Jaltcoh: Magic numbers

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Jason (the commenter) said...: I think the opinion piece was a little too short to prove his thesis.

And as an aside, superbugs come from people taking antibiotics over too short of a period, not too long of one. Telling people to take them for seven days is probably better than telling them to take them for three.; October 17, 2010
John Althouse Cohen said...: Even if he got the science wrong, doesn't that still prove his point? He says our obsession with doing things for exactly 7 days is a problem even if it causes someone to take just one pill too many. He should have changed that to: it's a problem even if it causes someone to take just one pill too few.; October 17, 2010
Jason (the commenter) said...: But he said we only need to take them for three days, so one pill less than seven isn't a problem. Seems like doctors expect us to only listen to half of what they say.

And it may be one science mistake, but when you say so little, one mistake is a large percentage of what you're talking about.; October 17, 2010
John Althouse Cohen said...: But he said we only need to take them for three days, so one pill less than seven isn't a problem.

His point is that if the optimal course were even 1 pill less than 3 a day for 7 days, that would be a problem since the patient would have taken 5% too much. If the optimal course is 3 a for 3 days, that's an even bigger problem.; October 17, 2010

Jaltcoh