Re: Race Based Medicine Arrives



"DK" <dk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:emejeg$2tq0$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <emangh$162p$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "g"
<gillawton@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Re: message below...

It is only for ECONOMIC reasons -- vis a vis, it would cost a
hell of a lot of money to do a full physiological and genetic evaluation
on
each individual (and each specific kind of mutagenic pathology within that
individual, where applicable) pursuant to arriving at the optimal medical
protocol, procedure, choice of pharmaceuticals or dosages are best
fitting.

No, it has a lot more to do with the lack of knowledge and technology than
it does with economy. Not only we can't sequence every human being
in the world but we also can't yet make much sense of it, should such
information be available.

Lack of knowledge and technology pervades all scientific endeavors and all
technology applications.

While in the employ of the U. S. Public Health Service... decades ago, I was
assigned the responsibility of contacting physicians in their offices, to
talk
with them about communicable disease reporting and tests then recommended
by CDC for making definite diagnoses. While many physicians I contacted
were well aware of the limits of their professional knowledge, and quite
prone
to check to be sure of the meaning of a given test or series of tests in
ruling in
or out a particular diagnosis... there were some who seemed always to be on
top of current details off the tops of their heads. Also, there were some
who
were asking laboratories to run tests that had been obsolesced by decades of
new and improved ones. Some of these would make a diagnosis based upon
a current test which, by itself alone, did not rule out a variable diagnosis
of
as many as nine different disorders which would produce a positive response.

It goes without saying that even the world's best informed individuals are
ignorant in the sense that much remains to be learned that is yet unknown to
any human.

Then there is much wisdom that is known to a few very special individuals
who
have the capacity and the motivation to stay pretty much on top of things.

Then there are things that anyone but what you describe as an "idiot" would
know
and abide by.

And then there are those in ANY profession who are dumb like a fox about
things
they should take into account, and abide by, in making decisions... where
the
extra effort to give a patient benefit of all they can know, or -- by going
an extra
mile could readily find out -- but who tend to be too preoccupied, or too
busy,
or too intent upon increasing income and decreasing expense, or who do not
wish
to stress themselves very much, to give a patient duly diligent care.

I suspect that the expression "going the extra mile" is misleading. A mile
is a long
distance. In real, everyday situations there are some health professionals
who do
go extra miles and extra hours... and overdo it and burn themselves out.

But for every one of those, there are many who will not take that extra
MINUTE
to walk over and check a resource book on their office shelf to confirm
something
they are just "pretty sure of." Keeping up with the current literature in a
medical
specialty is WORK.

My brother, a thorasic surgeon was appalled when he began doing surgeries in
a
particular hospital and discovered other surgeons were applying surgical
procedures
which were ten years or more behind the times, and had three to five times
the
mortality risk. Unfortunately, he spoke up about it and made himself hated
for
doing so.

Granted, there is a lot of ignorance of relationships between human
genotypes and
directly related optimums in treatment protocols, where some dedicated
researchers
really want to know, and are busting there buns to find out more. But not
all
*ignorance* is ignorance of that kind. Some of it is just a matter of some
very
brilliant people not bothering to avail themselves of newest information and
technology, because they are too busy making money or playing god... with
too
many patients not exercising their own due diligence to make sure they are
not
getting second rate care. Some of it is innocent dumbass ignorance. Some
of it
is lazy ignorance. Some of it is pretended ignorance... or learning-biased
ignorance,
where the professional can see three more patients per day by giving all
patients
the bums rush as fast as he and his office staff can get 'em in and get 'em
out.

I know and love a few doctors among dear friends and close family... and I
know
their stresses, their fatigue, their self-doubts, their need for respite
(whether they
take any, or not). And I fully understand the need for the healer to take
heed that
he/she doesn't predecease his/her patients...

But ignorance derives from many causes... some unavoidable, some
excusable...
some careless, some neglicent, and some grossly opportunistic and
exploitive.


g



When complete information is lacking, one can still get some useful
information from proxy knowledge. "Race" is just a proxy to a set of
genetic markers (the point aptly demonstrated by numerous papers
in the recent years). In that sense, racial categorization remains
practically useful - as are any other biological abstractions like
(sub)species, genera, ect.

If I were a member of a stereotypic category of which most members are
dead
by the time they are eighty, and I were ninety-one, and healthy... I would
resent being treated by physicians and morticians as though the only
proper
way to treat members of my "research population" indicated I was long
overdue for, and therefore in immediate need of being embalmed.

That imaginarty situation suggests that you would be dealing with
idiot physicians and morticians. In real life, I doubt most of them
can't grasp concept distribution.

DK



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