Dubai Forums Dubai Discussions Dubai General Chat

Rob Mackrill – The Daily Reckoning

When doctors in Israel took industrial action and went on strike back in 2000, it highlighted a strange phenomenon – when doctors go on strike, the death
rate plummets.

In this particular instance, the death rate fell by nearly 40% over the strike period. But it's by no means an isolated example.

Back in 1973, Israeli doctors went on strike for 4 weeks and deaths fell by 50% in that month.

The same happened in Los Angeles in 1976, which saw an 18% decline in deaths during industrial action by doctors. When the strike ended and the medical machine started grinding back into action, the death rate returned to usual levels.

The same thing in Bogota in 1972. Doctors withdrew all treatments apart from emergency care. And guess what?

The mortality rate went down by 35%.

It would therefore appear that the more we can avoid medical intervention in our lives, the more chance we have of living longer and healthier. As Dr Robert Mendelsohn, the renowned Chicago MD put it, as far back as 1979: "If doctors reduced their involvement with people and only attended emergencies, there's no doubt in my mind that we'd be better off."

For example, medical errors account for an estimated 40,000 deaths each year in the UK, and have officially become Britain's third biggest killer behind cancer and heart disease.

That's the equivalent to a Jumbo jet-full of passengers perishing every week of the year.

In addition, serious reactions to a prescription drug are also believed to be responsible for a further 250,000 Britons being hospitalised each year – with aspirin, diuretics, warfarin and NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), commonly used for treating such things as arthritis, the main offenders.

Correlation doesn't equal causation.

You might find that the reason that death rates went down was there was a backlog of death certificates being signed

It's the old Pirates Vs. Global Warming debate. As the number of pirates has steadily increased the avg. global temperature has gone up.

The solution to Global Warming?

More pirates it would seem.

Aaaarrrh.