Towards BULLSHIT-FREE communication

SUPERBUGS, MAD COWS, MAD SCIENCE AND
REGULATORY-SCIENTIFIC MISADVENTURES:

IT’S A TIME TO BE HUMBLE; IT’S A TIME TO APOLOGIZE!

<< "Seeing reality is the first step towards changing it." >>

New mission statement for public health agencies:

To play nicely TOGETHER in the sand box and find ways to tolerate and resolve differing minority regulatory science opinions (the approach of the supreme court should be considered);

TO BE HUMBLE by remembering the many regulatory-scientific misadventures in our past, e.g., the blood crises, the Vioxx paradox, SARS farce, the ongoing superbug crisis (add any number of other examples) and to reflect that mad cow disease is perhaps the greatest regulatory-scientific misadventure, amounting to the ultimate doctors’ dilemma and vegetarians’ worst nightmare because of the potential broad impact on foods, drugs, medical devices, cosmetics and other bovine sourced consumer products ......

To work cooperatively and transparently with all fellow Canadian citizens to maximize the health impact of the public health resources being spent;

To resist creating false expectations by making promises we know we can’t keep;

To resist wasting precious public health resources by working in redundancy or reinventing the wheel (mapleleafing) and by fostering progress by adopting or importing innovations that exist elsewhere;

To accept full responsibility for the regulatory-scientific misadventures the same way we celebrate regulatory-scientific successes;

To recognize that spin doctoring, bullshit and "lience" have no place in public health science;

To admit that we may not have all the answers all of the time and that our answers are not the only possible answers; and to never again pronounce that "The review process is sound, rigorous and based on the best available scientific information and we can be confident in our conclusions." .....

IT’S A TIME TO BE HUMBLE!

Bullshit in science

Science-based bullshit & scientist-spouted bullshit
is still bullshit!

Reference: On Bullshit - Harry G. Frankfurt, 2005
"One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit."