Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Good, Bad, and Scary
With many of the top antidepressants on the market linked to suicide, the FDA may have finally started to wake up on the subject. These drugs are prescribed willy-nilly, more often by primary care physicians, who lack the training and experience to properly diagnose depression or to properly pick which drug is right for which patient, than by psychiatrists, who have said training and experience.
Only related by way of governmental-ness: the Supreme Court will rule on whether or not persons not under arrest must give their name to police. This is a scary one to me: if the answer is yes, it's another step in the [probably inevitable] direction of a truly Orwellian society. The right to remain silent is so important, and should be even more closely protected when the police don't even have a warrant or probable cause.
The good news, however, is that PolyHeme, an artificial blood, is being tested in critical trauma patients. The problem, of course, is that the Washington Post is using its scariest reporting voice to describe these trials. Which of course gets good ratings, and sells products of advertisers, but is so totally irresponsible. This is a critical test of potentially life-saving technology....don't cause a public furor over it, fuckheads.
Only related by way of governmental-ness: the Supreme Court will rule on whether or not persons not under arrest must give their name to police. This is a scary one to me: if the answer is yes, it's another step in the [probably inevitable] direction of a truly Orwellian society. The right to remain silent is so important, and should be even more closely protected when the police don't even have a warrant or probable cause.
The good news, however, is that PolyHeme, an artificial blood, is being tested in critical trauma patients. The problem, of course, is that the Washington Post is using its scariest reporting voice to describe these trials. Which of course gets good ratings, and sells products of advertisers, but is so totally irresponsible. This is a critical test of potentially life-saving technology....don't cause a public furor over it, fuckheads.
