Myth Making and Health: New York’s Health Commissioner Will Head CDC
New York’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas Frieden, will be leaving town to become director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Frieden tried hard to reconfigure the...
View ArticlePublic Health and Purity
A week ago, we rode by bus nearly the full length of the old land of Galicia, from L’viv in Ukraine to Kraków, Poland. Our one long stop was at Belzec, where a moving memorial, the creation of...
View ArticleNew Fronts in the War Against the Fat
We thought that American hysteria over obesity was nonpareil, but British anti-fat warriors seem to be giving the American crusaders a run for their money. Back in April, a fast-food establishment in...
View ArticleThe Preacher at CDC
Just weeks into his tenure as CDC Director, Dr. Thomas Frieden is already preaching moral improvement to the American public. Yesterday, according to an Associate Press report, Frieden sermonized that...
View ArticleFear and Flu
Kudos to Revere, for two enlightening posts on flu — which bear on an important issue in the health realm today. Last Tuesday, a post by Revere at Effect Measure highlighted the effect that cultural...
View ArticleMedicine and Magic
In his post at The Atlantic yesterday, Abraham Verghese made the case that magical thinking is a powerful driver of debates over health and health care. “We all want to believe that a pill or potion...
View ArticleQuestions on World AIDS Day
Today is World AIDS Day. After thirty years, 25 million deaths, and countless articles, books, press releases, TV and radio programs, fundraisers, AIDS walks, and messages from Bono – there’s still...
View ArticleNew Year’s Wishes for Public Health
May 2010 be the year when health officials return to the business of alleviating suffering and stop promoting panic. (Don’t miss Nathalie Rothschild’s “Ten Years of Fear” in Spiked!’s Farewell to the...
View ArticleA Must-Read Book
I urge you to stop what you’re doing and read Rebecca Skloot‘s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Crown, 2010). It’s a rare combination: clear reporting on how medical science works, insightful...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Public Health: Childhood is a Dangerous Place
Is there a Department of Scare Creation at Case Western? This week, we have research reported by their Dr. Scott Frank and colleagues: “Hyper-texting and Hyper-networking Pose New Health Risks for...
View ArticleThe Myth of Normal Weight
Don’t miss Paul Campos’s commentary on overweight and obesity in today’s NYT. Responding to the latest report by Katherine Flegal of CDC and coworkers, Campos points out that If the government were to...
View ArticleAgainst Universal Flu Immunization
In a strong piece at CNN online yesterday, Jen Christensen points out that no European countries expect the entire population to be immunized against flu — unlike the US, where everyone over the age of...
View Article
