There is a great quote by Milton Friedman which says “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results”. The same can be said of medical interventions. We are constantly told of the crisis in mental health and...
In 2015, I wrote “It is amazing that anyone is left alive and that life expectancy continues to increase. Some 984 substances have been categorized by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (a WHO subsidiary), in order of carcinogenicity. Only one was found...
The much-anticipated House of Representatives committee report on e-cigarettes and personal vaporisers – in other words, vaping – was tabled on March 28, 2018. Very predictably, the majority of MPs came down in favour of the status quo: we don’t know the long-term...
In the Orwell classic Animal farm there was a binary notion that the animals lived by – “four legs good, two legs bad”. This eventually morphed into “four legs good, two legs better” as the pigs who became the lead animals began walking on two legs like the evil...
Like most blogs this one is written a day or two before it is posted. Generally, one does not expect massive change in the interim. But apparently a killer flu could sweep through the world tomorrow. This prediction has come from the usual public health suspects and...
Most successful changes in societies have come from community initiatives or individual brilliance. Top down government impose ideas generally fail to work. History, both ancient and recent has shown us this. The smart phone was not a government initiative neither was...
