[extropy-chat] Are vaccinations useless?

[Robin Hanson]

At 03:15 AM 3/11/2006, Hal Finney wrote:
> > I believe it is up to the proponent of a new hypothesis to show that
> > their idea covers the relevant observations before the new hypothesis
> > is worth much scrutiny from others. ...
>
>Consider the question of whether advances in health and longevity are
>largely due or are not due to medicine.  Should we use the common-sense
>answer of yes, and demand that someone who argues otherwise take up
>the burden of proof?  Or should we use the accepted answer in the public
>health field of no, and demand that proponents of medicine's effectiveness
>prove it?

To elaborate, the answer of no is not only the accepted answer in public
health, it is also the accepted answer in the economics of health, and in the
sociology of health.   It is only some in medicine who say otherwise.

I am not a lone crank trying to prove an odd hypothesis - I am just a bearer
of news about the academic consensus.


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