Does Malaria Cause Low IQ?, and Other News
Does malaria cause low IQ? Bill Gates says yes. HT to Alex Tabarrok and Tyler Cowen, who reviewed the literature.
If you need insurance to drive a car, shouldn’t you have insurance to cover your dog? A Texas legislator is proposing just that.
The news story: removal of lymph nodes for certain women with breast cancer is ineffective and harmful. The ethics story: some doctors have known the study results for months and felt no need to spread the word quickly to other hospitals and patients. (HT to Paul Levy at THCB)
Doctors complaints about patients: They don’t do what they are told (37%) and they don’t respect doctors as much as they used to (70%).
Mandated liability insurance for my dog? Whatever happened to individual rights?
Interesting observation by Paul Levy on the ethics of keeping quiet about reserach that is about to be published. This sort of ethical “lapse” happens all the time?
You mean doctors are complaining that patients no longer treat them as gods?
There is probably some correlation between malaria and IQ; but I doubt if it’s causal. Low IQ can be related to genetic or nutritional factors that might also make someone more susceptible to malaria or other parasitic disease.
The dog insurance thing is for the dog causing property damage if off the leash.
I can see the idea behind it, but I bet the animal rights people would go crazy. You make insurance mandatory, and all of a sudden, thousands of 20+ pound dogs will be put to sleep.