Mad!

A nice bit of pointless and ridiculous scaremongering in the DT this morning, under the blaring headline "mad cow infected blood to kill 1000" The article is full of "ifs" "maybes" and other terms showing that the suggested scenario is nothing more than highly speculative fiction. In the body of the article it admits that there have been no new cases in the UK for 2 years, and that in fact there may be no more in future. What a load of shit.

Muscle core X scam

As of this morning my previous post warning people off the scam that is "Lean Muscle X" has been visited 27,616 times. I have no doubt that a proportion of these will have heeded my advice and avoided falling into this expensive trap. This is a source of considerable satisfaction to me.

I've noticed this morning another scam ad for the same product under a different name. They've even used the same photographs. The method of these crooks is unchanged.  Get free trials of two products, as long as you authorise future unlimited deductions from your credit card. The claims made for the products are ridiculous and totally implausible and unfeasible.

If you want to avoid some very nasty surprises when your credit card statement comes through DO NOT fall for this scam.

Idiocracy

If you read the reader comments on some news articles relating to health and science you can get to despair. The impression you get is that the general public are ignorant and stupid beyond belief. The strength of opinion expressed in favour of homeopathy, chiropracty etc, and the blind opposition to such things as vaccination and fluoridation simply make you throw your hands up. What is wrong with these people? Why do they have such ill informed views? What's happened to our education system that such ignorance about scientific matters is so prevalent. Why do these people delude themselves that they know anything about it.

It's not helped by our politicians. We have a health secretary in Jeremy Hunt who believes in homeopathy and seriously seems to think he's qualified to speak on clinical matters. What a twat. The fact alone that Cameron should think this fool a suitable person to appoint to run the NHS is proof enough that he's not a fit prime minister.

When scientists are left alone to get on with the job what they can achieve is outstanding. In this one week alone there are reported breakthroughs which may well lead to a cure for HIV, and the harnessing of nuclear fusion. I wonder if the general public realise the magnitude of these steps forward.

And yet, when you hand these things over to the politicians they can fuck it up so completely that we could be facing having the lights turned off for an inability to provide enough electricity. In medicine now we are gradually being totally stripped of our professionalism as the politicians and those gong chasing twats at the GMC collude to try and turn doctors into mindless automatons, blindly following the dictates of protocols and guidelines. The concept of clinical discretion and autonomy totally vilified. When will they learn that to get the best results out of scientists and professionals what is required of politicians is that they simply look on in awe at the endeavours of better men, and keep their meddling fingers out?

Revelation

Before I retired I liked to think I was a pretty hard working sort of a guy. I did everything I was supposed to do and went home every day thinking I'd done a lot and earned my pay. Yet back then I was able to post a blog entry almost every day. Every day I found time to think, read, research, find references & links, and put together a post, sometimes quite long, and almost always done during the working day.

Now I'm supposed to be a man of leisure I can barely put up a post a week. Can it be true that being an NHS consultant is a cushy number?

GMC

Much has been said in the blogosphere about the GMC continuing to want to "out" anonymous bloggers, with the threat to those that don't co-operate that "we can find out who you are". But lets not forget that this is the GMC we're talking about. While they're very good at harassing and intimidating those on the register they're not exactly a detective agency are they? Bearing in mind the general level of competence they display this threat has to be seen as an empty bluff. To any fellow bloggers out there worried that the GMC can track them down, relax.

Those twats couldn't find their own arse with both hands in broad daylight.

Messy

Viruses on computers have been around for as long as the internet has existed and can cause immense damage on a vast scale to the unwary. According to this article one of the best ways to install a virus onto your pc is by visiting porn sites, which are among the most visited sites on the web.
Perhaps it's just my mind but I was amused by the journalist who stated, "a potential 42 per cent risk of coming across damaging adverts each time they log on."
Pass the tissues.

111 again

In my last post I commented on how quickly the new 111 service had shown itself unfit for purpose. For years governments have tried to provide medical services more cheaply by having them provided by ever less qualified people. NHS direct was an attempt to have patients dealt with by someone cheaper than nasty expensive doctors, but at least it used nurses. 111 is the logical next step, employing people with no qualifications at all.
And now the magnitude of the inadequacy of this service is becoming apparent. Anyone with any sense would now abort this idea entirely, and that is the advice being given by everyone who knows what they're talking about. What do you suppose is the likelihood of that advice being heeded?

That was quick

The proposed 111 telephone advice service has been heavily criticised by many, from bloggers to the BMA. The consequences of having emergency medical call centres manned by people with effectively no medical training are obvious to anyone, except the department of health. It was always bound to go spectacularly tits up once it started. I don't think though that even the most pessimistic expected it to fail so soon.