2021-05-20
This is a deliberately provocative question.
The scientific method is clear - the facts must be clearly established, the assumptions (or axioms) clearly stated, and the theory must be repeatedly demonstrable in practice by other researchers working independently.
The same basic principles apply in the associated branches of engineering, otherwise it would be impossible to manufacture any product to a consistent standard.
In the physical sciences (physics, chemistry etc) we have engineers (electrical, mechanical, chemical etc) who make use of the science to fabricate maintain and (occasionally) repair the useful products that we have now carelessly come to take for granted.
In the medical sciences we have . . . not engineers, but clinicians of various persuasions who provide conflicting advice on what makes us ill and how we might recover our health.
I don't think it contentious to say that the scientific understanding of the human body remains woefully inadequate, and seemingly beset by conflicting interests who seem to spend much of their time these days (directly or indirectly, legally or illegally) suppressing the views of those who would disagree with them. That is definitely not a recognised scientific method, and medical practitioners, perhaps for a reason, are not known as "engineers".
So does medicine as currently practised deserve to be described as a science?
Perhaps it is disingenuous to lump all branches of medicine together in the same categorisation, but certainly the disagreements over the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrate the problem. There seems to be an endemic lack of open and honest endeavour in the institutions of government, pharmaceutical companies, and their associated regulatory and philanthropic bodies that should be screening out the unscientific and demanding that the scientific method be rigorously applied by all.
Perhaps it's time to run the scientific rule over all parts of the modern medical establishment, to see how they measure up.
John Rappaport has been doing this for some time, and in his latest blog post he continues this fine tradition.
Read, and challenge your world-view carefully!
