Categories
Announcements Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

R.I.P. SkepDoc

Orac is greatly saddened to announce that Dr. Harriet Hall, a.k.a. The SkepDoc, passed away unexpectedly on Wednesday night.

I am greatly saddened to announce that Dr. Harriet Hall, a.k.a. The SkepDoc, passed away unexpectedly on Wednesday night. Her husband informed me (and a number of others who worked with her) yesterday afternoon. In addition, the editor of her newsletter—to which I subscribe—sent this email:

Dear friends, colleagues and fellow skeptics,

My name is Ron Jette and I am the editor of the SkepDoc monthly newsletter. 

It is with profound sadness that I report to you that my good friend, Dr. Harriet “SkepDoc” Hall, passed away in her sleep quietly and unexpectedly last night in Seattle.

Kirk Hall, Harriet’s husband, has kindly allowed me to notify you of Harriet’s passing.

We were currently working on the January edition of the newsletter and that final edition will be delivered within the next few days. 

If, like her, you believe in truth and science-based medicine—and I know you do—please have a kind thought for her. I will miss her dearly and I know you will, too.

Warmly,

Ron Jette
Editor

I am—and I hope you are—deeply saddened to learn this news.

Harriet was a friend and a co-founder of my not-so-secret other blog in 2008. We’ve appeared together on panels and spoken at a number of skeptical events dating back to 2009. Regardless of our one disagreement, she was nonetheless always an inspiration to me.

Her contributions to promoting skepticism, particularly regarding dubious medicine and pseudomedical claims, are legendary, as was her pioneering role as one of the earliest female flight surgeons in the Air Force. She will be deeply missed. Please join the rest of us who knew her in mourning her passing and, more importantly, remembering her life. Feel free to use the comment section to let everyone know what she meant to you.

R.I.P., SkepDoc.

By Orac

Orac is the nom de blog of a humble surgeon/scientist who has an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his copious verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few probably will. That surgeon is otherwise known as David Gorski.

That this particular surgeon has chosen his nom de blog based on a rather cranky and arrogant computer shaped like a clear box of blinking lights that he originally encountered when he became a fan of a 35 year old British SF television show whose special effects were renowned for their BBC/Doctor Who-style low budget look, but whose stories nonetheless resulted in some of the best, most innovative science fiction ever televised, should tell you nearly all that you need to know about Orac. (That, and the length of the preceding sentence.)

DISCLAIMER:: The various written meanderings here are the opinions of Orac and Orac alone, written on his own time. They should never be construed as representing the opinions of any other person or entity, especially Orac's cancer center, department of surgery, medical school, or university. Also note that Orac is nonpartisan; he is more than willing to criticize the statements of anyone, regardless of of political leanings, if that anyone advocates pseudoscience or quackery. Finally, medical commentary is not to be construed in any way as medical advice.

To contact Orac: [email protected]

52 replies on “R.I.P. SkepDoc”

Harriet was one of my heroes. I’m so glad I got to meet her once, at the last TAM, and still feel deeply honored that she agreed to blurb my book. I’m quite saddened by her loss, and hope that her husband is able to cope well.

About this “one disagreement”: despite Harriet Hall’s politically uncorrect article, I would recommend ‘Irreversible Damage’ to all with open minds.

If you’re looking for an example of how bad/fake science can be used to harm a vulnerable community, sure go ahead.

An apt comparison, since that whole anti-trans movement also tries to blame being trans on autism.

This is a tough one. This is a VERY difficult issue.

I recently spoke to a colleague who is, herself, a gay woman and is a fellowship-trained adolescent psychiatrist. Her view was VERY different than what you might expect given her demographic.

She deals with the reality of this phenomenon everyday.

Many clinicians of all stripes are concerned about this issue and are scared silent, at least in my part of the country. That’s the truth. Why it is happening is a different matter. Are they misguided? Are they bigots? Are they simply uninformed? Could be. Again, this is a VERY difficult issue.

It’s harder, still, when you have a fifteen year old girl sitting across from you in an exam room asking for your guidance. Believe me.

Yes, it is a very difficult issue.

For example, according to the CDC, 42% of transgender women are infected with HIV.

==> Transgender Women Urgently Need More HIV Prevention and Treatment Services, New CDC Data Show

So, it is definitely a vulnerable population and being a transgender woman, for example, comes with a certain set of risks.

I don’t think this is the time and place to discus this subject.
I’ve always read Harriet Hall’s pieces with great interest and it is a sad day, she is no longer around to write on Science Based Medicine.

I agree. Any comments after this about this topic will be deleted with extreme prejudice. I refused to allow a very ranty comment along these lines publish. The bottom line is that people are complicated and have blind spots. That’s all I’m going to say about the specific disagreement on this topic, because Harriet is no longer around to respond (although that does not mean I will never write about the overall topic and the misinformation about it again).

I agree. A similar attempt was made over at SBM to hijack the thread by revisiting this issue and it was quickly shut down. This subject gets discussed there reasonably often and one of those articles would be a better forum for such arguments. Buyt the Littman/Shrier argument doesn’t seem to have acquired any real supporting research.

I don’t know, the evidence is pretty clear on the safest ways to support trans youth as a medical practitioner and there shouldn’t really be anything difficult about those recommendations. As a bare minimum, it only requires you to respect and affirm their stated identity, which shouldn’t be any more controversial than calling them “Nicole” instead of “Nikki” if that’s what they prefer.

Allow me to pre-condemn any ghouls who will suggest Dr. Halls death resulted from the COVID vaccine before they show up.

It started within an hour of her husband Kirk’s Tweet from her account announcing that she had died the night before.🤬

Alex Berenson even did it, although in the form of a “JAQing off” bit about how you have to “wonder.”

Evidence that these people are not just misinformed, mistaken, or ‘stupid’. DSM category or not, they’re sick in the head.

@ Igor Chudov

You write: “according to the CDC, 42% of transgender women are infected with HIV.”

NOPE

According to CDC: “Among transgender women interviewed, 42% had HIV.”
[CDC. HIV and Transgender People: HIV Prevalence]

Since there is NO indication the interviewing was based on a randomized choosing of subjects, those volunteering to be interviewed could be a biased sample.
Can’t you even read plain English? While this is a trivial example of your incompetence, it is still one more.

@ Everybody

As I’ve written several times, for example, on average 250 Americans have a heart attack every day, so if someone has a heart attack after receiving, for instance, flu vaccine, highly likely would have had it in any case; but the CDC investigates in several ways:

gets hold of person’s medical records when possible. Finds out, for instance, person had had several heart attacks, angiogram found better than 95% stenosis of coronary arteries, and was scheduled for bypass surgery. Vaccine was given because in middle of severe flu season and if got flu before or even shortly after surgery would have been extremely dangerous.
compare reported heart attacks following intro of flu vaccine with number per week prior to intro of vaccine and even previous years.

In any case, antivaxxers blame vaccines for just about anything and nothing will change their minds.

In fact, I just celebrated my 76th birthday, well, didn’t exactly celebrate getting old; but I’m sure, thanks to all the vaccines I’ve received during my lifetime, I won’t make it to 100.😀

@ Dr Joel:
Happy birthday. Keep doing great work as a sceptic and writer: it is much needed and appreciated. I hope that you are now able to use the gym you belonged to before Covid restrictions closed it.

I’m not permitting the threadjacking to continue and have taken measures to halt it. There will be some comments deleted.

I too am saddened by Harriet Hall’s passing. I started reading articles by her in Skeptic Magazine decades ago and Skeptic blog. And I don’t think I missed a single one of her articles in Science-Based Medicine, always well-written and informative. I am even more saddened that she was only 77 years young when she passed making her loss even more tragic. With the exponential growth of anti-science websites, social media, TV personalities, and politicians, her loss is more than tragic, both for her family, of course, and for the rest of us.

Unfortunately, she’d been in poor health for a number of years prior, which is why she hadn’t been able to travel to skeptics conferences since around 2018.

I just read Dr DG’s and Dr SN’s posts on SBM..

it is truly despicable that anti-vaxxers are trying to capitalise on Dr HH’s death by posting anti-vax lies. They will do anything to push their agenda which is frightening enough people to oppose vaccines so that governments and businesses will stop issuing mandates. In the future, our weapons against infectious diseases will be disabled as we’ve already seen in areas where anti-vax mis-information flourishes.

In addition, anti-vax propagandists seek to increase their own fame ( infamy, actually) by contradicting SB information thus “owning” the reality based as well as making money. Poseurs and posturers “educate” followers to reject SB research substituting idle gossip and outright falsehood instead. We have seen internet chatter spread into the halls of congress and parliament.

I regularly read/ hear Mike Adams ( NN), Gary Null ( prn), Del Bigtree ( The Highwire), RFK jr ( CHD), AoA and Katie Wright ( @ katiewr31413491) **. I list them so readers can sample their material and methods. These people invent tall tales to get followers and I doubt that all of them together have studied as much life science as I have ( and I’m not a physician or biologist).

** and several Substack trash piles.

@David

“What other books do you recommend?”

In your case I would consider reading ‘War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict’. It might help clear your mind and refocus on what’s relevant.
If that doesn’t help perhaps ‘Donald Duck highlights from 70 years’?

Actually I would object this “senseless” adjective. Putin wants to conquer Ukraine, and did take Crimea earlier. Conquest is quite common reason for a waar.

@ Lucas and David

Though, as Orac already made clear, this post is in honor of Harriet Hall; however, I did check Amazon.com’s summary of book “War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict”. I already knew about US promises, documented on US government website, to not move NATO east and US sabotaging of 2014 Ukrainian elections. How? A friend in Sweden linked me to a Swedish documentary “Att Skapa en Putin” which I watched. It was excellent. I contacted them and requested they add English subtitles; but so far they haven’t. However, I know there exists a number of programs on the internet for either dubbing or subtitling. I would suggest you find one and watch it. https://www.svtplay.se/video/jdqr37p/att-skapa-en-putin

@ Lucas

Well, for once you got something right. As they say, even a broken clock gets the time right twice daily.

addendum:
I include names of anti-vaxxers whom I believe to be particularly destructive to SBM education over a long period of time. I have less experience with Substack offenders but Naomi Wolf and Robert Malone stand out.

@ Joel and Aarno

“Though, as Orac already made clear, this post is in honor of Harriet Hall; however, I did check Amazon.com’s summary of book “War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict”. I already knew about US promises, documented on US government website, to not move NATO east and US sabotaging of 2014 Ukrainian elections. How? A friend in Sweden linked me to a Swedish documentary “Att Skapa en Putin” which I watched. It was excellent. I contacted them and requested they add English subtitles; but so far they haven’t. However, I know there exists a number of programs on the internet for either dubbing or subtitling. I would suggest you find one and watch it. https://www.svtplay.se/video/jdqr37p/att-skapa-en-putin
@ Lucas
Well, for once you got something right. As they say, even a broken clock gets the time right twice daily.”

Indeed this isn’t the proper post, so I’ll get it when removed.
Before anyone calling me a communist again, I’m not. And as for Putin, thanks to his friend Kirill after the ‘church renaissance’, he’s the one locking up many of my ‘friends’ and opposing the rest. But this does not alter the fact that Putin is betrayed by the West. See what he said himself about it already six years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xzeZ6nzECs
We have many Ukrainian refugees in The Netherlands meanwhile. The war had hardly started and the doors were already wide open for them. Our leaders knew for quite a while this war was coming (just like I knew and said it would here on this forum) and all was prepared. When I asked some of these refugees here about the background of the conflict recently, I got the nuanced answer as your video shows, which is quite different from the ‘enemy Putin’-propaganda brought by our media.

Indeed, the fingerprints of the CIA can be found throughout the conflict. That is one of the reasons we should not take part in (any) politics, as it makes us responsible of our chosen leader’s actions, of which I’m sure you’re not so proud.
There is a lot to say about the background of the conflict, but perhaps better is to get a sense about of what is happening; 250,000 deaths and many wounded. Families left in despair.
This weekend I was in a meeting with a Ukrainian refugee (English teacher, about 30 y/o) who has stayed for almost a year in a good friend’s house (lots of respect for her humanitarian action btw). I think the trigger was a picture of a devastated house, but suddenly she got emotional. The rest of her family is in Berlin, she lost a friend in Ukraine and her house is damaged. Just one tragic scene that perhaps could be worse, but to see this reality from nearby, makes you wonder why none of our leaders seems to care one bit about what they are doing. It is just heartless scum.

Indeed this isn’t the proper post, so I’ll get it when removed.

So, rather than exercising some restraint in the first place, you’re offering “understanding”?

@ Lucas

You write: “Before anyone calling me a communist again, I’m not.”

Are you completely nuts? If you are replying to my comment, nowhere did I call you a communist nor even hint at it. My point is that your comments are mostly illogical, contradictory, etc. And that is an accurate description of you.

Basically you are a perfect example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect and/or just plain mentally disturbed. Or, of course, you are simply a troll posting to irritate, nothing more, nothing less.

I doubt that US ever made promises about NATO enlargement . Any case, all Middle European counties applied for NATO membership. Democracy`anyone ? Check why Russia has so bad rap.
As for 2014 elections goverment first started negotations with EU, but stopped them after Russian intervention. This caused widespread protest,dismissal of the president and new elections.
This happened when Russia has already annexed Crimea was going after Donbass.

@ Aarno Syvänen

Read the following:

National Security Archive (2017 Dec 17). NATO Expansion: What Gorbachev Heard: Declassified documents show security assurances against NATO expansion to Soviet leaders.

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2017-12-12/nato-expansion-what-gorbachev-heard-western-leaders-early

With the fall of the Iron Curtain Russia was in tormoil. The US promised help; but reneged. Over a million Russians starved to death, so what could have become a democracy became a dictatorship under Putin. Why didn’t the US help? Because Russia could have become a powerful democracy and we wanted world hegemony. There is more; but I’ll stop here.

@ Lucas

A perfect example of just how sick/disturbed you are. Orac and even I made it clear that this particular post is about the loss of Harriet Hall; yet, you write a comment about the Ukraine. Of course, Harriet Hall represented the best of science, writing many well-explained pieces over the years and earlier service as a military doctor, the exact opposite of you. Have you ever done anything for anyone else? How in hell did you decide to comment on Ukraine in a post remembering Harriet Hall???

YOU ARE SICK SICK SICK

@Narad

“So, rather than exercising some restraint in the first place, you’re offering “understanding”?”

Understanding in the form of what Orac wishes and what other posters here see as inappropriate. Why being portrayed as querulant.
Which means I’m not going into further discussion here on the subject that Dr. Harriet Hall and I seem to agree on.

Comments are closed.

Discover more from RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading