FSM Friends’ News and Articles
China is forcing people to use Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) quackery to treat COVID-19: “The Chinese government promotes TCM (which is big business in China, both domestically and as an export business) by passing laws to promote TCM by requiring it in state hospitals and lowering the bar for its approval, all while also passing laws to protect it against criticism, or what it calls ‘slandering’ or ‘libeling’ TCM.”
General
‘Science is political’ – Scientific American has endorsed Joe Biden over Trump for president. Australia should take note: “Science is political. The science we do is inherently shaped by the funding landscape of government and the problems and issues of society. This means that to have any influence on how science is organised and funded in Australia (or the US or any other country), we as scientists and science communicators must act in ways that matter in the arena of politics.”
Lesser-known Health Professions
Occupational Therapy – What can Occupational Therapy do for you? Occupational therapists help people inside hospitals and in the community to function independently and to live their lives, including in cases of stroke and injury.
Today’s Abused Health Concept
Political control of health agencies. In the age of the COVID-19 pandemic, can we trust the CDC and FDA any more? The FDA and the CDC are agencies that have made massive contributions to the healthcare safety and efficacy. Through their histories that success has largely correlated to their ability to resist political pressure and to adhere to decisions and information based on good science. In the current climate however, political control is being exerted in unprecedented ways. “The health department’s politically appointed communications aides have demanded the right to review and seek changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly scientific reports charting the progress of the coronavirus pandemic, in what officials characterized as an attempt to intimidate the reports’ authors and water down their communications to health professionals.” It would seem that science is being leaned on to force statements that align with political goals, with far too much success.
When one also considers that the FDA has began to make emergency use authorisations in line with political demands, such as for the use of hydroxychloroquine, the picture becomes quite disturbing in terms of the public trust. To be able to provide reliable answers, any health agency needs to be able to adhere to science completely independent of any politics. This is how public institutions earn the public trust. Short sighted politics are eroding that trust, and may do untold damage in the near future.