These (white) medical students today!

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2020

They're much better than these journalists: We've been at our current task,  at our current site, for almost twenty-three years now. 

We're still astonished by the things These Upper-End Journalists say. We're also routinely amazed by the howlers they put into print.

In the category of howling errors, consider this morning's column by the Washington Post's Michele Norris. In a column about black reluctance to take a vaccine, Norris emits this stone-cold, script-aligned howler:

NORRIS (12/10/20): We are not just tussling with historical wrongs. A recent study of White medical students found that half believed that Black patients had a higher tolerance for pain and were more likely to prescribe inadequate medical treatment as a result.

Is that statement accurate? Did a recent study really find that "half [of white medical students] believed that Black patients had a higher tolerance for pain?"

We clicked two links, starting with the link Norris provides. This let us examine the eleven questions the medical students were asked. 

More precisely, the students were asked to evaluate the accuracy of eleven different statements. And uh-oh:

Among third- and fourth-year medical students, only one, out of 87 in all, evaluated the relevant statement in the way Norris describes. And that one student may have said that the statement in question was only "possibly true." 

None of the other 86 white boys and Karens scored it as "true" at all! That works out to way more than half!

One out of 87 is substantially less than half! Norris has been a high-level insider since roughly forever, but this is very much the way this incompetent bunch tends to play. 

(Also at fault is Janice A. Sabin, MSW, PhD, whose slippery work misled the absurdly credulous Norris. We'll provide the details tomorrow.)

In the category of "things these journalists say," we'll refer you to this snark-rich essay at New York magazine concerning—Yay! Yay! Yay!—the latest exciting sex scandal.

(Headline: "The China Sex Spy Scandal Is a Reminder: Don’t Govern While Horny." Yay yay yay yay yay! This is just so much fun!)

Personally, we aren't crazy about Rep. Eric Swalwell—but still and all, go ahead! Read what Eve Peyser says about Swalwell in her thrilling and entertaining report. Then, compare it to what is said in the "bombshell report by Axios" which Peyser cites as her source.

Peyser arrives with plenty of swagger, also with plenty of voice. She's also taking plenty of liberties with the material she cites as her source.

Based on what we've seen today, the medical students seem alright. The upper-end scribes, not so much!

These upper-end mainstream typists today! We'll fill in the details tomorrow.


8 comments:

  1. “We clicked two links, starting with the link Norris provides.”

    This is a form of journalistic malpractice on Somerby’s part, since he doesn’t provide the second link. Clicking the first link in Norris’s story (“How we fail black patients in pain”
    https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/how-we-fail-black-patients-pain) takes you to an article that contains 10 links. Which one, Bob?

    If you spend enough time hunting around, you find this that vaguely matches Somerby’s description:
    “Racial bias in pain assessment and treatment recommendations, and false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites”
    https://www.pnas.org/content/113/16/4296

    But then Somerby says this:
    “Among third- and fourth-year medical students, only one, out of 87 in all, evaluated the relevant statement in the way Norris describes.”

    There is no single “relevant” statement. There are 11 statements which, when taken together, yield the result indicated.

    And all this poorly laid out bs from Somerby to argue with an opinion column that says that blacks are less likely to get a vaccine. Given that we know blacks are more likely to die from Covid, this is especially troubling.

    Somerby’s denial of racism is one of his worst blind spots.

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  2. There is a large literature showing inequities in pain treatment for black people compared to white people, based on chart review for conditions such as emergency room treatment of broken limbs, cancer pain, chronic back pain, and dental pain.

    It is more complex than simply believing that black people have higher pain tolerance. Doctors are more likely to suspect black patients of being medication-seeking, which means faking pain in order to get drugs that can be sold or used to get high. Doctors think they can tell who is faking and who is not, but stereotypes about black people affect such judgments and result in black people who are genuinely in pain (who fakes a broken limb) not receiving proper pain medication (compared to white people). This has led to implementation of different pain evaluation standards and a standard of care for assessing and treating pain.

    Another complicating factor is the tendency for black people to be more expressive (across all kinds of settings) and to believe that they can and should complain to their physician when they are feeling pain, as opposed to other subcultures where stoicism is valued and pain expression is suppressed. The famous stiff-upper-lip. Physicians interpret that expressivity as faked and medication-seeking.

    I was at a dinner party once and was describing my pain research to a physician who told me proudly that he had a woman in his office that week who was definitely faking. I asked him how he knew and he said "She told me she was in terrible pain and then she turned to her daughter and smiled at her." Physicians think that no one in pain can smile and that is entirely untrue. Smiles are used to mask both pain and negative affect. In this case, the mother may have been trying to reassure her daughter that everything was OK, to keep her from being frightened of the hospital or worried about her mom.

    From my university research experience, I know that blacks are also less likely to volunteer for research studies. We sent out student assistants all over campus to actively recruit subjects for the black comparison group in one study since they did not respond to ads or extra credit. That comes from historical abuses of human subjects, not solely the Tuskeegee study.

    Somerby is quick to mock because he doesn't know anything about this topic. He will probably be back here next week arguing that ethnic studies programs are unnecessary. That's another conservative meme, along with the idea that when black people complain about an injustice, there is nothing to it or they are trying to work the system. That's why these kinds of studies needed to be done -- to counteract the belief that pain is felt differently by African Americans (that's why they all become boxers).

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    1. Fantastic comment. Bob attracts thoughtful and focused comments unlike some blogs that simply attract trolls. In reference to the topic at hand. Bob seems to forget that the current Governor of Virginia who is a physician almost had to resign because of a Blackface scandal involving a photo of him as a recent GRADUATE of medical school. Although he has denied it we all know that it is Northam in the photo. By the way he is standing next to another medical college graduate in that photo and he is dressed up as a klansman. There is racism in the medical field and Black people have been treated very poorly by the medical establishment. Your example of the pain and request for medication is a good one.The stereotyping and disgraceful lack of empathy for African Americans by White physicians almost borders on the criminal.

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