Shots Across The Bow: Fumento is wrong!

May 7, 2003

Fumento is wrong!

Earlier, I posted on SARS, and how Michael Fumento's take was not only irresponsible, but wrong.

I'm not a doctor, but I do know when somebody is playing fast and loose with the truth. Now, there are doctors saying the same thing I said. According to this story on FoxNews:

New findings in The Lancet medical journal show that SARS is killing one in five of patients hospitalized with the virus in hard-hit Hong Kong (search), including 55 percent of infected patients aged over 60.

In younger patients, the death rate could be as low as 6.8 percent, the study found.

"That's sadly still very high for a respiratory infection," said Roy Anderson, the epidemiologist at London's Imperial College who headed the study. "In other common respiratory infections it is much less than 1 percent in the vulnerable elderly."

Granted, in areas with better medical care, those numbers will go down, but it is no longer possible to pretend that SARS is not a serious issue.

Couple this news with the announcement Sunday that SARS can survive for days outside of a host, and SARS becomes even more of a threat. If a SARS breakout isn't promptly controlled, it could be disastrous, as we are seeing in China.

Posted by Rich at May 7, 2003 11:41 AM | TrackBack

Comments

The ChiComs will come out the real losers in all this. The ongoing supression of data in China will, in all likelyhood, lead to the downfall of the Communist party. It will once and for all confirm that the ChiComs have lost what the Chinese call "The Mandate from Heaven."

Posted by: Sparkey on May 9, 2003 11:57 PM

"Fumento Is Wrong!" That's what you wrote about me and my SARS writing. As you now know, Fumento Was Right; Indeed, He Was Essentially the ONLY Journalist Who Was Right!"

http://www.fumento.com/disease/sarsimpact.html

Are you too little of a man to admit that YOU were wrong, and terribly so? It seems that if you were going to, you would have gotten around to it by now. And by the way, Fumento Was Right! about Atkins, too.

http://www.fumento.com/fat/nroatkins.html

I've been writing on epidemiology for 16 years. If you lock horns with me, you're going to be wrong. But it seems you should at least have the guts to admit it. Or is that why your shots go across the bow, instead of actually striking the target?

Sincerely,
Michael Fumento

Posted by: Michael Fumento on August 10, 2003 3:35 AM

Here is what I said on SARS:
"If a SARS breakout isn't promptly controlled, it could be disastrous, as we are seeing in China."

It was controlled; it was contained. That doesn't mean it didn't represent a serious threat. By your numbers, SARS had an overall mortality rate of approxinmately 9%. Since other respiratory ailments generally run at less than 1%, even in the elderly, that one factor alone warrants considerable concern. Your piece also goes on to state that the mortality is irrelevant since the incidence was so low. Comparing the spread in China with the rest of the world clearly demonstrates that without the actions of the WHO, the incidence would have been significantly higher.

Your argument only appears legitimate because it rests on the success of the very actions you claim were unneeded.

However, continue to glory in your isolated position of the only one who got it right. I'll continue to rely on those who actually practice epidemiology, rather than write about it.

As for your new article on Atkins, you've rehashed old points again without answering any of my questions.

1. If the Atkins plan merely "gives people a framework to eat fewer calories, since most of the choices in this culture are carbohydrate driven," how is that a problem? Don't you go on to say that dietary moderation is key to long term weight loss? If the Atkins Plan gives dieters the ability to reduce calories with minimal pain, where's the problem?

2. In your article, you say, "In addition to its something-for-nothing weight-loss promise, Atkins also insisted his diet relieves '[fatigue, irritability, depression, trouble concentrating, headaches, insomnia, dizziness, joint and muscle aches, heartburn, colitis, premenstrual syndrome, and water retention and bloating'." All of these symptoms are associated with obesity and its related health problems. If you lose weight on the Atkins Plan, it stands to reason that weight related problems will be minimized.

Interestingly, you choose to utilize a similar logic in your own article when you Robert Eckel,
"Eckel, who coauthored an accompanying commentary in the NEJM, says one probable reason for improved blood readings in the Atkins cohorts is that they did have greater weight loss, at least part of the time, in both studies. "Generally when people lose weight, both triglycerides and HDL improve," he told me." Both Atkins and Eckel are claiming benefits attendent on weight loss, yet you critique Atkins while giving Eckel a pass.

3. You close with:
"How peculiar when the most you can say for the best-selling fad-diet book of all time is that it probably doesn't kill people."

The summary of the Seeley study states:
"These results indicate that for short periods of time, a low carbohydrate, ketogenic diet is efficacious in causing weight loss and has no deleterious effects on cardiovascular risk factors."

Your bias is showing. Based on the studies you quote, the worst that can be said is that the Atkins diet works at least as well as the AHA diet, with none of the health risks you took great delight in pointing out in your Reason article.

For the remainder of my response to your e-mail and article, see my newest post.

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Posted by: vioxx on December 17, 2003 7:35 PM

Michael Funmento is what is known by REAL journalists as professional liar.

He makes his living lying to cover up actual public health issues such as mad cow, AIDS, SARS and anything that we put some more cash in his pocket.

Don't believe a word he writes and don't attempt to engage him in debate or dialogue. He will simply start rantiing at you like a lunatic and start name-calling like a big baby.

Very sad.

Posted by: Joe Bevilacqua on January 20, 2004 8:02 AM

Actually, Mr. Bevilacqua is an extremely frustrated individual. We grew up in the same town and I've become the success (the only mad cow piece I've written at this point was solicited by the Washington Post Outlook section) while he is among the countless website graphic artists in a constant state of semi-starvation. Every once in awhile he writes to me to say how ashamed my brother is of me, when actually my brother wants nothing to do with him and terminated him from a job. As his site shows, just as anybody can draw a picture anybody can do website graphics. But doing it well, ah, that's another thing. Oh, and by the way, who's going to pay for pieces saying that medical hysterias like SARS and AIDS are overblown? SARS, inc. and the ACME AIDS Company?

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