Ok, Downton Abbey fans, one of the surprising moments to me was the moment when *someone* was dying (I don’t know - maybe you haven’t seen it and still want to?) and a character declares, how can that be? It’s the 20th, for crying out loud! Or something to that effect. As in, everyone thinks they’re so evolved that they KNOW. We should be immortal by now, right??
A lethal dose of aluminum is safe for babies, right? As long as you don’t inject their brains. It’s totally fine. It doesn’t travel anywhere else in the body. Right???
My father-in-law was a microbiologist in a lab in CA for decades. He recently retired. He said to me very recently, the secret is, we really KNOW NOTHING.
But sure, let’s pretend we do and squash open debate and innovation. It’s just people’s lives we’re dealing with. (It’s why some of us have exhausted the medical system and have turned to, say, homeopathy for help. And surprise, surprise, the homeopath is the only one to make some headway on complicated issues. As if humans have been around for millennia and not brand new creatures as of the year 2000.)
My uncle, a surgeon, a couple of years before his death at 90 years old: “Out pharmacology is so advanced and our understanding of health and disease so minuscule that I can more readily poison my patients than help them.”
And he had stopped practicing more than a decade before his death a decade ago. Imagine the situation now! The only thing to do is avoid disease and avoid them and their prescriptions when you come down with something.
[SPOILER ALERT] Yeah, that was a sad scene. Lady Sybil dying in childbirth, IINM. She didn't need to die, but the doctor's complete and absolute hubris is really what killed her.
Haha - I know, but still. The story of Philip Semmelweiss still blows my mind. How he knew what was causing puerperal fever in new mothers (as in, caused by the doctor) and was totally scorned for the VERY IDEA that doctors could be causing harm. How many mothers died? Infants left without mothers and families left destabilized because doctors literally thought they could do no wrong?
I was once in the position to train doctors. It breaks down that 30% truly have a calling. 65% or so are doing it for the paycheck and lifestyle. The other 5 percent or so are effing narcissists and psychopaths. Make of that what one will.
Ok, Downton Abbey fans, one of the surprising moments to me was the moment when *someone* was dying (I don’t know - maybe you haven’t seen it and still want to?) and a character declares, how can that be? It’s the 20th, for crying out loud! Or something to that effect. As in, everyone thinks they’re so evolved that they KNOW. We should be immortal by now, right??
A lethal dose of aluminum is safe for babies, right? As long as you don’t inject their brains. It’s totally fine. It doesn’t travel anywhere else in the body. Right???
My father-in-law was a microbiologist in a lab in CA for decades. He recently retired. He said to me very recently, the secret is, we really KNOW NOTHING.
But sure, let’s pretend we do and squash open debate and innovation. It’s just people’s lives we’re dealing with. (It’s why some of us have exhausted the medical system and have turned to, say, homeopathy for help. And surprise, surprise, the homeopath is the only one to make some headway on complicated issues. As if humans have been around for millennia and not brand new creatures as of the year 2000.)
My uncle, a surgeon, a couple of years before his death at 90 years old: “Out pharmacology is so advanced and our understanding of health and disease so minuscule that I can more readily poison my patients than help them.”
And he had stopped practicing more than a decade before his death a decade ago. Imagine the situation now! The only thing to do is avoid disease and avoid them and their prescriptions when you come down with something.
[SPOILER ALERT] Yeah, that was a sad scene. Lady Sybil dying in childbirth, IINM. She didn't need to die, but the doctor's complete and absolute hubris is really what killed her.
And 100 years later (yes, I know, DA is fictional), doctors' hubris is still killing people.
Haha - I know, but still. The story of Philip Semmelweiss still blows my mind. How he knew what was causing puerperal fever in new mothers (as in, caused by the doctor) and was totally scorned for the VERY IDEA that doctors could be causing harm. How many mothers died? Infants left without mothers and families left destabilized because doctors literally thought they could do no wrong?
I was once in the position to train doctors. It breaks down that 30% truly have a calling. 65% or so are doing it for the paycheck and lifestyle. The other 5 percent or so are effing narcissists and psychopaths. Make of that what one will.