Displaying comments 1 to 50 of 518
MeFi post:
McCain Joins The Anti-Science Anti-Vaccine Crusade
Nothing was recalled. Kids were still being poisoned for several years after.
The study considered this, taking into consideration that in 2004, the flu shot began being recommended to infants and toddlers.
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 8:35 AM on March 6, 2008
Drop it, Feisty. Every parent feeding their kid tuna is thereby "poisoning" their children.
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 8:43 AM on March 6, 2008
MeFi post:
let's talk about pelvic exams
“How DO male doctors feel when they do a pelvic exam?”
It's kind of awkward at first, but as docpops said, once you've seen one, you've seen... most of them. I usually just worry that I'm not going to be able to find the cervix. I certainly warn all my patients the exam will be uncomfortable, but shouldn't hurt.
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 1:11 PM on March 4, 2008
MeFi post:
Pixish Tantamount to Spec Work?
Hi, poor grad student computer nerd web designer amateur photographer here! Thank you for Pixish, Derek!
I'm sorry to all the master web designers out there that make their living doing web design, or photographers who make their living doing photography. From the first minute I read about Pixish, I liked it. It's not for you. It's for me.
$120,000 of grad school debt, and yes, it's nice to have a little extra spending money to eat a nice... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 9:54 PM on February 12, 2008
MeFi post:
Kurt Vonnegut Dies at 84
No one has mentioned my favorite Vonnegut quote, which pretty much sums up the way I try to live my life:
"We are here to help each other through this thing, whatever it is."
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 10:00 AM on April 12, 2007
And if you've never read "God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian," by Vonnegut, it's an absolutely beautiful little thing, requiring no more than 20 minutes of your time.
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 10:03 AM on April 12, 2007
MeFi post:
Muslim UCLA student tasered for not having ID
There was apparently a study in the Lancet in 01 that showed that some tasers can incapacitate people for 5-15 minutes, so when they're yelling "Get up or we're going to taser you again!" it's quite possible that he couldn't.
Sick.
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 8:57 AM on November 16, 2006
Was just going to post this, ericb. While rare, if you strike someone with a taser that truly didn't need it (like this case), and they happen to have an arrhythmia (or genetic condition predisposing them to arrhythmias), you can kill them. People should be taking this into consideration when using these damn things.
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 4:14 PM on November 16, 2006
MeFi post:
Doctor Bloggy, please report to the nurses station
Thanks for the link, mathowie. If you're interested in health care blogs, there's Medlogs which links a TON of healt-related blogging: docs, nurses, med students, patients, etc.
We also have a weekly Grand Rounds, which features our self-reported best-of-the-week's postings. It's due to come out tomorrow, at Anxiety, Addiction and Depression Treatments. If health policy is more your style, there's now a health policy weekly as well.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 5:43 PM on April 10, 2006
MeFi post:
Kobayashi Maru, what do you do?
Nice FPP. I had forgotten the Heinz dilemma.
Taiwan is synthesizing a vaccine
It's an anti-viral drug (Tamiflu, aka Oseltamivir), just so we're clear. There's no H5N1 (bird flu) effective vaccine yet.
And Roche, the company with the patent, only has one factory in the *world* that can make the stuff. According to them, it's very difficult to synthesize, and only recently (last 2 weeks) did they agree... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 9:56 PM on October 22, 2005
At least Taiwan has some form of national health insurance, so they probably already buy in bulk from the drug companies to get a better deal. In the US, the VA does that, but Medicare is now strictly forbidden from doing that (thanks to the new Medical drug "benefit").
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 10:14 PM on October 22, 2005
MeFi post:
Cameron: "Death activists" are "weakening the U.S."
If I may interupt for a second: the article's title may help us out here: "Beliefs drive research agenda of new think tanks."
Dr. Cameron puts out shitty "research" (if you can even call it that), publishes it in a shitty "peer-reviewed journal" (if you can even call it that) to try to make anti-gay arguments from a "scientific" perspective.
His work is completely deceptive--poor studies, published in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 10:26 AM on July 31, 2005
MeFi post:
Superbug or symbol?
AR--is the Bush anti-condom message really the main problem here? In no way do I support it, and maybe I just have a skewed perspective, but do gay men (or gay teens, or teens in general) really not know about condoms, or aren't using condoms because of the Bush agenda? I just don't think that's the case. No, all sexually active gays shouldn't be blamed for the increased numbers, but shouldn't the barebacking speed-using ones?
docgonzo--I'm very curious to read the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 9:03 PM on March 17, 2005
I agree that the Bush agenda is damning Africa; I need a little more evidence that it's damning the US in regard to MSM HIV infections.
AR:
* MSM are still the #1 group dying from AIDS in the US. Straight black women are #1 in becoming infected with HIV.
* I don't think the media or big pharma should be promoting HIV/AIDS as a treatable disease, but for some today, it is, if you have good health insurance and access to meds... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 9:32 PM on March 17, 2005
MeFi post:
Bell Curve for Doctors
If we had a national health insurance system, we'd be able to collect massive amounts of data on physician performance, and let physicians know where they're below average, and where they're currently doing great. Medicare just started releasing data for hospitals, and hospitals are starting to improve.
We'd also be able to get a handle on regional variations in health and health disparities, and handle fraud more effectively, too.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 11:16 PM on December 27, 2004
MeFi post:
Ok now.
Love this thing. I think it's been on MeFi before though.
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 10:24 PM on December 8, 2004
MeFi post:
This TB is whipping me.
There appears to be good news on the TB vaccine front.
Almost all regimens now use more than one drug--usally a combo of INH (isoniazid, which does have serious side effects, even if they're asymptomatic) and Rifampin, which makes your pee, tears, and other body fluids orange. PZA is also commonly included in the regimen. TB is a tough bug to get rid of, so you *have* to stay on the meds for the entire time. DOT (Directly-observed therapy) is the common standard now, to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 8:58 AM on December 2, 2004
MeFi post:
Bring out your dead!
Well, if you consider that one of the most interesting aspects of this virus is its impressive mutation rate, I can't imagine that the vaccine would be all too helpful once it hit the human population in a big way.
The WHO is worried about H5N1's ability to mutate, and to do so damned quickly. They're also worried about H7N7's high pathogenicity. So we have two different mutant strains with two abilities that would essentially shut things down should one... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 7:54 AM on December 1, 2004
MeFi post:
Change Me
To throw some medical knowledge here: the pediatricians have no problem with gays adopting, and the psychiatrists deny any scientific evidence that "conversion therapy" actually works.
You're completely wrong about transgender(ed) people, aeschenkarnos. There are very few medical treatments that provide an almost 100% cure rate like hormone or gender reassignment therapy. If you were born phenotypically/sexually male, but feel that your gender is female, I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 8:10 PM on November 26, 2004
MeFi post:
Who benefits from tort reform?
Most people that actually have a medical error don't sue; only 1 in 10 do, or a similarly low number.
Also, in the US, people are more likely to sue, because we don't have any guaranteed health insurance in this country, and we're the only place in the world that has "pre-existing conditions." If the parent of a child with a syndrome or disease loses his or her health insurance, the child loses coverage, too.
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 7:00 PM on November 24, 2004
MeFi post:
Google scholarly literature search
I'll stick with my PubMed and MeSH until they have bookmarking and exporting. The link directly to the journal is nice, but it's just a google search with different meta-data shown, no?
They've been indexing PubMed for a long time; this doesn't seem that revolutionary.
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 8:28 AM on November 18, 2004
MeFi post:
I seen more than one cop like to crap his pants.
He's incredibly funny. Used to listen to his show when it was free online--helped me de-stress studying one summer for the MCATs. He's turned a little creepy lately with his pro-Iraq war paranoia apparently... haven't listened to him in quite awhile.
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 1:20 AM on October 22, 2004
MeFi post:
tell me about your drugs
I work with Patient Assistance Programs at a local community health center, and if you're low-income, Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefits manager (read: middleman from HMOs to pharmacies) just launched a new program to provide a number of meds at $48/yr. It's called RxOutreach.
The PAPs for all the drug manufacturers, as well as their qualification guidelines, can be found at RxAssist.
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 1:46 PM on August 18, 2004
MeFi post:
craigsbay?
Doesn't it still hold that whoever has majority holdings in the corporation gets to decide how it's run?
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 4:02 PM on August 13, 2004
MeFi post:
The Shark in the Free Care Pool
Good for Massachusetts. More people should realize that we're already paying for everyone's health care, just not very efficiently. (And businesses need to realize that if we're going to have an employer-based system, and some employers don't pay for it, those that offer it are essentially subsidizing the ones that don't.)
Also interesting: a Business Week article claiming that CostCo's practices (paying workers more, offering health benefits) make it more profitable.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 3:54 PM on August 6, 2004
caddis: that's what SB 2 does in California, more or less.
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 5:36 PM on August 6, 2004
MeFi post:
Medicines backlash
Nice knee-jerk reaction, tryp, and uniformed lead, nandop. This has nothing to do with the British Health Service specifically. It's mostly NSAIDs, diuretics, and anti-coagulants, causing people to bleed out. NSAIDs are known to irritate the stomach lining, anti-coagulants make clotting more difficult, and diuretics are known to cause problems with sulfa allergies.
And in this great ol' country I call home, with its capitalist, corporate system, some estimates are 106,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 6:15 PM on July 1, 2004
I'm glad you've never done anything risky in your life, tryp, like riding a bike without a helmet, or not wearing sunscreen.
Fact is, we all die of something, and not long ago the two major killers were infectious diseases that, thanks to The Man's public health infrastructure, policies, and spending, we've virtually eliminated.
I'd make some arguments about why we have so much heart disease in this country, but that's for another day.
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 6:40 PM on July 1, 2004
tryp: Unless you're planning a DNR if you collapse on the ground from shortness of breath, or you'll never see a doctor about the awful symptoms of emphysema, chronic bronchitis, or lung cancer, we're all going to end up paying for your health care in one way or another. God forbid The Man encourages healthy behaviors and lifestyles with policies or regulations. That's socialism! (But would save you money in the long run.)
Full disclosure: people without health insurance... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 6:48 PM on July 1, 2004
I think that's a valid difference, tryp, but we all pay for and use certain services: roads, fire, police protection, college loans, libraries, CDC statistics that tell us what the top two causes of death in the US are.
If the government hadn't been established to provide the general welfare--that's a different story. But it was founded to do just that, and therefore, it needs money to do so. As citizens, we have all inherently agreed to that, by accepting our constitution, no?
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 7:42 PM on July 1, 2004
What went wrong was World War 2 (the Hitler segue!). Wage freezes causes companies to look for other ways to competively attract workers, so they started offering health benefits. HMOs that do not provide actual services are essentially gigantic middlemen; huge bureacratic wastes.
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 8:00 PM on July 1, 2004
MeFi post:
The End is at 2 o'clock
Playing devil's advocate for daveg: It could just be that sharks have developed strong anti-neoplastic immune systems; fathering of children by older men are more likely to have genetic defects that those by younger men.
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 4:57 PM on June 6, 2004
MeFi post:
The Way the Music Died
I watched this online last night. Great piece, really liked the history of the music biz, and what the CD boom did to profit margins and income expectations.
posted to MetaFilter by gramcracker
at 3:37 PM on May 30, 2004
