Category Archives: Medicine
The USPSTF Recommends Biennial Mammograms for Women Starting at 40
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th May 2023The US Preventive Services Task Force has issued a new draft recommending biennial screening mammography for women ages 40 to 74 years. This recommendation has received widespread notice in the lay press. Workers in the field along with breast cancer advocates want even more (annual) screening. Everybody commenting on this recommendation seems to support it…
› Read the full entry
Prostate Cancer and the Federal Reserve
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 15th March 2023The two subjects of the above title seem to have little in common. But they are both examples of action unmoored from knowledge. If the scientific foundation of medicine is compared to that of economics, specifically the actions of the world’s central banks, the practitioners of the former are certainly closer to the dictates of…
› Read the full entry
Presidents Biden’s Annual Physical
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th February 2023President Biden just received his annual physical exam. Like everything else in today’s world the result was engulfed in political controversy. I do not want to do anything but state a few simple facts about the exam and its reception. The President is 80 years old, young by comparison to this author. Virtually all American…
› Read the full entry
Fauci Says Vaccines against Flu and COVID Work Poorly if at All
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 12th February 2023Rethinking next-generation vaccines for coronaviruses, influenzaviruses, and other respiratory viruses is a paper by Anthony Fauci and two colleagues. It examines the reasons that vaccines against flu and COVID don’t work very well. This is a startling statement after all the public and repeated admonitions from Dr Fauci that everyone be vaccinated repeatedly. The summary…
› Read the full entry
Cannabis and Cognition
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 6th February 2023In a world where reason has been suspended in favor of lunatic fads, the use of cannabis has gained more traction than a football field sized stretch of flypaper. It has been used for a variety of medical conditions such as nausea, as an appetite stimulus for patients with AIDS, and for pain relief. Twenty…
› Read the full entry
More on Masks For COVID and Flu
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 2nd February 2023The Cochrane Library just published an analysis of the effect of wearing mask, using N95 respirators, and hand washing on the spread of respiratory viruses like flu and COVID. Cochrane has long set the standard for data analysis. Their lay summary is below. The complete analysis can be viewed here. The response to the COVID…
› Read the full entry
Cancer Statistics 2023
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 16th January 2023At the start of every year the American Cancer Society issues the latest cancer statistics. This year the data were released in two publications, both of which are found at the end of this article. Some of the salient features of the data are discussed below. I’ll start with prostate cancer which seems to eternally…
› Read the full entry
Prescription Opioids and Death
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 8th January 2023Effect of Prescriber Notifications of Patient’s Fatal Overdose on Opioid Prescribing at 4 to 12 Months is the title of a short paper on the JAMA Open Network. It describes what happens when a physician or physician extender receives a letter from the county medical examiner informing him that his patients has died from an…
› Read the full entry
Damar Hamlin and Commotio Cordis
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd January 2023Buffalo Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin collapsed last night after making a tackle during the Monday night football game. He is said to have suffered a cardiac arrest and is hospitalized in critical condition. All I have to go on are the press reports and the video of the event. Look at it below and…
› Read the full entry
National Health Service in Trouble – Again
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 16th December 2022The UK’s NHS is now hit with a nurses strike, though only for a day. The nurses say they are overworked and underpaid. They are. They want an increase in pay of 5% above inflation. That works out to 15.7%. The independent pay board which sets their salary recommended a 4% increase. The nurses’ pay…
› Read the full entry
