In Part I, we discussed in general terms some of the shortcomings I encountered in many of the grant proposals submitted during my stint as a grant reviewer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) in the years 2002-2004.[6] There is no reason to believe that […]
Public health, social science, and the scientific method (Part II) Read More »
In Part I of this article, Politics or Science, we made some preliminary observations regarding the Harvard School of Public Health study published in the February 2002 issue of the Journal of Trauma.(1) The Violence Policy Center (VPC) has been lauding the study as “the most comprehensive study ever conducted on impact of gun availability.”
“There is a worrying trend in academic medicine which equates statistics with science, and sophistication in quantitative procedure with research excellence. The corollary of this trend is a tendency to look for answers to medical problems from people with expertise in mathematical manipulation and information technology, rather than from people with an understanding of disease
As a physician, I have always been a staunch supporter of public health in its traditional role of fighting pestilential diseases and promoting health by educating the public as to hygiene, sanitation, and preventable diseases, as alluded to in my book, Vandals at the Gates of Medicine; but I deeply resent the workings of that
The Perversion of Science and Medicine (Part IV): The Battle Continues Read More »
The 1991 American Medical Association (AMA) campaign against domestic violence (and towards gun control) launched for public relations and media consumption went hand in hand with a previously articulated (1979) U.S. Public Health Service objective of complete eradication of handguns in America, beginning with a 25% reduction in the national inventory by the year 2000!(1)
The lessons of history clearly demonstrate to those of us who care to look that whenever science and medicine have come to be under the heavy hand of government, political pressures, or subordinated to the state, the results have been as perverse as they have been disastrous. Towards this end, I would like to share
The Perversion of Science and Medicine (Part II): Soviet Science and Gun Control Read More »
