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Fuel the Enlightenment

SuperFreakonomics with Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner

Commonwealth Club
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regi naomi Avatar
regi naomi
Posts: 1
Posted: 11.10.09, 04:28 PM
Docs and hand washing: a problem looking for a fairly easy solution. Why not automatic handwashers? Doc just sticks hands into 2 holes in machine, and hands are automatically sprayed with antibiotic soap & warm water, rinsed, then air dried within seconds? That would save docs time from looking for old-fashioned wet sloppy sink, adjusting hot & cold water, reaching for soap, paper towel, etc.
Rodrigo Arnez-Rojas Avatar
Rodrigo Arnez-Rojas
Posts: 1
Posted: 11.10.09, 08:48 PM
Instead of pointing fingers and whistle blowing on doctors I’d find it more interesting to hear Dubner and Levitt’s take on why economists are washing their hands off on the financial crisis and why they failed to anticipate and respond. Maybe there’s a perception deficit on how they think they’re doing and how they are really doing.
surtr Avatar
surtr
Posts: 1
Posted: 11.11.09, 03:56 AM
FLAWED, FLAWED, FLAWED.

Levitt & Dubner are academics whose special power is to be able to sexify topics like handwashing for the masses and titling their books catchy names like "Freakonomics". The sexying up of topics is done primarily by using hyperbole ("you should wash your hands before you put them inside a person" verges on slander).

They also (conveniently?) ignore the nurses-doctor split in their study using "nursing spies", despite blathering on about psychological issues through this clip. The disparity of 70% to 9% is never explained or considered except as "doctors lie, but unconsciously, so they're not like, you know, BAD people".

I also think doctors don't wash their hands enough, but in NSW the focus is on ALL clinical staff to wash their hands - because doctors are not the only people "putting hands inside people". It would have been fascinating to have run a similar handwashing study but using a neutral third party 'spy' and observed ALL clinical staff, including nurses, for handwashing.

Very disappointing to see two celebrity academics cherry pick data and choose to remain blind to possible flaws in the data. Should have been warned by their pre-emptive "we're not doctor bashing" note, those sentences are always like "I'm not racist, but..." statements.
adambl Avatar
adambl
Posts: 31
Posted: 11.11.09, 01:03 PM
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2...?currentPage=1

Great article about the power of sanitation in hospitals. Following a simple checklist reduced infection rates by 66%, and yet many doctors and hospitals are unwilling to follow it. Kind of frustrating.
scottyecho Avatar
scottyecho
Posts: 3
Posted: 11.12.09, 12:50 PM
Will someone please define a measurable definition of the word 'Drunk' so that we can have some accurate statistics, instead of pc retoric.
theguy Avatar
theguy
Posts: 1
Posted: 11.12.09, 10:21 PM
Why is the mile the appropriate unit for the denominator? Of course more miles are driven drunk than they are walked. It would be more meaningful to divide the deaths by the number of times engaging in each drunk walking and drunk driving. I guess Freakonomics is catchier than Sensationalist-onomics.
AnaPaulina Avatar
AnaPaulina
Posts: 4
Posted: 11.23.09, 09:36 PM
The focus should be on the surfaces that become contaminated due to contaminated gloves.
phiscal Avatar
phiscal
Posts: 40
Posted: 01.25.10, 04:43 PM
to Rodrigo above: The financial crisis was not caused by economists.
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