Pfired but still kicking

“I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand,Walkin' through the streets of Soho in the rain,He was lookin' for the place called Lee Ho Fooks,Gonna get a big dish of beef chow mein.”Aaahoo! …."Warren Zevon, 1978

In the July 24th New York Times, there is a featured article about a new, thorny issue—what to do about the millions of Americans who are infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV). What makes this particular issue especially tricky is that it involves rationing— about as close to a dirty word in the discussion of modern medicine as you'll ever come across. Rationing of medical care is cruel, inherently wrong, arbitrary, and unacceptable in any fair-minded society. Or is it? 

In the July 24th New York Times, there is a featured article about a new, thorny issue—what to do about the millions of Americans who are infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV). This article is a perfect example of the law of unintended consequences. Until recently, there was exactly one treatment for hepatitis C infection, and it was terrible: Interferon (IFN), an immune booster and ribavirin (RBV), a non-specific antiviral which operates by an unknown mechanism. The IFN-RBV therapy is deeply flawed for two main reasons. 

And I
thought *these* were bad products:

Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution (1787) "[T]he Congress shall have power . . . to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries."If you're going to break the law, you might as well do it in style. Why bother speeding, shoplifting, or stealing cable service, when the sky's the limit? Aim high.

It must be nice to have a job with so much free time on your hands that you can do just about anything, regardless of merit, and not only get away with it, but, rather, be rewarded for it.Our dear friends, the Environmental Working Group (EWG), perhaps the most scientifically flawed organization out there (and this is no small accomplishment) have decided to take on the (all of a sudden) life and death issue of children drawing with crayons.Hope you were sitting down when you heard about this.This non-issue arises from a report, entitled “EWG Tests Find Asbestos in Kids’ crayons, Crime Scene Kits— Even trace exposures to lethal asbestos fibers can cause cancer, other diseases.”

When it comes to educating the public about all matters chemical, there is no one better than Dr. Joe Schwarcz, a wildly popular professor at McGill University in Montreal. "Dr. Joe," as his students call him, is one sharp dude. He has written about 20 books, given countless lectures, been on TV and radio hundreds of times, and even hosts his own weekly radio show.

And I thought *my* job was fun. I regularly get to ridicule an incredible variety and quantity of nonsense that poses as science and medicine. Some of it borders on hilarious. On the other hand, making this stuff up is probably just as much fun, and maybe even more lucrative. There might even be an office pool: "Yo, Autumn Flower. I managed to get four old ladies to hide under the bed last week. Hand over the bitcoins."And the competition must be fierce. In the absence of some kind of incentive, I cannot imagine any other way to get people to come up with a constant and creative (waste)stream of entertaining, yet marginally believable content. 

During my 25-year-career in drug discovery research, when I told people what I did for a living, I ran into the same response over and over: "How can you work for such an evil industry?" Yet, after even brief discussions of what the jobs in profession were really like— that being, a fierce devotion to finding treatments for the worst diseases in the face of an overwhelming array of nearly impossible obstacles—virtually everyone I spoke with changed their opinions. 

First of all, let me state that my conscience is perfectly clear:However, unlike yours truly, if you have an impure mind I suggest you take it up with Merriam-Webster.Having dispensed with that trivial distraction, can someone please explain to me what is going on below? 

I really need to quit starting all of these things with "just when you think..." because I'm starting to sound like a cliche. But sometimes, there are just no alternatives. My apologies.Because just when you think things can't get any (stranger, dumber, crazier...) something like this comes around. I seriously doubt I will need to use the cliche again. This cannot be topped. It's impossible. Just like the "science" that is behind it.At least there some good news: The vegans in Britain are sure gonna be happy, since the country won't be eating much meat. Thanks to a bunch of fine minds on the European Commission, sick cattle will no longer be treated with medicine. Nope—just homeopathy. I don't think the cows are gonna as happy.

Columbia University and seven other schools make up the prestigious Ivy League. But, sometimes things change and standards drop. It may be time to create a new group of schools, the Poison Ivy League, and perhaps Columbia should be its first member. Today's opinion piece in USA today is entitled "Columbia medical faculty: What do we do about Dr. Oz?" has a title that ends with a question mark. And well it should.