Effect Measure is a forum for progressive public health discussion and argument as well as a source of public health information from around the web that interests the Editor(s)
The Editors of Effect Measure are senior public health scientists and practitioners. Paul Revere was a member of the first local Board of Health in the United States (Boston, 1799). The Editors sign their posts "Revere" to recognize the public service of a professional forerunner better known for other things.
Like tens of millions (probably hundreds of millions globally) I watched the Superbowl on Sunday. With such an audience, ad time is notoriously and extravagantly expensive and some ads are only run once, at that venue (e.g., the famous Apple "1984" ad). For some people the ads are as much an attraction as the game, so it is sad to report that this year they were relatively unfunny and, as one blogger noted, unusually ugly and misogynist in flavor. But the ad that has drawn the attention of those interested in a cleaner and greener world was from automaker Audi and it has drawn two very different reactions.
Most people feel safe at home, but statistically it's not the safest place to be, at least in terms of being injured (here injury includes not only trauma but poisoning, but if we restrict it to trauma probably little is changed). Here's one of CDC's "Quickstat" looks at the percentage distribution of injuries by place of occurrence, as reported in a cluster sample of the US population (the National Health Interview Survey). The years covered are 2004 to 2007:
I know families that if you visited them and found them laughing, confused, dizzy, thirsty and vomiting and apparently hallucinating you would think, "everything's normal." On a July night in suburban Maryland, however, an after dinner social call by a relative didn't think it was normal at all and EMTs were called and six adults were headed for the hospital, five to the intensive care unit. Attention immediately focused on what they all had in common, a meal of stew and bread an hour earlier:
Everyone knows, because the the Main Stream Media tells us, that bloggers aren't journalists. I freely admit I am not a journalist, not even a science journalist. Of course I do report a lot of science here and I know I do it better and more accurately than many a science reporter, but there are science journalists like Helen Branswell, who is not a scientist, and can run circles around amateurs like me. Unfortunately there aren't many of Branswells in the MSM these days, so when we report what's in a breaking science paper I think we do it as well or better than most non scientist journalists. I don't have to call the authors to find out what the paper is about. I can read it for myself.
But when it comes to TV news, and not print, I still have everything to learn. So I was glad to find this primer and am glad to share it with the rest of you who are as clueless about how to do TV news as I am:
We still don't know if we are experiencing a lull in flu or the virus has burned itself out for the season, but it's as good a time as any to reflect a bit on where we've been and where we still need to go. Being otherwise occupied (I'm sure you are sick of hearing about my grant writing obsession but not half as sick as I am about having it!), I'll start with something relatively straightforward: how CDC did on the epidemiology and surveillance front. Historically this is the agency's strong suit and so it is expected they would have acquitted themselves well. And pretty much, they did. A lot of good epidemiology got done and the surveillance system more or less worked to provide important information. But this doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement.
Writing a big grant proposal can be an all consuming affair. At least it's consuming all of me. And it's not because it's my first time. I wish. In fact it's the fourth time I'm doing this particular competitive renewal for a mega research program I've managed to keep continuously funded for 16 years. But each 5 year cycle it gets tougher, not easier and I wind up thinking about it all the time. The whole experience is reminiscent of the story of the World War I doctor given the task of selecting one of three volunteers for a dangerous and urgent mission. There was only time to ask each candidate a single question. The doctor had a bent toward psychology and decided to wave a white handkerchief in front of the soldier's face, asking for his first thought. Soldier number one said: "It reminds me of my dear mother waving good-bye at the train station." Maybe not the perfect candidate, thought the doctor, so he went on to soldier number 2: "That's the white flag of surrender," he said. Definitely not the right one. He waved the handkerchief in front of the third soldier, who broke out into a broad grin. "That makes me think of screwing," he said brightly. The doctor was taken aback. "Screwing? Why does waving a white handkerchief in front of your face make you think of screwing?" The soldier answered: "I always think of screwing!"
The Nature blog, The Great Beyond, has an interesting although not surprising report of accusations on BBC that a cabal of researchers has been impeding publication of important stem cell research to help themselves or help their friends:
Grant writing makes you crazy and also forces bloggers to stoop to ever lower levels. Hence this from the Discover Magazine blog via Boingboing.
While trawling for gold in the medical case literature they struck it rich with the story of the 15 year old girl with no vagina who got pregnant by giving her boyfriend a blow job (British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology: 1988 Sep;95(9):933-4). Not possible? You be the judge:
