Abstract
I wish to caution against undue weight being given to received wisdom and false assumptions of ‘expertise’, particularly in the context of new epidemics. I argue that, in some cases, reliance on received wisdom can lead to poor decision-making in public health terms, whether we are talking about Mad Cow Disease, the likelihood of a novel strain of influenza causing many fatalities, or the best way to reduce overdose deaths soon after release from prison. I shall also stress the importance of well-designed data-acquisition which is, or should be, the forte of statistician-scientists.
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Subject
Political Science and International Relations,Geography, Planning and Development
Reference14 articles.
1. Male drugs-related deaths in the fortnight after release from prison: Scotland, 1996-99
2. European Union’s rapid TSE testing in adult cattle and sheep: implementation and results in 2001 and 2002
3. T. Bennett and K. Holloway (2011) Evaluation of the Take Home Naloxone Demonstration Project. Welsh Assembly Government Social Research, 13/2011, May 2011. (http://wales.gov.uk/about/aboutresearch/social/latestresearch/naloxoneproject/jsessionid=c1bTTNVQlhfz0b29xxcqT1mDR9hTdT1hQmjghYm6LN4ynxv7CTnR!-505488680?lang=en)
4. Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (chairman: Professor Sir Michael Rawlins) (2000) Reducing Drug Related Deaths (London: Home Office).
5. Predicting incidence of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease from UK dietary exposure to bovine spongiform encephalopathy for the 1940 to 1969 and post-1969 birth cohorts