Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Kirsty Duncan: The Science Minister And Science

So Kirsty Duncan once supported a "largely disproven MS treatment" known as chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, or CCSVI.  And indeed it seems like the treatment is not particularly effective, and the theory behind it hasn't been borne out.  But it might have been.  It takes time to determine such things; they can't usually be shown a priori. And most of her statements in regards to CCSVI are several years old; the Motherboard (who?) thing refers to the presentation of a parliamentary petition, which usually does not signify commitment from the MP doing the presenting (although I admit I once mercilessly hounded CPC MP Mike Lake over this).  And in Science its OK to get things wrong; the problem is persisting in folly when your wrongness has been demonstrated.  We shall see how Ms. Duncan conducts herself in future re this issue.  That's the proof in the pudding.

PS.  The remainder of the NP article reads like a gossip column, so I didn't bother addressing the claims in it.

PPS.  This is genuinely douchy.  Sure its just another junk email in your inbox, and I'm sure Kent Hehr's original sentiments were genuine.  But its still using Remembrance Day to harvest email addresses so as to hit people up for donations a few months down the line.  Tut Tut! Justin Trudeau. Tut Tut! 

1 comment:

Brian White said...

Who says it is "largely unproven"? I got it for my wife and it was like a miracle. It worked better than my wildest dreams. I had to go to California for it because it is banned here for people with MS. If you don't have ms you can get it, if you have ms you cannot. Thank you SO much, neurologists. You do know why they got it banned, don't you? Because it is CHEAPER than ms drugs! And they can keep up their negative advertizing campaign for years because Canada spends BILLIONS on ms drugs. Check McLeans magazine Anne Kingston for the truth. These guys who have "unproven" it have not done a proper venoplasty yet. The surgeon that did my wife's has done 3000! And he is revered by patients. Think about that. Because the man is a lifesaver.