[extropy-chat] Failure of low-fat diet

[Robin Hanson]

At 11:19 AM 2/23/2006, Russell Wallace wrote:
>On 2/23/06, Robin Hanson <<mailto:rhanson at gmu.edu>rhanson at gmu.edu> wrote:
>Oh, sure, it is very clear we live longer, and that the proximate
>cause is that diseases that used to kill us no longer do.   But ask
>yourself where the mountain of evidence is that this fact is best
>explained by the facts that we now have better drugs, doctors,
>sewers, and water supplies.
>
>Let's take the most obvious case: diseases like smallpox, polio, 
>measles and whooping cough that were largely or entirely eradicated 
>by the use of vaccines. Are you seriously suggesting that it might 
>have been just a coincidence, that some mysterious alternative force 
>made the diseases go away just when the vaccines would have eradicated them?

"The Questionable Contribution of Medical Measures to the Decline of 
Mortality in the United States in the Twentieth Century", by John and 
Sonja McKinlay, Milbank Quarterly, 55:405-428, 1977.

It shows graphs of the mortality rates as a function of time.  There 
isn't much apparent effect at the time when famous vaccines were introduced.



Robin Hanson  rhanson at gmu.edu  http://hanson.gmu.edu
Associate Professor of Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326  FAX: 703-993-2323