There’s a legitimate argument against “crying wolf,” that is, frightening children with scary stories about what might happen to their health if they don’t wash their hands properly. Jeffrey Hall Dobken, M.D., a professor of pediatrics at Weill Cornell School of Medicine in New York and a N.J. bioethicist, makes the argument in MedPage Today: Columns – And Now a Word … – About Crying Wolf.
We live in a society of fear. “Terrorism” is its most visible manifestation, but “health” is also hard to miss. But rather than moving to either pole–fearing that anything might kill us, or ignoring all possible dangers–I wish that we could respond to solid mathematical and scientific evidence, and not to our reptilian instincts.
Paul Statt Communications 