Category Archives: Medicine
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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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The Science Deniers at the New England Journal of Medicine
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd December 2022[This article appeared today in American Greatness.] The New England Journal of Medicine has published Protecting Transgender Health and Challenging Science Denialism in Policy. It is the latest example of using denialism to denigrate any opinion contrary to that of the latest set of experts to claim sovereignty over a controversial subject. The technique is…
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Why Do COVID Vaccines Fail?
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 2nd December 2022It is now obvious that the COVID vaccines now routinely administered to just about everybody willing to take them has not stopped infection by and spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Data from the CDC show that deaths from the virus occur more often in vaccinated subjects than in those that have not received the vaccine….
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Lowest US Life Expectancy Since 1996
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 12th October 2022Life expectancy dropped by 3 years for US men and 2.3 years for US women between 2019 and 2021, according to provisional life expectancy data from the National Center for Health Statistics. During this period, US life expectancy dropped to about 73 years for men and to about 79 years for women, the lowest levels since 1996….
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Heather Mac Donald on Medicine
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 7th August 2022The outstanding public intellectual, Heather Mac Donald has written a penetrating analysis of the current state of medical education, practice criteria, and organizational structure. Appropriately called the Corruption of Medicine, it details the horrible pit the profession has thrown itself into. Gone is first do no harm. In its place is the patient be damned…
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Y Chromosome Loss and Heart Disease
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 16th July 2022Below is a release from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It summarizes a study published in the AAAS’s journal Science. It deals with the previous observation that loss the the Y chromosome in white blood cells with an increase in cardiovascular disease and death. Whether this loss of the male sex chromosome…
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