Author: Harold Pollack
Harold Pollack is Helen Ross Professor of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. He has served on three expert committees of the National Academies of Science. His recent research appears in such journals as Addiction, Journal of the American Medical Association, and American Journal of Public Health. He writes regularly on HIV prevention, crime and drug policy, health reform, and disability policy for American Prospect, tnr.com, and other news outlets. His essay, "Lessons from an Emergency Room Nightmare" was selected for the collection The Best American Medical Writing, 2009. He recently participated, with zero critical acclaim, in the University of Chicago's annual Latke-Hamentaschen debate. View all posts by Harold Pollack
Hey! Unfair to aspirin! The claim that it prevents cancer rests on real evidence, with large double-blind trials professionally evaluated using severe tests of statistical significance. Here's the bio of Professor Peter Rothwell at Oxford, lead author of the meta-analysis: does he look like a charlatan to you? Also, since the patent ran out in 1922 or thereabouts, only trivial efforts are devoted by manufacturers to its marketing. So in this one case, Dr.Oz performed a public service. See also: diurnal accuracy of stopped clocks; cruelty to animals and harms of tobacco, views of Heinrich Himmler on.
John Oliver is probably the best journalist on the mass media today. He's taken things like net neutrality, and explained it in five minutes, in an entertaining fashion.
I love John Oliver. Thank you Harold!
Best,
D
Question: is there a systematic way to track the political inclinations of web sites which are linking to this video clip? I see a few liberal sites linking to it, but I wonder how many conservative sites are doing the same. Even the HuffPo, which regularly gives space to questionable medicine, is providing a link.
Thou art a scholar, Harold. Do you happen to know how to figure this kind of thing out?
And that's not all. We need people to stop doing stupid sh*t like putting tiny plastic beads in the freaking cosmetics. I'm not Einstein and even I knew that was a dumb idea the first time I heard it.
So, if there are any whackjob libbietarians here, what you might want to do is, try and get some form of social control over this stuff, because otherwise it's going to be … more regulations. *All* laws come from people doing stupid sh*t. If people did fewer stupid things, we wouldn't need all these regs. We have too much freedom here. There, I said it. (Notwithstanding our little problem of creeping fascism … ahem).
So nutritional supplement companies give campaign contributions to Harkin and Hatch, and then they advocate legislation favoring those companies. But wait, I thought ingratiation and access weren't corruption?