A Sick and Unproductive America: The New Norm
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is defined as “the monetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a specific time period.” It is a “broad measurement of a nation’s overall economic activity.” In the past decade, economic growth in the United States—as reflected by GDP—has risen as high as 2.7% in 2006 and dropped to as…
Birth of the Zika Industry
It doesn’t take much to create a new industry. Basically, all you need to do is create fear. Create a threat, an enemy, and then offer a solution to eliminating that threat and vanquishing the enemy, and… voilà, you have the beginnings of an industry. It doesn’t matter if any of it is true. You have the essentials of what is required to give birth to an industry and, eventually, a market.
“Consult Your Doctor” on Vaccines?
There exists a general belief among the public that medical doctors are “experts” with regard to vaccines. Newspaper and magazine articles and medical and public health websites frequently advise that, when it comes to vaccination, people should “consult your doctor.” The counsel is the equivalent of the “ask your doctor” to which TV viewers have grown accustomed to hearing…
Study: Medical Error is the Third Leading Cause of Death in the U.S.
Medical error is the third leading cause of death in the United States, according to a new study published in the medical journal BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal). The study, co-authored by Martin Makary, MD, professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and research fellow Michael Daniel, also of Johns Hopkins, defines medical error error…
America’s Own Overlooked Microcephaly Epidemic
Now that U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials have concluded that, without a doubt, the Zika virus is the cause of microcephaly,1 it appears they have created a permanent synonymous bond between the virus and the birth defect. When someone sees a baby with a smaller than normal head size, they will likely immediately think, “Oh, look at that poor…
How Conflicts of Interest Have Corrupted the CDC
Conflicts of interest have become more the rule than the occasional exception. Even the trusted US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) receives heavy funding from industry. How this conflict of interest may have affected the organization’s decisions is the topic of an article in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), penned by the journal’s associate editor, Jeanne…