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RedditHow many of you believe that crucial healthcare issues are falsely represented by corporate America for profit or political advantage? How many believe that mass media representations of complex medical questions are frequently confused and misleading? Over the past year alone, hype and hysteria have overridden critical discussion of medical topics from prescription drugs to bioterror to the West Nile virus.
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The Doctor Stories
Lizzy Ratner: Atul Gawande offers up a banal self-help manual for aspiring MDs, while Pauline Chen prescribes a dose of compassion.
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Body Language
Andrew Lam: A new "ethnic correctness" is taking hold among minorities that might reverse a rising trend among Asians and others to undergo plastic surgery to look more westernized.
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Who's Afraid of Gardasil?
Karen Houppert: A medical breakthrough has provoked opposition from conservatives, consumer advocates and antivaccine groups.
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A Burnt-Out Case
Neal Pollack: A new biography of Timothy Leary reveals the mixed-up sociopath behind the "turn on, tune in, drop out" mantra.
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Government's the Problem
Calvin Trillin: Complicated drug plans are the result of promises fulfilled.
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Brave Neuro World
Kathryn Schulz: As neurotechnology expands our abilities to rejuvenate aging brains, rebound from trauma and enhance moods or sexual prowess, we need a consistent set of neuroethics about how that technology should be used.
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AIDS Movement Seizes Control
Mark Gevisser: Despite its controversy, World AIDS Day has demonstrated how vast and global the AIDS movement has gone. While the extent of AIDS advocacy was not as far-reaching then, in 1987 a burgeoning movement of health care practitioners and gay activists battled the FDA's questionable policies on AIDS drugs experimentation, which included excluding women and i.v. users from drug trials.
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Trauma in New Orleans
Dr. Marc Siegel: The city lacks the resources to address its residents' urgent mental health needs.
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The False Bird Flu Scare
Dr. Marc Siegel: The United States has fueled a worldwide overreaction to the threat of a bird flu pandemic, putting AIDS, malaria, malnutrition and other crucial global health programs at risk.
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Unequipped to Cure
Dr. Marc Siegel: Vaccine production in the United States is in an alarming condition--with drug-makers wedded to outmoded techniques and government more focused on terror than pandemics.
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New Medicare Benefit Helps Only Drug Companies
Dr. Marc Siegel: Why are so few elderly people signing up for the new Medicare drug benefit? It's cumbersome, costly and totally confusing.
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Scare Scenario
Dr. Marc Siegel: It has all the makings of a horror flick, but panic over a possible bird flu pandemic is following a time-honored script: sensational media reports, profit-hungry drug manufacturers and politicians eager to capitalize on fears.
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Darwin and God
Dr. Marc Siegel: Darwin's discoveries about evolution never argued against the existence of God. And the theory of "intelligent design" is a dangerous attempt to undermine science and justify a literal reading of the Bible.
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Fear Itself
Dr. Marc Siegel: Some people are scaring themselves about the wrong things in ways that are doing terrorists' work for them. Here's one physician's prescription for bringing irrational fears under control.
Subjects I'd like to address could include things like the question of mandatory HIV testing for convicted rapists, which has been miscast as a civil rights issue on behalf of the convict, and the true efficacy of potassium iodide pills, which have been pushed for profit by drug companies and politicians misleadingly proclaiming their utility in combating radiation sickness.
To send me a question, click here. I'll choose two or so letters each installment to address in this space. Together we can look for answers to critical questions of health, medicine and politics. Knowledge and correct information can help allay our fears. And even if we remain afraid, it's still better to uncover a correct answer, no matter how unsettling, than to be stuck with distorted, agenda-ridden misinformation.
