We Get Better Outcomes When Skepticism And Scrutiny at Authorities Increases

Researchers at Johns Hopkins called for a closer look at medical error, publishing a paper which estimated up to 440,000 Americans die each year due to it: https://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2016/10/14/medical-errors-the-third-leading-cause-of-death-in-the-us/. Naysayers fiercely attacked that figure. Their primary argument centered around how many people included in the estimate might have or would have died anyway. Unfortunately, I could never find one of these apologists account for a variable which might push the estimate UP. As I scoured arguments against the Johns Hopkins figures, sadly, each and every article worked earnestly to push the number as far down as is conceivable, ending up somewhere between 20,000 and 90,000. But we know that medical error is UNDERreported. No profession admits fewer mistakes than health authorities: https://jaapl.org/content/early/2021/05/19/JAAPL.200107-20#:~:text=In%20a%20survey%20of%20U.S.,patients%2C%20while%20only%20five%20percent. And the medical culture actually encourages their ranks to avoid admitting mistakes: https://www.statnews.com/2017/01/13/medical-errors-doctors/. So it’s hard to say what the figure actually is.


I think we might all agree, “too high.”


Almost anything else gets the public fired up though. In 2021, over 26,000 Americans were murdered (NOT counting medical error), almost 21,000 were firearm-related: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/homicide.htm. The vast majority involve handguns, not rifles. Mass shootings account for a tiny fraction of these, around 700. Total of youths who die in mass shootings: less than 35.


Any number more than 0 is too many. 34 kids killed by a firearm in mass shootings is 34 too many. Maybe 20,000 to half a million people killed by medical error is also something we should look into.


Our unwillingness to challenge medical authority and organizations in medicine is pretty wild and certainly anti-modern. But our fonts of authority on health need more scrutiny, not less. We are now seeing a number of pandemic experts, like Deborah Birx, walk back positions on the safety of mRNA vaccines and call for Covid19 investigations for transparency: https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/dr-deborah-birx-we-need-transparent-panel-on-covid-origins/ar-BB1m4gtI. This is a position which was called anti-science and anti-vax as recently as six months ago if the wrong person stated it. Pundits who once made fun of ivermectin are now taking it: https://www.yahoo.com/news/chris-cuomo-makes-ivermectin-face-210453781.html


Influential experts and commentators agree 110% with what they dismissed as conspiracy theorizing only 1-4 years ago. And that’s fine. Absolutely people should be able to change their minds. Things are on the move. We can disagree over many different perspectives and worldviews. But the point remains: at ALL times, our outcomes will be superior when scrutiny of authorities goes UP, not down.