In 2002, the leaflet that came with one of the most popular antidepressants of the time told patients, "remember you cannot become addicted." Many took that to mean they could stop whenever they wanted. When they actually tried to quit, a lot of them found withdrawal symptoms worse than the illness they had started the drug for. Here's what patients went through: https://t.me/MidwesternDoctor

SARS escaped from laboratories years before the debates over COVID's origins. And some of those incidents led to infections beyond laboratory workers. The danger of studying infectious pathogens was already a subject of scientific concern long before it became a political one. When research is justified as protection against future outbreaks, its own potential to cause an outbreak belongs in the calculation. Here I collect the earlier incidents and warnings, and examine the incentives that keep dangerous research moving forward: https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/why-the-bioweapons-research-industry https://t.me/MidwesternDoctor

“It could help” is not enough information to decide whether or not to take a treatment. How likely is the benefit? How much would it improve your life? What is the chance of harm, and how serious could that harm be? A dramatic benefit that rarely happens and a modest benefit that happens often are very different propositions. Yet medical decisions are too often reduced to whether something is approved or recommended. Here I explain the calculation behind those questions, how misleading probabilities distort our choices, and why the answer must account for the person receiving the treatment: https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/the-critical-calculation-medicine https://t.me/MidwesternDoctor