Ignoring facts, relying on anecdotes
I found John Olsen’s guest commentary “Don’t pull the plug on American medicine” [Opinion, Nov. 25] insulting to the intelligence of The Seattle Times readership.
Olsen spends the first paragraph’s telling his readers to ignore statistics, because those are somehow inaccurate, then tells us a feel-good fable about dedicated doctors driving through the night in horse-drawn carriages to make house calls.
How many house calls Olsen has made in his career, he doesn’t share with us. No doubt that would be another misleading statistic.
By telling his readers to ignore statistics, otherwise known as facts, and then giving us some heartwarming cheerleading about America’s greatness that has no bearing on anything, Olsen shows he has mastered the GOP strategy of ignoring facts and relying on anecdotes.
In short, he gave no substantive arguments at all. In fact, his opening paragraphs specifically argued against substance, then we get fables and jingoistic cheerleading.
— Brad Lowe, Edmonds
Relies on a Mark Twain quote, foreign aid
While I applaud John Olsen for pointing out the virtues of American medicine, his opinion lacks scientific support.
The doctor provides no data to confirm that any of the factors (poor data collection, genetics, etc.) mentioned would change study conclusions as to the ranking of our medical outcomes.
Instead, he relies on a Mark Twain quote to infer the statistics lie. He tells us not to believe the data, but to put our faith in his observations that all is right in the medical community, as supported by a statistic claiming a medical error rate of only 1 in 100,000.
Strange, since he just told us that we need to beware of those darn lying statistics. Sorry doctor, but science is driven by data, not opinion, and the data have spoken.
Finally, I would like to point out the first dialysis machine was developed by Dr. Willem Kolf from the Netherlands, the Human Genome Project was coordinated by the United States, but involved researchers from all over the world, and that catheter-based cardiac intervention owes much of its development to one Dr. Andreas Gruentzig of Germany.
— Kevin Malone, Port Orchard
American medicine is excellent
How refreshing to hear some moderate opinions from Dr. John Olsen. We need to moderate the rush to judgment from people who don’t really think through the problems found in the American medical system and complain that it’s better overseas.
I have lived in 10 different nations throughout Europe and Latin America for a total of 32 years. I have seen firsthand what those medical systems deliver to their citizens, and I can tell you that it’s really quite poor.
In one European country we lived in, a child is not considered born until 48 hours after birth, and so those infants who die are not included in the statistics on infant mortality — erroneous skewing of vital statistics, just as Olsen pointed out.
I know of people overseas who wait more than six months for treatment because the medical system is so backed up. In one country, general practitioners have the equivalent of an undergraduate degree — four years at a university, residence and straight into practice.
I could go on and on, but Olsen is right: We should not pull the plug. American medicine is excellent.
Few people would argue that a hard look at expanding medical coverage may be necessary, but why rush in to alter things, until a real in-depth decision can provide a truly good solution.
— James L. Quinn, Medina
