if not downright hostile to including the United Arab Emirates, the Cabinet Office in the UK, Innovate … [Read more...] about Uninvited Guests
She’s Caught My Virus & I’ve Caught Hers
This post clearly links to last weeks I've Caught Her Virus. Following the Panorama program Chris Exley wrote to the BBC. The correspondence is here and elsewhere on the net - notably Age of Autism. Annie has commented about a Lancet article by Heidi Larsson on the virus of misinformation about vaccines. This makes media references to Fake News and Viruses look … [Read more...] about She’s Caught My Virus & I’ve Caught Hers
I’ve Caught Her Virus & She’s Caught Mine
My Virus Writing Pharmageddon in 2008 - 4 years before it was published, I described the effects of a virus which is destroying medicine - a clinical immuno-deficiency virus. In this domain there is another factor not found with tobacco or industrial chemicals that isolates doctors who attempt to bring the hazards of a drug to light. The problem is that the medical body has … [Read more...] about I’ve Caught Her Virus & She’s Caught Mine
The Goetzsche Affair
In recent years under Amar Jesani the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics has emerged as one of the few venues willing to engage with pressing bioethical issues without fear of whether pharmaceutical companies or governments might be offended. Amar approached me a week ago to comment on the Goetzsche Affair. I borrowed a phrase invented by Tim Moss - Evidence Debased Medicine … [Read more...] about The Goetzsche Affair
Khashoggi and Pandemrix
Editorial Note: The image that was here will be repeated and explained next week Who will Rid me of ... Events from Washington to London and elsewhere surrounding the gruesome death of Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of the Saudi hierarchy link well with the difficulties everyone of us has when things go wrong on a medicine or after a vaccine. The Saudi "who us?" fell apart … [Read more...] about Khashoggi and Pandemrix
Pandora: Dos Centavos
The recent US Supreme Court approval process for Brett Kavanaugh opened the lid of an earthenware vase marked Trust, when Christine Blasey-Ford stepped forward and said she had been abused by him. The hearings were dramatic. Other dramas never came into the frame. Dr Blasey-Ford had previously been engaged in medical research linked to figures like Alan Schatzberg and … [Read more...] about Pandora: Dos Centavos
Cochrexit?
Editorial: There were no plans to write a part 5 to a 4-part series but this account by David Hammerstein, a Cochrane board member, clamors to be spread. One more point to mention is if what Cochrane is doing now is junk, then the NICE and all other guidelines are also junk. So there is a lot riding on this clash. Cochrexit refers to the fact this is a curiously British … [Read more...] about Cochrexit?
Cochrane: Collaboration or Cult?
Editorial Note: This is the fourth in a sequence of posts on the possible disintegration of the Cochrane enterprise. The most recent being the Valley of Death. Archie Cochrane was one of a group of British doctors who came back from World War II committed to social medicine, some of whom like Richard Doll, who with Tony Hill put the link between smoking and lung cancer on … [Read more...] about Cochrane: Collaboration or Cult?
The Valley of Death
Editorial: Part 3 of this Cochrane sequence follows on from last week's Data Based Medicine. While the histories of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) celebrate a first use of randomization in 1947, and there was some use of RCTs, primarily in mental health, in the mid-1950s, RCTs were a minority interest until 1962 and might have remained so, never giving rise to Evidence … [Read more...] about The Valley of Death