The New York Times published two seemingly unrelated opinion articles at the same time-they both address the application of Population (i.e. Epidemiologic) data to Individual people.

Background:

The first one is a discussion of communication to communities about cancer risk. One aspect not very well described in this column (my opinion), please note that the risks she is describing are theoretical risks based on an assessment of occupational and animal studies. That is, we don't really know whether the chemicals in question have caused cancer in their community, and how much. However, that type of community (relatively poor, often closed industrial plants, sometimes minority) are likely to have high cancer rates in general.

The second one describes the application of "Prognosis" to individuals-the prognosis given by clinicians to patients is usually based on statistics gathered by cancer registries and then used to develop life expectancy based on individuals' age, sex, and diagnosis.

Possible Questions: Referencing one or both columns, address the issue of applying epidemiologic data. What are some of the strengths and weaknesses of applying population (group) data to individuals? Do you agree with the writers of these columns (remember these are opinions, not peer-reviewed articles based on specific evidence)?

We are in the last week of this class-now that you know MORE, what do you think of the power of epidemiology, with its ethical limitations, to help individuals and society make decisions about health?Please try and answer some of these questions succinctly, making your points clearly, and responding to your peers directly, using specific evidence when possible.

When Pollution is a Matter of Life and Death (S Lerner, Opinion, NYT 6-22-19)

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/22/opinion/sunday/epa-carniogens.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage (Links to an external site.)

https://nyti.ms/31Q8AXa (Links to an external site.)

Don't Tell Me When I'm Going to Die (BJ Miller and S Berger, Opinion, NYT 6-22-19)

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/22/opinion/sunday/death-disease-life-expectancy.html (Links to an external site.)

https://nyti.ms/2N2DGaF