As much as 90% of physicians' medical knowledge has been found to be substantially or completely wrong |
"Wrong" by David Freeman is one of the more interesting books I have read in recent years.
I am drawing this to your attention now, just in case you are wondering how it is that esteemed health experts can make such bad decisions, like persuading governments to purchase billions of dollars of drugs that later turn out to be next to useless?
Could it really be that the expert advice years ago to fluoridate water is actually turning out to be wrong?
Could it be that some vaccines, like the pertussis vaccine, might actually be making people more vulnerable to catching hooping cough and more severely?
But don't take this from me; get it from the expert, David Freedman, read on and consider purchasing his book. By the way, I wonder how wrong he will turn out to be? We can't win!
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Time interview with David Freedman
To read the factoids David Freedman rattles off in his book Wrong is terrifying. He begins by writing that as much as 90% of physicians' medical knowledge has been found to be substantially or completely wrong About two-thirds of the findings published in the top medical journals are refuted within a few years. It gets worse.
As much as 90% of physicians' medical knowledge has been found to be substantially or completely wrong. In fact, there is a 1 in 12 chance that a doctor's diagnosis will be so wrong that it causes the patient significant harm. And it's not just medicine.
Economists have found that all studies published in economics journals are likely to be wrong. Professionally prepared tax returns are more likely to contain significant errors than self-prepared returns. Half of all newspaper articles contain at least one factual error.
So why, then, do we blindly follow experts? Freedman has an idea, which he elaborates on in his book
Wrong:
Wrong:
Why Experts Keep Failing Us — and How to Know When Not to Trust Them.
Freedman talked to TIME about why we believe experts, how to find good advice and why we should trust him — even though he's kind of an expert.
Read the full interview here:
http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1998644,00.html
http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1998644,00.html
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