Doctors. Frankly, the medical profession is the last place I would go for advice on pretty much everything. Even health advice.
In 2021, more than 6,000 motorcyclists died in crashes, the highest number ever recorded, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). About 80,000 were injured.
Dr Ibrahim said he avoids getting on the back of a motorcycle entirely for personal reasons.
‘I used to actually own a motorcycle, and it was the same day that I actually bought my motorcycle that I had a really, really good friend actually lose his life to a pretty tragic motorcycle accident,’ he said.
‘So immediately after that happened, I actually sold my motorcycle and never got on one again, so that is something I avoid right now.’
The IIHS also estimates that the number of motorcycle deaths is nearly 24 times that of car accident deaths.
‘It’s a very important thing to look at areas in your life where you can improve the safety, especially if you do something high risk,’ Dr Shusterman said.
The above really, really makes me wonder how someone who actually cannot actually string a sentence together actually managed to actually get a medical degree, let alone take advice from him regarding riding a motorcycle.
Yes, as a lifelong rider, I have known people who have lost their lives. Not many, and it was very early on and usually due to a lack of awareness, planning and inappropriate use of speed. If you ride a motorcycle competently, then the risk is low. Certainly low enough to be worth the ride. The risk of dying without any flavour in life is remarkably high if you take advice from the medical profession, because they see quantity and think it is more important than quality – see also, eating, drinking, smoking…
Dr Shusterman is a proponent of getting your yearly checkup, even if you feel perfectly healthy.
I have written about this before. I have decided to skip them from now on. They have been a waste of time that didn’t tell me anything that I didn’t already know, that I cannot manage for myself and, no, I don’t need statins.
Ignore the fuckers, for they know not of what they speak.
I haven’t seen my own doctor for probably a dozen years, but recently the surgery contacted me to go for blood tests, maybe they realised i’m still here because ignored the calls for satan’s bloody jabs and hope to find some other way to finish me orf, anyway i went and got the tests.
Apparently, nay amazingly, my cholesterol is just above what it should be, we suggest, yup statins. No, that was the end of that, presumably they’ll call me for another set of tests if i’m still kicking in another 12 years.
No doubt if happy to stump up £150 my own doc would see me same day for my annual hgv medical (annual licence renewal over 65), but instead i go to another doc who’s far more switched on than my own and pay her £70 instead.
That lovey smooth boy telly doc they kept wheeling out to push the covid scam ought to have been enough to put anyone off seeing a medic again.
They suggested statins for my dad. Two days later his ankles were swollen and he couldn’t walk. He stopped the statins and next day he was back to normal.
I saw a GP in 2005 when I had an allergic reaction. My then wife had absent mindedly used my towel to dry off some bleach on a kitchen counter. Next day at work my face was all red and blotty. Actually, by the time I saw the GP the situation was over.
Dentists are more useful.
“Absent-mindedly” hey Jussi?
Most motorcyclists who get killed or injured have that happen to them because of their own attitude to risk. Just this afternoon I was overtaken when doing about 50mph on a single carriageway road with the national speed limit, 60 mph there. I was keeping safe distance from the car in front who was doing sbout 50mph. A suitable speed because there were bends in the road, not sharp bends but not open curves with clear lines of sight either. I was ovetrtaken by a motorcyclist, and I could see him coming in my mirrors. He was just on the wrong side of the white line on a bend. A few hundred yards later he repeated the manoeuvre on the car in front. Maybe he thought that if he didn’t go too far across the white line he could get back to safety if necessary. Maybe he thought his acceleration or braking could get him out of trouble.Maybe he knew it was risky but enjoyed the excitement. (I used to be in my late teens, I know that attitude exists.) With luck that rider will just fill his trousers one day, and change his attitude. Without luck he’ll be one of the statistics.
Yup. I see some appalling riding and it makes me despair. But that doesn’t mean riding motorcycles is something to avoid because of the inherent risk. It’s a manageable risk. Living is a risk and no one gets out alive.
When I was a kid, medicine was the hardest university course on which to secure an offer (actually second hardest- veterinary science being the most difficult). Being a doctor was a valued and valuable career, with a sense of ethical certainty summed up in the phrase we all remember. ‘First, do no harm’.
One of my boys was recently considering his university choices, and I was amazed to see that it’s somewhat easier to get in to study medicine than it is for any of the single sciences. The Russell group routinely offer AAA for medicine and A*AA (or even A*A*A) for Physics, Chemistry, Maths or Biology. Each has a separate aptitude test for most of the universities.
So far, so uninspiring.
We went to a careers event, featuring the admissions registrar for three Russell Group medical schools. Each said that qualifications didn’t matter to them, they were far more interested in a candidate who had volunteer experience in caring. When asked to elucidate, they suggested in a nursing home. All around us, whispering broke out. Listening intently I heard ‘don’t worry, uncle ah—d has a nursing home. He’ll say you’ve worked there.’ So intellectual rigour is sacrificed for political correctness that can be, and it seems is, easily forged.
We were getting rather dispirited at the medical option by the time a panel of doctors was wheeled on, each to tell their story and explain what a typical day looked like within their specialism.
There were points of agreement and dogma instantly – all said they were there as a calling, not as a job. All said the NHS overworks them. All said that no one should apply for status or money.
And then, each in their turn, they demonstrated that all they had just said was untrue. The first doctor said he was leaving for Australia, as the NHS was insisting he work there for at least three days every week. The second said he was in charge of procurement for his trust and was hoping to leave as he had no experience of procurement. The third said he was aiming at General Practice so he could employ a locum. Two days work per week was, he thought, the best outcome for his work-life balance. None of them mentioned patients even once. None of them measured success in any way other than status and money. All of them believed a full working week was something unrealistic for their minds- they needed time to think, to relax, to play golf (that last bit is my only addition to what they actually said).
There was no semblance of care.
There was no desire, nor attempt to make things better.
There was no mention of patients.
There was no description of teamwork.
All resented the government, not for any failings in care, or provision. But for insisting that they do the relatively small degree of work they were actually doing. And all had a seething sense of entitlement.
So we left, no longer remotely prepared to consider medicine as an option. My boy is now studying maths, in case you wondered, and is loving it (can’t understand THAT!).
Now apply those attitudes across the country and I can see how the NHS has ended up where it has.
Thanks Phoebe, very insightful!
Good grief, the rot is deeply embedded, good luck to your sons in their chosen careers.
He appears to be quoting the figure for the USA where there were 42,939 road deaths. Compare this with the UK where there were 1558 total road deaths. Adjusting for population size the US death rate is 4.6 times that of the UK.
Is ‘actually’ the professional’s version of the Essex chav’s ‘ya know’..?
Good point. It does tend to make me take him less seriously as a consequence.