‘If somebody is selling something then I already say they have no credibility.’ 👏👏👏 But doesn’t that also describe the American healthcare system to a great extent?

This is excellent on the pernicious impact of influencers in the ‘wellness’ industry and their origins. When it comes to medics who occupy positions of real impact one has to hold one’s nose, their stench is so awful. After all, they really do know better.

Why is every scandal existential for Starmer? Because he has actively worked to eradicate his own support base. And that, along with the Mandelson decision, can be laid at McSweeney's door iandunt.substack.com/p/starmers-m...

“When did you last have sex?”

My bit for @bmj.com this week Partly in response to HSJ editor's deliberately provocative leader www.bmj.com/content/392/...

The cartoon that appeared this week on the front page of France’s most influential national newspaper, Le Monde Brilliant work by the cartoonist, Guffo.

Those were the days, my friend. From Katrina Forrester In The Shadow of Justice.

1) Prostate cancer thread: In recent years, especially this year, there's been much debate in the UK media and elsewhere (often related to experiences of men in the public eye) about prostate cancer: on the importance of testing/early treatment, and (often) calling for new screening initiatives. 🧪

1. In 2009 I wrote this. I argued that Peter Mandelson's department “functions as a fifth column within government, working for corporations to undermine democracy and the public interest.” This thread explains what I saw, and reaches a startling conclusion.🧵 www.monbiot.com/2009/05/04/m...

How Matt Goodwin “became his own doctoral thesis”: by @iandunt.bsky.social iandunt.substack.com/p/matt-goodw...

Holy moly this chart: Cumulative US measles cases

This seems to be a trend again. With half dust covers (which, I’m sure, will soon be discarded!)

📺 OMG—who made this?! Noah Wyle has a message for all you—vaccine skeptics… Share with a friend who needs to hear it.

The Right in Europe looking at Trump and Miller

This is what it looks like to live in a world, to quote Stephen Miller, "that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power". The rule of law & constitutional govt exist to stop the strong doing what they want & killing who they want. That ideal is under open attack

You knew this was coming. New Racket. theracket.news/p/america-fi...

As someone who unabashedly judges a book by its cover, this list is a dream. #booksky #readharder

President Trump is taking 325 mg of aspirin a day to prevent heart disease. His doctors advise him to take 81 mg. Both are wrong. Here’s why. New edition of Ground Truths, open-access erictopol.substack.com/p/the-lowdow...

Today's column is on the relentless march of blithering idiocy, which includes denying climate science while your house is - literally in this case - burning down. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The reason this Harvard history professor decided he was done with one of the best and most privileged jobs in the world was, in his own words, because he was forced to lecture in a mask during peak Covid. I’m not making this up.

A quick collaboration with the wonderful Rachel Bender Ignacio, Jade Pagkas-Bather and Sara Gianella. "Why Americans are Dying Younger? NIH Is Not the Problem. Our Broken Healthcare Delivery Is." academic.oup.com/jid/article/...

After lambasting Gove for knowing very little, not being an ‘expert’ on ME, spat out my tea listening to @rory-stewart.bsky.social advocating PSA screening. Has he not heard of all the unnecessary impotence, incontinence? The false negatives? The economics? The uncertainty of treatment? Experts-pff

Let’s go back to 2010! We didn’t need cancer pathways as urgent referrals were seen in 2-3 weeks, routine in 2-3 months Recruitment was rising, jobs were good. It wasn’t perfect but in 4 decades of NHS work it was the best it had been THEN SOMETHING HAPPENED ….

Reminds me of Michael Crighton’s Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect.

Isabel Bolton published her last novel, The Whirligig of Time, in 1971 at the age of 88. From a wealthy New England family, she was outwardly a figure of quiet gentility. But read this last line in the book and tell me she didn't have a very real sense of how close we are to chaos and the void.

But we see these sorts of headlines every year - it’s the sheer predictability of these headlines and the lack of any real plan to stabilise the NHS over winter that should be the front page story! Not some - in my opinion - highly misleading use of statistics! END OF RANT 10/10

King Charles argued on Friday that, thanks to early diagnosis, his treatment will be reduced in the New Year. He urged people to take up cancer screening saying: “Early diagnosis quite simply saves lives.” www.bbc.co.uk/news/a... 1/10

I had the opportunity to ask NIH Dir. Jay Bhattacharya about his comments re: mRNA vaccines, that they had "failed to earn the public's trust" so the NIH should not invest. His answer demonstrates that science and pandemic preparedness are taking a backseat to ideology. youtu.be/S0rsz3Ph7XE?...

I was crawling out of my skin after just this five minute clip. His whole “argument” depends not just on unspecified baselines but also a nonsensical appeal to public opinion and trust as if he and his boss have had no impact on that.

Read it here: www.bmj.com/content/391/... We hope you will share it broadly and if you find our points compelling enough that you will engage with it and discuss. @patientrevolution.org

On an infinite timeline I will eventually post the entire book in screenshots. Meantime us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

I didnt realise invertebrates could speak youtube.com/watch?v=Sh3k...

Odd how issues gain traction when personal experience is involved (health, assisted dying, prisons etc etc). Odd, too, how politicians reach for simple ‘solutions’ to complex challenges. Screening is not a simple panacea. That’s why we have experts.

I am grateful for @adamjkucharski.bsky.social. He takes such care to deconstruct a claim made by the director of National Institutes of Health on excess mortality during the pandemic. We need sober analyses more than ever right now, even amidst the madness. kucharski.substack.com/p/excess-mor...

If there was any doubt at all that the CDC is fully destroyed, this page on autism and vaccines on its website confirms it. It's now just another vessel of dangerous health misinformation. I have no words. This is beyond sad.

Thought provoking from Martha Lane Fox on whether public life has got so brutal that no one you’d want to get involved will do it anymore martha6j5h2.substack.com/p/this-is-pu...

The question everyone is asking right now is this: NYT had deep access into all of this in real time and reported none of it. Why? In consequence, no NYT reporting on this subject is trustworthy.

A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death. Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written." Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating. 🧪🧬🧫

🔴We Need to Talk About Michael Gove and Crony Covid Contracts Gove claims he had no “active role” in the procurement of Covid PPE during the pandemic, yet evidence suggests he was involved in multiple VIP deals worth over £1billion, reports Russell Scott www.bylinesupplement.com/p/we-need-to...

I’m reminded by how misguided Gates was in his review of Why Nations Fail. The authors’ rebuttal was a thing of beauty. www.scribd.com/document/936...

Food insecurity is a self-inflicted, manufactured problem in the richest nation in the world

The most grotesque indictment of domestic US policy in my lifetime.

“Politically motivated attacks on the legal profession are irresponsible and dangerous,” lawyers' representatives said this week. For a unique perspective on the challenges facing judges, I spoke to Professor Sir Ross Cranston, about his new book, Judging. rozenberg.substack.com/p/traducing-...

Times Letter today. As #Jenrick intimidates judges and attempts to politicise appointments, journalists and the government need to face the threat.

‘The house is on fire, and lawmakers are adjusting the lighting.’

“Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy.” – Walter Cronkite.