Yesterday, Wolf Blitzer held a live interview with Sicko filmmaker, Michael Moore, on CNN. After presenting a piece challenging some of the facts presented by Moore in the film, Moore preceded to rip Blitzer a new one, accusing him, CNN, and essentially the rest of the media of failing to prevent the war in Iraq. Moore demanded apologies to himself and the American people for the media's lack of service, though he also failed, in the live interview, to refute the facts presented by CNN concerning the current health care system in the US. Moore vowed to address those issues on his film's website. What follows is the raucous interview of Moore by Blitzer as well as the follow-up by Moore about the facts that he was charged with flubbing.


Honestly, the interview didn't leave me any more reassured that one or the other side was presenting accurate data. One study says one thing which is refuted or challenged by another piece of research. Everyone seems to agree that the US health care system needs reform, but no one seems to agree on the facts. Who should we trust? Respected doctors and journalists? Moore? I think the real lesson is that this is not a matter that we can leave up to any one person or source, and that to become well-informed about the issue requires that we each take some time to look at many sources, several pieces of research and data, and formulate the most educated opinion that we can. If the point is that we need open lines of communication and access to all of the data regardless of the frequent conflicts between the purported facts, I think that it's been well made.






'SiCKO' Truth Squad Sets CNN Straight

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN: "(Moore says) the United States slipped to number 37 in the world's health care systems. It's true. ... Moore brings a group of patients, including 9/11 workers, to Cuba and marvels at their free treatment and quality of care. But hold on - that WHO list puts Cuba's health care system even lower than the United States, coming in at 39."

THE TRUTH:

* "But hold on?" 'SiCKO' clearly shows the WHO list, with the United States at number 37, and Cuba at 39. Right up on the screen in big five-foot letters. It's even in the trailer! CNN should have its reporter see his eye doctor. The movie isn't hiding from this fact. Just the opposite.
* The fact that the healthcare system in an impoverished nation crippled by our decades-old blockade (including medical supplies and drugs) ranks so closely to ours is more an indictment of the American system than the Cuban system.
* Although Cuba ranks lower overall than the United States, it still has a lower infant mortality rate and longer life span. (see below)
* And unlike the United States, Cuba offers healthcare to absolutely everyone. In an independent Gallup poll conducted in Cuba, "a near unanimous 96 percent of respondents say that health care in Cuba is accessible to everyone." ("Cubans Show Little Satisfaction with Opportunities and Individual Freedom Rare Independent Survey Finds Large Majorities Are Still Proud of Island's Health Care and Education," January 10, 2007.
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/brlatinamericara/
300.php?nid=&id=&pnt=300&lb=brla)

CNN: "Moore asserts that the American health care system spends $7,000 per person on health. Cuba spends $25 dollars per person. Not true. But not too far off. The United States spends $6,096 per person, versus $229 per person in Cuba."

THE TRUTH:

* According to our own government – the Department of Health and Human Services' National Health Expenditures Projections – the United States will spend $7,092 per capita on health in 2006 and $7,498 in 2007. (Department of Health and Human Services Center for Medicare and Medicaid Expenditures, National Health Expenditures Projections 2006-2016. http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalHealthExpendData/downloads/proj2006.pdf)
* As for Cuba – Dr. Gupta and CNN need to watch 'SiCKO' first before commenting on it. 'SiCKO' says Cuba spends $251 per person on health care, not $25, as Gupta reports. And the BBC reports that Cuba's per capita health expenditure is… $251! (Keeping Cuba Healthy, BBC, Aug. 1 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/5232628.stm )
* As Gupta points out, the World Health Organization does calculate Cuba's per capita health expenditure at $229 per person – a lot closer to $251 than $25.

CNN: In fact, Americans live just a little bit longer than Cubans on average.

THE TRUTH:

* Just the opposite. The 2006 United Nations Human Development Report's human development index states the life expectancy in the United States is 77.5 years. It is 77.6 years in Cuba. (Human Development Report 2006, United Nations Development Programme, 2006 at 283. http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/pdfs/report/HDR06-complete.pdf)

CNN: The United States ranks highest in patient satisfaction.

THE TRUTH:

* True, but even when the WHO took patient satisfaction into account in its comprehensive review of the world's health systems, we still came in at 37. ("World Health Organization Assesses The World's Health Systems," Press Release, WHO/44, June 21, 2000. http://www.who.int/inf-pr-2000/en/pr2000-44.html ).
* Patients may be satisfied in America, but not everyone gets to be a patient. 47 million are uninsured and are rarely patients - until it's too late. In the rest of the Western world, everyone and anyone can be a patient because everyone is covered. (And don't face exclusions for pre-existing conditions, co-pays, deductibles, and costly monthly premiums).
* It's not that other countries are unhappy with their health care – for example, "70 to 80 percent of Canadians find their waiting times acceptable." ("Access to health care services in Canada, Waiting times for specialized services (January to December 2005)," Statistics Canada, http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/82-575-XIE/82-575-XIE2006002.htm )

CNN: Americans have shorter wait times than everyone but Germans when seeking non-emergency elective procedures, like hip replacement, cataract surgery, or knee repair.

THE TRUTH:

* This isn't the whole truth. CNN pulled out a statistic about elective procedures. Of the six countries surveyed in that study (United States, Canada, New Zealand, UK, Germany, Australia) only Canada had longer waiting times than America for sick adults waiting to schedule a doctor's appointment for a medical problem. 81% of patients in New Zealand got a same or next-day appointment for a non-routine visit, 71% in Britain, 69% in Germany, 66% in Australia, 47% in the U.S., and 36% in Canada. (The Doc's in, but It'll be AWhile. Catherine Arnst, Business Week. June 22, 2007 http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2007/
tc20070621_716260_page_2.htm)
* "Gerard Anderson, a Johns Hopkins health policy professor who has spent his career examining the world's healthcare, said there are delays, but not as many as conservatives state. In Canada, the United Kingdom and France, 'three percent of hospital discharges had delays in treatment,' Anderson told The Miami Herald. 'That's a relatively small number, and they're all elective surgeries, such as hip and knee replacement.' (John Dorschner, "'SiCKO' film is set to spark debate; Reformers are gearing up for 'Sicko,' the first major movie to examine America's often maligned healthcare system," Miami Herald, June 29, 2007.)
* One way America is able to achieve decent waiting times is that it leaves 47 million people out of the health care system entirely, unlike any other Western country. When you remove 47 million people from the line, your wait should be shorter. So why is the U.S. second to last in wait times?
* And there are even more Americans who keep themselves out of the system because of cost - in the United States, 24 percent of the population did not get medical care due to cost. That number is 5 percent in Canada, and 3 percent in the UK. (Inequities in Health Care: A Five-Country Survey. Robert Blendon et al, Health Affairs. Exhibit 5. http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/21/3/182)

CNN: (PAUL KECKLEY-Deloitte Health Care Analyst): "The concept that care is free in France, in Canada, in Cuba - and it's not. Those citizens pay for health services out of taxes. As a proportion of their household income, it's a significant number … (GUPTA): It's true that the French pay higher taxes, and so does nearly every country ahead of the United States on that list."

THE TRUTH:

* 'SiCKO' never claims that health care is provided absolutely for free in other countries, without tax contributions from citizens. Former MP Tony Benn reads from the NHS founding pamphlet, which explicitly states that "this is not a charity. You are paying for it mainly as taxpayers." 'SiCKO' also acknowledges that the French are "drowning in taxes." Comparatively, many Americans are drowning in insurance premiums, deductibles, co-pays and medical debt and the resulting threat of bankruptcy – half of all bankruptcies in the United States are triggered by medical bills. (Medical Bills Make up Half of Bankruptcies. Feb. 2005, MSNBC. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6895896/)

CNN: "But even higher taxes don't guarantee the coverage everyone wants … (KECKLEY): 15 to 20 percent of the population will purchase services outside the system of care run by the government."

THE TRUTH:

* It's not clear what country Keckley is referring to. In the United Kingdom, only 11.5 percent of the population has supplementary insurance, but it doesn't take the place of NHS insurance. Nobody in France buys insurance that replaces government insurance either, although a substantial amount buys some form of complimentary insurance. ( Private health insurance and access to health care in the European Union. Spring 2004. http://www.euro.who.int/document/Obs/EuroObserver6_1.pdf)

CNN: "But no matter how much Moore fudged the facts, and he did fudge some facts…"

* This is libel. There is not a single fact that is "fudged" in the film. No one has proven a single fact in the film wrong. We expect CNN to correct their mistakes on the air and to apologize to their viewers.

If you had to vote today, who would you choose?

Place your pre-primary vote for the president here and then go to the newsvine website to see the total results. The results of the people who vote on this site will be shown here.

This afternoon I was at a local Vietnamese restaurant with Chris enjoying some shrimp fried rice (which was delicious by the way). As we were sitting there, a man came up to me and asked me if I knew what the necklace I was wearing represented. The necklace that I was wearing was a hemp choker that has cowry shells around it at about two inch intervals. He informed me that the necklace is representative of Aje, the Yoruban goddess of wealth and commerce and that those who wear it are able to entice people to come and buy from them. The shells symbolize "owo eyo" (numerated money). Cowry shells, I've learned, are often used to represent wealth and prosperity and were originally used as a form of currency in Africa. They are also often used to represent the eye of god or a fertile womb.

How fortunate, Chris and I agreed, to have someone explain the meaning behind the symbolic piece of jewelry that I often wear instead of ridiculing or berating me for my ignorance.

Before the man left, he told me that it is good for me to know that my choice of jewelry is the bearer of religious meaning. And, honestly, I felt rather empowered by that, not only that I simply knew what the necklace represented, but also that I know that my wearing it can now serve as a reflection of that knowledge, that each time I wear it, I can expect that there are others who will see it in the same way and that makes me feel connected somehow. 

By the way, anyone want to buy what I'm selling on ebay?

The code you see as the title of this blog is the encryption code to HD/DVD's, or as WIRED describes it, "the so-called "Processing Key" that unlocks the heart of every HD-DVD disk to date."

WIRED article on the code

A user on the website DIGG posted a story about the code and, upon threat of a lawsuit by the MPAA, the admins of the site deleted the post and banned the user. I believe this happened twice. Digg is supposed to be a user driven site as the front page proclaims thus:

Digg is all about user powered content. Everything is submitted and voted on by the Digg community. Share, discover, bookmark, and promote stuff that's important to you!

The deletion of content and banning of several users threw the users, at large, of Digg into a frenzy. Outraged by the apparent censorship of the sites administrators, thousands of users have been posting links to the code in protest while thousands of others have been "digging" the posts in an attempt to get them on the front page of Digg.

This psuedo-revolution/crusade for freedom of speech and exchange of information (in true hacker style) has finally broken down the founder of the site, Kevin Rose, who offered an apology to the community this evening in addition to assuring them that no other content containing the forbidden numbers would be deleted from the site, even under threat of a lawsuit from the MPAA.

It's a fairly interesting turn of events if you ask me. The revolution may not be televised, but it will be available via RSS feed.

blogging from my new phone. that is all.

In case you missed this week's episode of The Office, here's a bit of the funny to tide you over.

People are amazing, complex, unique, and beautiful.

Play around with this site.

Read the murmurs.

We Feel Fine

p.s. I just got scammed  on ebay so I feel broke.

My boyfriend and I are moving in together in July or August.

I'll be defending my thesis sometime in May. (This is the reason I've wanted to shut down my profile and why I'm so busy and will be so for at least the next six weeks.)

My dad is likely getting married this summer.

I think my foot is broken, or at least fractured.

I am going to see Tool in May.

I found some cool furniture out by the dumpster the other day.

I'm going to the hookah bar tomorrow with my friend.

My hair is really long now and still pink.

Okay, that's good for now. :)

I haven't been around much lately. Not able to read a lot of blogs. Not able to think about much of anything but my thesis. Any advice about how to not go crazy during this process?

The most unique pots to you know what in.....

I just finished reading a book by V.S. Ramachandran called A Brief Tour of Consciousness. Ramachandran's exploration of the conscious mind takes you into the world of people who have suffered injuries to various portions of the brain. Each injury carries with it unique and often disturbing symptoms. His detailed and intimate accounts of his patients' trials reveal in detail the fragility and awesomeness of our most amazing and mysterious organ. I've compiled a list of some of the more interesting disorders that he discusses in the book to give you a taste of what some people have to undergo, the sort of things we normally take for granted.

Achromatopsia- Sometimes, people with this disorder see the world in shades of grey but have no trouble reading a newspaper or recognizing people's faces or direction of movement. Sometimes, people with this disorder can't tell which direction something is moving.

Anomia- "tip of the tongue syndrome" – people with this disorder have difficulty naming objects that are shown to them.

Anosognosia – People with this disorder are paralyzed on the left sides of their bodies but still deny that they are paralyzed.

Anton's Syndrome – People with this disorder are blind but deny that they are blind.

Capgras Syndrome – People with this disorder will deny upon seeing their mothers that they are their mothers. They will claim that the person is an impostor. Their visual experiences are disconnected from their emotional experiences.

Cotard's syndrome – People with this disorder will claim that they are dead because the world has no emotional significance to them.

Denial syndrome – People with this disorder will deny that they are paralyzed or even that another person is paralyzed.

Depersonalization – People with this disorder feel like zombies or that the world is like a dream.
Derealization – Same as above. People suffer complete detachment from reality.

Face blindness – People with this disorder can read and see well but can not recognize people's faces.

Ideometer apraxia – Representations of movements are impaired. People with this disorder will bang their fists against their heads when asked to mimic combing their hair.

Learned paralysis – Patient's who experience phantom limb syndrome also experience those limbs as paralyzed.

Lesch-Nyhan syndrome – A person with this disorder enjoys mutilating himself.

Looking glass syndrome – People with this disorder think that the reflections they see in mirrors represent objects that are either literally inside the mirrors or behind them. For example, when asked to reach out to touch a pen (the actual pen, not the reflection) that she sees in the mirror, a patient will claw at the mirror trying to get at the pen.

Neglect syndrome – A person with this disorder neglects or ignores the left side of the world. When asked to draw a flower for instance, a patient with this disorder will only draw half of a flower.