{"id":4819,"date":"2021-09-30T08:20:05","date_gmt":"2021-09-30T12:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=4819"},"modified":"2021-09-30T08:20:11","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T12:20:11","slug":"expertization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2021\/09\/30\/expertization\/","title":{"rendered":"Expertization"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As Seen On TV<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m retired.  One of the \u201cbenefits\u201d of retirement, is that I get to watch more TV than I did while I was working.  And one of the things I\u2019ve noticed is that there are an awful lot of commercials for \u201cniche\u201d pharmaceuticals.  What\u2019s a \u201cniche\u201d pharmaceutical?  So here\u2019s an example:  Vanda <\/em>is a drug used by blind people who are suffering from Non-24 syndrome.  That\u2019s when they lose the normal sleep cycle of night and day, because they don\u2019t experience light and dark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that\u2019s got to be a huge issue for them, In a world that\u2019s set up on a day\/night cycle.\u00a0\u00a0And I\u2019m very glad they\u2019ve found a drug that can help.\u00a0\u00a0But\u00a0Vanda<\/em>\u00a0is running a national ad campaign on television to let blind people know about the medication.\u00a0\u00a0How many totally blind people are watching TV?\u00a0\u00a0And how many of them are suffering from Non-24 Syndrome?\u00a0\u00a0How much money does that pharmaceutical company have \u2013 that they can pay for a national ad campaign to maybe reach the 65,000 to 95,000 who are estimated to suffer from this disorder?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing Prescriptions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

And another thing about all that.  Why are those companies \u201cselling\u201d drugs for very specific cancers, auto-immune diseases, and asthma caused by a specific protein?  Isn\u2019t determining what drug is more effective up to the doctors who specialize in those issues?  Why are pharmaceuticals campaigning \u201cover\u201d the specialists heads directly to the patients?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a simple answer to that last question.\u00a0\u00a0The companies want the patients to go into the doctor and tell them they want that specific drug.\u00a0\u00a0And the doctors may well write a prescription for that specific drug, because the patient wants it.\u00a0\u00a0Clearly that must happen a lot, otherwise the pharmaceuticals\u2019 wouldn\u2019t pay the incredibly high price per patient for a national advertising campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which brings us to the larger point of this essay.\u00a0\u00a0We are being trained to become our own \u201cexperts\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0We are being told what specific cancer treatment to use, and then to go to our oncologist and get it.\u00a0\u00a0The commercial says we can reduce our psoriatic reactions, and improve our eosinophilic asthma symptoms.\u00a0\u00a0We are becoming \u201cthe experts\u201d, instead of the real experts we pay, who have a decade or more of schooling and practice in the field.\u00a0\u00a0Who cares what the doctor says:\u00a0\u00a0the commercial on TV says this will work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rocket Science<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

And this \u201cexpertization\u201d of America bleeds over into our current national health crisis \u2013 Covid.\u00a0\u00a0The Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccines are MRNA vaccines.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s a technique developed over the past two decades to \u201cfool\u201d our immune systems into creating anti-bodies against a virus without exposing it to the actual virus itself.\u00a0\u00a0Unlike the flu vaccine, where we are exposed to a weak or killed dose of the actual flu, MRNA vaccines stimulate antibody creation by simulating the proteins a virus uses to attach itself to cells, but not the virus itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if that\u2019s not a clear enough explanation, that\u2019s no surprise.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s not rocket science, it\u2019s even worse: molecular biology.\u00a0\u00a0But how many Americans today have decided for themselves that the molecular biologists are \u201cwrong\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0And even worse, many Americans are listening to \u201cexperts\u201d, dressed in white lab coats, who really don\u2019t have expertise at all in this area of science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fix Your Own Car<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I used to work on cars.  Back in the day, I tore my 1967 Volkswagen Squareback engine apart.  I even put the pistons in the oven, and the wrist pins in the freezer before I re-assembled them.  Mom was definitely NOT HAPPY when she walked in and found that.  I wasn\u2019t an expert, in fact I was using the manual \u2013 \u201cHow to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive for the Compleat Idiot\u201d (you can still find a copy of that – $301 on Amazon<\/a>!).   It was fun, but it was also necessary.  I couldn\u2019t pay for the repairs, so I had to do it myself.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rebuild worked, and I drove the Squareback until the floor boards rusted out.  But when I pop the hood on our 2011 Chevy Silverado pickup truck, it\u2019s difficult to even find familiar landmarks.  Modern engines are a balance between electronic controls and traditional engine parts, all adjusted by a computer \u201cbrain\u201d.  It\u2019s not even in the \u201cballpark\u201d of this \u201cCompleat Idiot\u201d, and I hire a professional to maintain and fix it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s car mechanics, not molecular biology.\u00a0\u00a0I wouldn\u2019t ignore my professional about the Silverado, so why would I ignore the world\u2019s leading virologists, like Dr. Fauci about the Covid vaccine?\u00a0\u00a0The answer for some: I heard it on TV, or a podcast, or I read it on FACEBOOK \u2013 so it must be true.\u00a0\u00a0And that all starts with those wonderful ads on television, telling me about how to fix my asthma, or extend my life with cancer, or how to sleep while blind.\u00a0\u00a0We\u2019ve all become \u201cexperts\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Seen On TV I\u2019m retired.  One of the \u201cbenefits\u201d of retirement, is that I get to watch more TV than I did while I was working.  And one of the things I\u2019ve noticed is that there are an awful lot of commercials for \u201cniche\u201d pharmaceuticals.  What\u2019s a \u201cniche\u201d pharmaceutical?  So here\u2019s an example:  Vanda is a drug used by blind … Continue reading “Expertization”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nExpertization : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We have all become "experts" on drugs - from the ones for cancer, to the ones that protect us from COVID. 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