Real “Science” by Pat Conrad MD
And here ladies and gentlemen, is your headline:
“Muslim doctors and nurses are to be allowed to opt out of strict hygiene rules introduced by the NHS to restrict the spread of hospital superbugs.” Admittedly this is not as sexy as my usual stuff, but the U.K. Department of Health is making concessions on the basis of religion.
Britain’s NHS determined that it would help to deter the spread of resistant superbugs by keeping arms bare below the elbows, and scrubbing vigorously. The new, improved Britain-istan decided that in order to preserve the “modesty” of Muslim women, female staffers could keep their arms covered. Similar jewelry concessions are also being made for the Sikh’s arm jewelry.
Why bring you this story? Maybe the U.K. NHS is as over the top as our JCHAO regarding MRSA, and maybe bare arms do or don’t matter. I haven’t read the studies, and don’t really care. But the British government decided that the scientific thing to do was to scrub and bare forearms when treating patients, and then they reversed themselves based on religion and cultural conflict.
This story exemplifies a point I keep making: now that we have handed health care over to government and popular will (idiocy), all medicine is political. Don’t bother constructing a decent study; go to social media, protest, collect votes, pressure bureaucrats, and raise hell.
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I know a respected plastic surgeon who I never saw scrub for procedures. True they were
superficial but I witnessed some free flap transfers with microvascular work required.
His infection rate was no worse than anyone else’s period. Was fastidious at looking at his gloves for leaks though.
Funny thing happened on the hand washing front recently. The FDA just banned two types of antibacterial soap commonly used in hospitals because it has been discovered that they seem to induce antibacterial resistance (oops).
Political correctness has been said to be tyranny with manners.
Political Correctness Kills.