David’s blog

Study 329 is the most famous clinical trial of all time – see Study329.org.  The only trial with two diametrically competing versions of what happened in print at the same time. 329 (March 29) was the date Britain was supposed to leave the European Union – but didn’t – with close to GUBU consequences. And […]

Recap When it comes to assessing the benefits of drugs randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are over-rated, rarely if ever objective, and easily gamed.  If you don’t know what you are doing to begin with, RCTs won’t find an answer and in practice will make the situation worse.  The operationalism of RCTs helped tee up a […]

This continues a Something Happened Series, A Western moral order fractured between Luther’s nailing of his Credo Ergo Sum, I believe therefore I am, to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral in 1517, and Descartes’ Cogito Ergo Sum, I reason therefore I am, in 1649 the year of Charles I’s decapitation. Justice Justice and benevolence were […]

Editorial Note: This post will be an easy and obvious read if you’re Irish.  If you’re not, with Google or whatever it should be accessible and indeed the little bit of extra effort may make it a more rewarding read.  There is a warning below in respect of one item you might choose to Google. […]

The picture shows Franz Mesmer magnetising a patient.  In between his hands and her head and heart there is a set of little slivers of  metal, capable of being magnetised – shown by the fact they are all lined up the same way.  The therapist was able to influence magnetic fields and could realign bits […]

Jose Mario Bergoglio in Chile 2018: To believe in us you have to have Faith, but for me to believe in you you have to bring me proof Over 150 years ago, describing most of the medicines then available as junk, Oliver Wendell Holmes came up with one of the most famous phrases about medical […]

January 28 2019. Open letter to David Haslam, NICE Dear David, Our paths nearly crossed at an IAPT meeting in London in 2016 but you opted not to speak in a session that had me covering “Some Questions for NICE” – a lecture covering issues that have given rise to this letter. We brushed by […]

The recent moral panic around the Death of MR and the involvement of Instagram and Facebook in her death and maybe that of others is intriguing. Worthy of John Le Carre – at his Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy best. This may be a cynical attempt by the old media – the BBC or NBC, the […]

Dead Contact Following last week’s post Are Old or New Media to Blame for Suicide, I had the following email from papyrus: Ged.Flynn@papyrus.co.uk David I’d be happy to have a discussion with you. Perhaps you could contact me. Many thanks Ged Ged is apparently a little more senior within the organisation than Chris. Ged you can […]

Your Worst Horror The week of January 22 to 27 a series of stories of the death of a 14 year old young woman (MR) horrified many people in Britain.  This was first item on the BBC news for several days and on the front page of newspapers like the Guardian pushing Brexit, the US […]

Fifty years ago today, January 19, Jan Palach died.  He had set fire to himself 3 days earlier in Wenceslas Square in Prague in protest against the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia. The spot was close to Charles University where Jan Hus had begun a resistance to religious oppression 5 centuries before that helped ignite the […]

There has been increasing brouhaha about Fake News of late. In the general media, Facebook are apparently going to introduce panels of reviewers to take down posts that contain fake material. In the academic media, doctors are told not to believe what they hear in the media about the adverse effects of drugs – See […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]