Reply to post: Re: They walk amongst us

Ex-IBMer sues Google for $10bn – after his web ad for 'divine honey cancer cure' was pulled

Pompous Git Silver badge

Re: They walk amongst us

"That's just the sort of conclusion one might expect from a statistician."

Statistics

"Of the 52,135 [upper respiratory tract infection] episodes identified, 65% received antibiotics. Antibiotics were prescribed for 78% of acute bronchitis episodes, 65% of acute pharyngitis episodes, 81% of acute sinusitis episodes, and 33% of nonspecific URI episodes. The proportion of antibiotics that were broad spectrum was 56% for all URI episodes, 68% for acute bronchitis, 55% for acute sinusitis and nonspecific URI, and 40% for pharyngitis."

We know that antibiotics are useless for controlling viral infections. We also know that antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria are increasingly problematic and that inappropriate antibiotic use is making things worse. Antibiotics also have a deleterious effect on gut bacteria leading to chronic health problems.

We currently face multiresistant infectious disease organisms that are difficult and sometimes impossible to treat successfully. If the chance that you are prescribed an inappropriate drug is greater than 50% it's difficult to understand why you would unquestioningly do so. This is faith-based medicine.

At least with homeopathic drugs antibiotic resistance is not an issue, nor are you likely to go into anaphaleptic shock, or suffer from an impaired immune system from their use.

Statistics are the basis of evidence-based medicine. You might not like it, but medical practise has been moving towards EBM for some considerable time, though not quite quickly enough for those of us that prefer it to faith-based medicine.

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