3 ms·
This is making the same mistake that @Blackstrat made; the existence of subtleties doesn’t change the primary high level outcome. There is pretty much absolute
by dahart 3y ago
This is making the same mistake that @Blackstrat made; the existence of subtleties doesn’t change the primary high level outcome. There is pretty much absolute consensus on whether doctors should wash their hands. We have lots and lots and lots of evidence that using any reasonable disinfectant cut hospital mortality rates by multiples compared to what they were before hand-washing was protocol, while soap poisoning in hospitals today is extremely rare and difficult to find (and BTW doesn’t even mean soap is the problem, it more likely means the doctor didn’t follow the rinse protocol.)
What disinfectant product to use does have a minor effect on the margins of the outcomes, sure, and there is still some side-discussion about that, but there is no discussion about whether to wash hands. If you’re going to challenge the idea that there’s consensus, you must present and examine the magnitudes of the effects of each decision. I do not buy the argument that a sliver of a marginal effect challenges the primary outcome - and I especially don’t buy the argument that because you imagine there “could be” some cases, then consensus isn’t clear enough. One person in a million dying of soap poisoning has no real bearing on whether doctors should wash their hands, and doesn’t change or challenge the scientific consensus that doctors should wash hands.