ooh

Got a phone call today from someone at the New York Times saying my letter to the editor (about people who claim they "need" SUVs with 2 kids) is being published. Yes, they actually telephone letter-writers (and I submitted it by e-mail). My name in print, ooh mercy. That's 2 in the Independent, 1 in the NYT, and several corrections (unattributed) in the Grauniad.

I AM "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells". Or the lefty equivalent thereof. (I live in north London and read the Guardian. I have tough stereotypes to live up to.)

Bias, anyone?

Article in today's Independent (entitled "Dangerous Practices" about the "problem" of off-label prescribing. (I use the word in quotes because although it can be a problem, it can also be very useful. Metformin for PCOS, for example, is still officially off-label IIRC--I think it may now be approved in the UK but not the US.)

The article was written by one Jerome Burne. At the bottom, it says "Food is Better Medicine: Your Prescription for Drug-Free Health by Jerome Burne and Patrick Holford is published by Platkus." Hmm, agenda? Patrick Holford is a quack, too.

And the lead "fact" about drug testing: "Drugs licensed as safe and effective kill 10,000 people a year in the UK." That's a scare statistic and meaningless.