All excerpted posts are © the original author. Please consult their blog for the full story and to comment.

rampant

Saturday 11 January 2014

The All Trials dilemma | WWDDTYDTY

WDDTY has a dilemma.

On the one hand, Ben Goldacre‘s book Bad Pharma is, on the face of it, a gift to quacks, shining a light on chronic abuse of the clinical trials system by Big Pharma – and the All Trials initiative is a public campaign that is likely to effect material change.

On the other, WDDTY is part of the world characterised by Wally Sampson as “sectarian medicine”, where taking sides is the thing that matters most. Sectarianism is why quacks support each other even when their ideas are mutually exclusive. WDDTY cannot promote Bad Pharma or support All Trials, because Ben Goldacre is one of the most effective critics of quackery today, and All Trials is promoted by Sense About Science.

As in politics: the mere fact of having been suggested by the “opposition” makes it ideologically impossible to get behind an idea, no matter how transparently sensible and correct it is.

Continue reading: The All Trials dilemma | WWDDTYDTY