The Skeptical OB

In the wake of the Disneyland measles outbreak, I wrote about what I believe to be the drivers of anti-vaccine sentiment: privilege, defiance and parental ego. We have to confront anti-vax parents where they live — in their egos. When refusing to vaccinate your children is widely viewed as selfish, irresponsible, and the hallmark of […]

When people think about medical errors they imagine mistakes like prescribing the wrong medication, performing the wrong surgery, or leaving a sponge inside a patient. Sadly, there are many technical errors like this, but often the worst medical errors — and the most insidious — are the simplest. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine anything that […]

Serena Williams holds many wonderful statistical records in tennis, but recently she nearly became a tragic maternal mortality statistic. Her experience further illuminates the shape of the maternal mortality problem. Maternal mortality is disproportionately a problem of black women with pre-existing health conditions. All too often it involves poor medical care, specifically assuming pregnancy complications are […]

Volvos are widely recognized as the safest cars on the road. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced today [June 7. 2017] that Volvo Cars will receive an award for its continued focus on safety. Of course, Volvo changed the car industry—and essentially invented the concept of highway safety—in 1959 when it released a patent […]

The folks at VBACFacts are shocked, shocked that breech vaginal birth is discouraged. It’s time to summon all that passion you have for patient autonomy and take some action! Let’s support Dr. Annette Fineberg and flood this hospital with letters! The following is copied from a fellow birth advocate in California: “I’m so sad right […]

One of the greatest ironies of the anti-vaccine movement is that its proponents imagine themselves to be deep, incisive thinkers when they are the exact opposite. Their beliefs reflect immature cognitive errors and a spectacular failure of critical thinking. There are a lot of different definitions of critical thinking, including: [Critical thinking is] thinking about […]

Raw water. It’s the latest health craze, and no, I’m not making it up. According to the Washington Post: Hold your canteen under a natural spring and you’ll come away with crystal clear water, potentially brimming with beneficial bacteria as well as minerals from the earth. That’s what proponents of the “raw water” movement are […]

Every maternal death is an extraordinary tragedy, but Erica Garner’s death seems particularly bitter in its irony. According to NPR: She entered the public eye in July 2014 when her father, Eric Garner, died after being put in a chokehold by a New York City police officer. Eric Garner was seen on video saying, “I […]

A mother puts Mountain Dew in her baby’s bottles, by age 2 the child is suffering massive tooth decay. Who’s to blame? Most of us would have no qualms about blaming the mother who put the soda in the baby’s bottles. The mother did not intend that the child’s teeth should rot, but she bears […]

What if in response to a famine in Sub-Saharan Africa, an international aid organization sent sterling silverware? When questioned, the organization replied that most wealthy Americans don’t eat with plastic utensils and prefer sterling, so why shouldn’t the poor have what the wealthy have? [pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]It’s soft bigotry to imagine […]