Cancer issues are a bit of a Pandora's box, there's not just one or even a few main issues. There are lots and lots of issues. Here's one that not too many know about. Over-diagnosis. Due to proactive screening tests for various cancers, the rate at which cancers are being diagnosed has been increasing rapidly. This gives the impression of some sort of epidemic of cancer (e.g. Breast cancers, thyroid cancers, skin cancers, etc.), however the mortality rates have remained very stable. This leads to a couple of outcomes... a claim that treatments for these screened cancers are getting incredibly good (five year survival rates are very high, and getting higher, primarily due to more cases being diagnosed that would previously have been missed). But, treatment is not without risk, particularly surgical treatment, so thousands of people are maimed and many die due to medical and surgical interventions to treat diagnosed "cancers" that would never have been an issue. Cancer generally comes in three flavors. Aggressive, fast growing cancers that are usually fatal and are not often caught until it's too late; steadily growing cancers that would eventually kill the patient without intervention, but are usually noticed when they become symptomatic (a lump is found, or some other symptom experienced, etc.); and very slow growing cancers that even if they are totally ignored would not grow to an extent that would cause any particular issues within the expected lifetime of the patient. The last category of cancer is the one that is most often caught through screening tests, leading to un-necessary treatment.
There are perverse incentives throughout the medical industry that cause this, and other scenarios that may appear to be corrupt. Whether the construction of the incentive structures is the result of deliberate or corrupt practices with a deliberate goal of creating those perverse incentives that push physicians in particular directions, and harshly punish any who dare to deviate, is an open question. The COVID nonsense has shown how corrupted and corrupting the medical governing bodies and associations are. They are a very small group of mostly anonymous technocrats that are capable of forcing insane rules onto medical personnel. The medical personnel have a moral obligation to refuse this, but almost none do, because the entire weight of the corporate/government complex is against them. The cost of doing so is the total destruction of their careers, professional and social ostracization and relentless attack by zealots of the globalists.
Good post.
There's an interesting book about it called Overdiagnosed, by Gilbert Welch. Well worth a read, along with Bad Pharma by Ben Goldacre.
Gilbert has some good lectures and conversations about it online too. E.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwfZFskoifw
Thank you.
"Cancer issues are a bit of a Pandora's box, there's not just one or even a few main issues. There are lots and lots of issues. Here's one that not too many know about. Over-diagnosis. Due to proactive screening tests for various cancers, the rate at which cancers are being diagnosed has been increasing rapidly. This gives the impression of some sort of epidemic of cancer (e.g. Breast cancers, thyroid cancers, skin cancers, etc.), however the mortality rates have remained very stable. This leads to a couple of outcomes... a claim that treatments for these screened cancers are getting incredibly good (five year survival rates are very high, and getting higher, primarily due to more cases being diagnosed that would previously have been missed). But, treatment is not without risk, particularly surgical treatment, so thousands of people are maimed and many die due to medical and surgical interventions to treat diagnosed "cancers" that would never have been an issue. Cancer generally comes in three flavors. Aggressive, fast growing cancers that are usually fatal and are not often caught until it's too late; steadily growing cancers that would eventually kill the patient without intervention, but are usually noticed when they become symptomatic (a lump is found, or some other symptom experienced, etc.); and very slow growing cancers that even if they are totally ignored would not grow to an extent that would cause any particular issues within the expected lifetime of the patient. The last category of cancer is the one that is most often caught through screening tests, leading to un-necessary treatment.
There are perverse incentives throughout the medical industry that cause this, and other scenarios that may appear to be corrupt. Whether the construction of the incentive structures is the result of deliberate or corrupt practices with a deliberate goal of creating those perverse incentives that push physicians in particular directions, and harshly punish any who dare to deviate, is an open question. The COVID nonsense has shown how corrupted and corrupting the medical governing bodies and associations are. They are a very small group of mostly anonymous technocrats that are capable of forcing insane rules onto medical personnel. The medical personnel have a moral obligation to refuse this, but almost none do, because the entire weight of the corporate/government complex is against them. The cost of doing so is the total destruction of their careers, professional and social ostracization and relentless attack by zealots of the globalists."
Yeah.
(post is archived)