Rick,

The point is that it has been investigated and there is a growing body of evidence that the news media will not cover. I've said before how many times I've seen stories on the news promoting the latest, greatest cures. It's become the Daily Snake-Oil moment on all 3 major networks and on the 3 major cable networks as well. Everyday, sometimes every hour on cable, something is hawked as the next miracle. Some of these false promises are 10 year old quack cures, while others are speculative hypotheses that researchers are just beginning to play with, but it makes no difference: if it keeps the myth of scientism alive, it gets on the news.

Real news, about what is really happening in medicine, like this -- particularly like this, wrt errors -- is not covered. They seem to think no one wants to hear it. In any given week, keep a notebook next to your TV chair and write down the number of medical stories you hear on the news, how many are positive, how many negative. By negative, I mean one which villainizes a doctor or medical profesisonal without calling him a rogue or making the case that he is some rare exception, not the norm. Follow up with some Internet research on the books or professors cited and see how much crap is being peddled each day. Very often the "news" is quite old -- up to 10 years. Then think about this material that gets air time, and how Kirby cannot get air time with anyone except apparently Don Imus...

I've heard it said that medical error (such as is acknowledged, that is) is the 3rd or 4th leading cause of death in this country. If the truth were known, I am sure it would be number one. Yet, laws protect doctors and drug companies from accountability, and more are in the works all the time.