Truth, Lies, and Public Health

Truth, Lies, and Public Health PDF Author: Madelon L. Finkel
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313082200
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
The politicalization of research findings has become prevalent over the past two decades. Politics often prevents the implementation of policy supported by irrefutable science. Most of us understand something about how this is happening with stem cell research, but Cornell's Madelon Finkel delves deep into the subject to make the issues clear, also revealing how ideology and politics are distorting, diminishing and destroying scientific research results regarding topics from needle exchange, HIV/AIDS prevention and medical marijuana to antiobiotic use with animals later marketed for human consumption. When ideology—whether it is the ideology of scientists and clinicians or of politicians—distorts scientific findings and public health judgment, public welfare is endangered, potentially affecting every person in our nation. Finkel also discusses how research is funded and how ideology has influenced that process. Numerous examples are given to illustrate the consequences of co-opting the scientific integrity of a program in this way.

Truth, Lies, and Public Health

Truth, Lies, and Public Health PDF Author: Madelon L. Finkel
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313082200
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Get Book Here

Book Description
The politicalization of research findings has become prevalent over the past two decades. Politics often prevents the implementation of policy supported by irrefutable science. Most of us understand something about how this is happening with stem cell research, but Cornell's Madelon Finkel delves deep into the subject to make the issues clear, also revealing how ideology and politics are distorting, diminishing and destroying scientific research results regarding topics from needle exchange, HIV/AIDS prevention and medical marijuana to antiobiotic use with animals later marketed for human consumption. When ideology—whether it is the ideology of scientists and clinicians or of politicians—distorts scientific findings and public health judgment, public welfare is endangered, potentially affecting every person in our nation. Finkel also discusses how research is funded and how ideology has influenced that process. Numerous examples are given to illustrate the consequences of co-opting the scientific integrity of a program in this way.

Mammography Screening

Mammography Screening PDF Author: Peter Gotzsche
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1000477096
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
'This book gives plenty of examples of ad hominem attacks, intimidation, slander, threats of litigation, deception, dishonesty, lies and other violations of good scientific practice. For some years I kept a folder labeled Dishonesty in breast cancer screening on top of my filing cabinet, storing articles and letters to the editor that contained statements I knew were dishonest. Eventually I gave up on the idea of writing a paper about this collection, as the number of examples quickly exceeded what could be contained in a single article.' From the Introduction The most effective way to decrease women's risk of becoming a breast cancer patient is to avoid attending screening. Mammography screening is one of the greatest controversies in healthcare, and the extent to which some scientists have sacrificed sound scientific principles in order to arrive at politically acceptable results in their research is extraordinary. In contrast, neutral observers increasingly find that the benefit has been much oversold and that the harms are much greater than previously believed. This groundbreaking book takes an evidence-based, critical look at the scientific disputes and the information provided to women by governments and cancer charities. It also explains why mammography screening is unlikely to be effective today. All health professionals and members of the public will find these revelations disturbingly illuminating. It will radically transform the way healthcare policy makers view mammography screening in the future. 'If Peter Gotzsche did not exist, there would be a need to invent him ...It may still take time for the limitations and harms of screening to be properly acknowledged and for women to be enabled to make adequately informed decisions. When this happens, it will be almost entirely due to the intellectual rigour and determination of Peter Gotzsche.' From the Foreword by Iona Heath, President, RCGP 'If you care about breast cancer, and we all should, you must read this book. Breast cancer is complex and we cannot afford to rely on the popular media, or on information from marketing campaigns from those who are invested in screening. We need to question and to understand. The story that Peter tells matters very much.' From the Foreword by Fran Visco, President, National Breast Cancer Coalition.

935 Lies

935 Lies PDF Author: Charles Lewis
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1610391187
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
Facts are and must be the coin of the realm in a democracy, for government "of the people, by the people and for the people," requires and assumes to some extent an informed citizenry. Unfortunately, for citizens in the United States and throughout the world, distinguishing between fact and fiction has always been a formidable challenge, often with real life and death consequences. But now it is more difficult and confusing than ever. The Internet Age makes comment indistinguishable from fact, and erodes authority. It is liberating but annihilating at the same time. For those wielding power, whether in the private or the public sector, the increasingly sophisticated control of information is regarded as utterly essential to achieving success. Internal information is severely limited, including calendars, memoranda, phone logs and emails. History is sculpted by its absence. Often those in power strictly control the flow of information, corroding and corrupting its content, of course, using newspapers, radio, television and other mass means of communication to carefully consolidate their authority and cover their crimes in a thick veneer of fervent racialism or nationalism. And always with the specter of some kind of imminent public threat, what Hannah Arendt called "objective enemies.'" An epiphanic, public comment about the Bush "war on terror" years was made by an unidentified White House official revealing how information is managed and how the news media and the public itself are regarded by those in power: "[You journalists live] "in what we call the reality-based community. [But] that's not the way the world really works anymore. We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality . . . we're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do." And yet, as aggressive as the Republican Bush administration was in attempting to define reality, the subsequent, Democratic Obama administration may be more so. Into the battle for truth steps Charles Lewis, a pioneer of journalistic objectivity. His book looks at the various ways in which truth can be manipulated and distorted by governments, corporations, even lone individuals. He shows how truth is often distorted or diminished by delay: truth in time can save terrible erroneous choices. In part a history of communication in America, a cri de coeur for the principles and practice of objective reporting, and a journey into several notably labyrinths of deception, 935 Lies is a valorous search for honesty in an age of casual, sometimes malevolent distortion of the facts.

Vaccines

Vaccines PDF Author: Peter C. Gøtzsche
Publisher: Skyhorse
ISBN: 9781510762190
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
This book will help you navigate the bewildering and often contradictory flood of information about vaccines. There is substantial misinformation about vaccines on the Internet, particularly from those who reject all vaccines, but also from official sources, which are expected to be neutral and objective. Vaccines: Truth, Lies, and Controversy is based on the best available evidence, and Professor Peter S. Gøtzsche explains when and why we should not have confidence in the science and official recommendations. Some vaccines are so beneficial—and have saved millions of lives—that we should all get them; some are so poor that many healthcare professionals do not use them for themselves or their families; and some are in-between. We must evaluate carefully each vaccine, one by one, assessing the balance between its benefits and harms, just as we do for other drugs, and then form an opinion about whether we think the vaccine is worth getting or recommending to other people. Vaccines focuses on measles, influenza, COVID-19, and HPV, but discusses also childhood vaccination programs and whether mandatory vaccination can be justified. Raising critical questions to vaccines is essential because there are still many unresolved issues. For example, we know virtually nothing about what happens when we use many vaccines and what the long-term effects are on the immune system. Vaccines demystifies the controversial topic and helps the reader formulate their own opinion.

Private Truths, Public Lies

Private Truths, Public Lies PDF Author: Timur Kuran
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674248139
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
Preference falsification, according to the economist Timur Kuran, is the act of misrepresenting one's wants under perceived social pressures. It happens frequently in everyday life, such as when we tell the host of a dinner party that we are enjoying the food when we actually find it bland. In Private Truths, Public Lies Kuran argues convincingly that the phenomenon not only is ubiquitous but has huge social and political consequences. Drawing on diverse intellectual traditions, including those rooted in economics, psychology, sociology, and political science, Kuran provides a unified theory of how preference falsification shapes collective decisions, orients structural change, sustains social stability, distorts human knowledge, and conceals political possibilities. A common effect of preference falsification is the preservation of widely disliked structures. Another is the conferment of an aura of stability on structures vulnerable to sudden collapse. When the support of a policy, tradition, or regime is largely contrived, a minor event may activate a bandwagon that generates massive yet unanticipated change. In distorting public opinion, preference falsification also corrupts public discourse and, hence, human knowledge. So structures held in place by preference falsification may, if the condition lasts long enough, achieve increasingly genuine acceptance. The book demonstrates how human knowledge and social structures co-evolve in complex and imperfectly predictable ways, without any guarantee of social efficiency. Private Truths, Public Lies uses its theoretical argument to illuminate an array of puzzling social phenomena. They include the unexpected fall of communism, the paucity, until recently, of open opposition to affirmative action in the United States, and the durability of the beliefs that have sustained India's caste system.

Whitewash

Whitewash PDF Author: Joseph Keon
Publisher: New Society Publishers
ISBN: 1550924567
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
North Americans are some of the least healthy people on Earth. Despite advanced medical care and one of the highest standards of living in the world, one in three Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime and 50% of US children are overweight. This crisis in personal health is largely the result of chronically poor dietary and lifestyle choices. In Whitewash, Joseph Keon unveils how North Americans unwittingly sabotage their health every day by drinking milk, and shows that our obsession with calcium is unwarranted. Citing scientific literature, Whitewash builds an unassailable case that not only is milk unnecessary for human health; its inclusion in the diet may increase the risk of serious diseases including: prostate, breast, and ovarian cancers osteoporosis diabetes vascular disease Crohn's disease. Many of America’s dairy herds contain sick and immunocompromised animals whose tainted milk regularly makes it to market. Cow's milk is also a sink for environmental contaminants, and has been found to contain traces of pesticides, dioxins, PCBs, rocket fuel, and even radioactive isotopes. Whitewash offers a completely fresh, candid and comprehensively documented look behind dairy's deceptively green pastures, and gives readers a hopeful picture of life after milk.

The Truth Beneath the Lies

The Truth Beneath the Lies PDF Author: Amanda Searcy
Publisher: Delacorte Press
ISBN: 1524700916
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
“A smart, suspenseful, and unpredictable thriller that will keep readers turning pages until every last lie is revealed.”—Karen M. McManus, New York Times bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying For fans of The Darkest Corners and Pretty Little Liars, Amanda Searcy’s debut novel will have readers both disturbed and entranced by one girl’s present-day horrors and another’s haunting past. Flight. All Kayla Asher wants to do is run. Run from the government housing complex she calls home. Run from her unstable mother. Run from a desperate job at No Limits Food. Run to a better, cleaner, safer life. Every day is one day closer to leaving. Fight. All Betsy Hopewell wants to do is survive. Survive the burner phone hidden under her bed. Survive her new rules. Survive a new school with new classmates. Survive being watched. Every minute grants her another moment of life. When fate brings Kayla and Betsy together, only one girl will survive.

Public Health in the 21st Century

Public Health in the 21st Century PDF Author: Madelon L. Finkel
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 031337547X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 1144

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Book Description
This extensive, cutting-edge compilation of essays on key public health topics is a must-read for professionals, students, and researchers, with topics focusing on the effects of climate change on health, global issues including treatment and prevention of diseases, health care policy issues, health care needs of special populations, gender-based violence, and current issues in ethics and human rights. The three volumes of Public Health in the 21st Century are comprised of timely essays on a wide variety of public health issues that affect the world today—and those that may do so tomorrow. The essays gathered here are the work of a team of top researchers that includes behavioral scientists, medical officials, environmental scientists, administrators, educators, and health-education experts. Volume one covers history, developments, and current issues in public health. Volume two is about disease treatment and prevention, and volume three discusses health disparities and policies that affect public health. The last volume also looks at cutting-edge research to show what the future may hold, discussing how we will deal with, for example, emerging threats to public health stemming from global warming, the mismanagement of natural resources, multidrug-resistant diseases, and the explosion of chronic disease. Each chapter presents an up-to-date, scholarly review of a specific issue and discusses the challenges that nations, communities, and individuals must address to create a healthier world.

Feeding You Lies

Feeding You Lies PDF Author: Vani Hari
Publisher: Hay House, Inc
ISBN: 1401954561
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
This follow-up to New York Times bestseller The Food Babe Way exposes the lies we've been told about our food--and takes readers on a journey to find healthy options. There's so much confusion about what to eat. Are you jumping from diet to diet and nothing seems to work? Are you sick of seeing contradictory health advice from experts? Just like the tobacco industry lied to us about the dangers of cigarettes, the same untruths, cover-ups, and deceptive practices are occurring in the food industry. Vani Hari, aka The Food Babe, blows the lid off the lies we've been fed about the food we eat--lies about its nutrient value, effects on our health, label information, and even the very science we base our food choices on. You'll discover: • How nutrition research is manipulated by food company funded experts • How to spot fake news generated by Big Food • The tricks food companies use to make their food addictive • Why labels like "all natural" and "non-GMO" aren't what they seem and how to identify the healthiest food • Food marketing hoaxes that persuade us into buying junk food disguised as health food Vani guides you through a 48-hour Toxin Takedown to rid your pantry, and your body, of harmful chemicals--a quick and easy plan that anyone can do. A blueprint for living your life without preservatives, artificial sweeteners, additives, food dyes, or fillers, eating foods that truly nourish you and support your health, Feeding You Lies is the first step on a new path of truth in eating--and a journey to your best health ever.

Two Truths and a Lie: It's Alive!

Two Truths and a Lie: It's Alive! PDF Author: Ammi-Joan Paquette
Publisher: Walden Pond Press
ISBN: 9780062418791
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
“Considering the fresh attention being paid to teaching a skeptical approach to information evaluation, this series opener couldn’t be better timed. A brief but savvy guide to responsible research methods adds further luster to this crowd pleaser.” —ALA Booklist (starred review) Two Truths and a Lie is the first book in a fascinating new series that presents some of the most crazy-but-true stories about the living world as well as a handful of stories that are too crazy to be true—and asks readers to separate facts from fakes! Did you know that there is a fungus that can control the mind of an ant and make it do its bidding? Would you believe there is such a thing as a corpse flower—a ten-foot-tall plant with a blossom that smells like a zombie? How about a species of octopus that doesn’t live in water but rather lurks in trees in the Pacific Northwest? Every story in this book is strange and astounding. But not all of them are real. Just like the old game in this book’s title, two out of every three stories are completely true and one is an outright lie. Can you guess which? It’s not going to be easy. Some false stories are based on truth, and some of the true stories are just plain unbelievable. And they’re all accompanied by dozens of photos, maps, and illustrations. Amaze yourself and trick your friends as you sort out the fakes from the facts! Acclaimed authors Ammi-Joan Paquette and Laurie Ann Thompson have teamed up to create a series of sneaky stories about the natural world designed to amaze, disgust, and occasionally bamboozle you.