This Week In Doom — Opioid Marketing Edition

Item Accused NY Murderer Gets Charge Dropped Thanks To New Infanticide Law

But part of the new infanticide law that Governor Andrew Cuomo just signed "removes abortion from the state's criminal code and puts it into public health law." This was the stated reason the District Attorney gave for dropping the second charge.

Demons exist, and the matriarchy must be taken down.

Item Association of Pharmaceutical Industry Marketing of Opioid Products With Mortality From Opioid-Related Overdoses

Key Points

Question To what extent is pharmaceutical industry marketing of opioids to physicians associated with subsequent mortality from prescription opioid overdoses?

Findings In this population-based, cross-sectional study, $39.7 million in opioid marketing was targeted to 67?507 physicians across 2208 US counties between August 1, 2013, and December 31, 2015. Increased county-level opioid marketing was associated with elevated overdose mortality 1 year later, an association mediated by opioid prescribing rates; per capita, the number of marketing interactions with physicians demonstrated a stronger association with mortality than the dollar value of marketing.

Now I don't buy their analysis, which is the result of an over-complex unnecessary statistical model ("adjustment for county-level sociodemographic factors…" etc.) which relies on wee p-values for confirmation.

We don't need the model, because it is obvious the ads work. If the ads pushing docs to prescribe certain meds didn't work, they'd stop running the ads. As the study says, they're expensive (the ads).

What's more important is that this paper is almost admitting the ask-your-doctor-if-this-drug-is-right-for-you advertising works, too.

I was at an Internal Medicine conference once and this was the subject of some eminent speaker. I asked about these kinds of ads and the possibility of over-prescribing and he dismissed the idea completely. Apparently (some) doctors don't like admitting patient desire can sway their treatment decisions at this level.

Here, this looks like a paper lawyers who are suing over an opiod-caused death will use to ask docs "Did you ever see this ad? Did it influence you?"

Item Harvard's Clear Identity: How Kristina Olson's TransYouth Project is overturning expectations about gender

In the United States, the importance of a child'; sex seems a given. Parents-to-be consider whether or not to find out if their baby is a boy or a girl, and often the first words spoken after the birth are "It's a girl!" or "It's a boy!" Children who identify differently are thought to be confused or oppositional. Olson has found that the reverse is true.

Olson is satanic. As is Harvard, a place of evil. Do not let your children go there.

Item Man wants to sue his parents for giving birth to him 'without his consent' as part of 'anti-natalist' movement that says having children is morally wrong

A man is planning to sue his parents in India for giving birth to him 'without his consent'.

Raphael Samuel said he had a 'great relationship' with his parents but has compared having children to 'kidnapping and slavery'.

The 27-year-old from Mumbai is an 'anti-natalist' who believes it is wrong to put an unwilling child through the 'rigmarole' of life for the pleasure of its parents.

The anti-natalist movement is gaining traction in India as younger people resist social pressure to have children.

You have to hand it to this guy. Inventing a new form of insanity in such a crowded field is no small achievement.

Item State bill would outlaw Confederate displays on public [and private?] property

New legislation in Georgia would outlaw any symbols, monuments, memorials or other dedications to the Confederacy on public property.

Under HB 175, the only exception to the ban would be at museums, Civil War battlefields, 11Alive reported.

Even flying a Confederate battle flag on private property might be outlawed.

The bill would also make it illegal to display symbols of the Confederacy at a residence, store, place of business, public building or school. That law includes inside or outside those buildings.

It will be like the Confederacy never even existed. The past must become the future!

There are already denial laws , why not acknowledgement laws?

Item Oxford University's Classics degree to be overhauled in bid to boost number of female students getting Firsts

One of Oxford University's oldest degrees is to be overhauled in bid to boost number of female students getting top grades.

Classics dons who marked last year's exam papers said the gender gap is "very troubling", adding that it must be addressed as a matter of "urgency".

More than double the number of men were awarded first class honours in their Finals last year than women, with 46.8 per cent of men achieving the top grade compared to 12.5 per cent of their female peers.

Academics noted that the gender gap in Finals – which was "already very noticeable" – had "dramatically increased" in the most recent cohort of students due to an a record number of men taking Firsts.

Meanwhile, in second…

As we have discovered multitudinous times, Diversity and Equality always lead to a lowering of standings. Absolutely always.

We may now suspect the women being given degrees are not as good as the men, whereas before mandatory quotas, we could not make that assumption.

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