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-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Arnold [mailto:Bruce@LdrLongDistanceRider.com]
Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2008 10:05 AM
To: Robert McNamara (robert.mcnamara@tuhs.temple.edu)
Subject: Physician, Heal Thyself ... and Leave Motorcyclists Alone!

To Dr. Robert McNamara, Temple University, Philadephia PA (email: robert.mcnamara@tuhs.temple.edu):

In several recent articles like the one cited below, I read with great disappointment and disgust the following:

"McNamara said 'Riders cite the pleasure of going helmet-less, but often the cost of care for the injured motorcyclist is passed on to society at large.' ... McNamara said he fears riders may not fully understand the scientifically demonstrated level of risk involved in riding without a helmet and just assume the risks are acceptable if the law does not prohibit it... 'The American Academy of Emergency Medicine believes that states should require helmet use in all age groups,' McNamara said."

Here is my reply to you and your hypocritical colleagues:

PHYSICIAN, HEAL THYSELF...

Just who in the hell do you think you are, Doc? Neither you nor any other member of the American medical community has any right to be commenting on somebody else's "risky behavior" or "social costs" until you first deal with your own:

"Infections contracted in hospitals are the fourth largest killer in America. Every year in this country, two million patients' contract infections in hospitals, and an estimated 103,000 die as a result--as many deaths as from AIDS, breast cancer, and auto accidents combined... Hospital infections add an estimated $30.5 billion to the nation's hospital costs each year."

http://tinyurl.com/36bzok

"Astoundingly, over half the time physicians and other caregivers break the most fundamental rule of hygiene by failing to clean their hands before treating patients."

http://tinyurl.com/2wk2qx

"The dirty truth about docs who don't wash... Doctors, nurses and other hospital staffer too busy, too distracted--or, sometimes, too arrogant--to wash up are the target of a growing movement aimed at cutting rates of hospital-acquired infections that kill nearly 100,000 people in the U.S. each year, according to federal estimates."

http://tinyurl.com/2dbtqq

...AND LEAVE MOTORCYCLISTS ALONE!

Bikers aren't stupid, Doc. We know there is no such thing as a "minor" motorcycle accident. And we know all about the utility of motorcycle helmets. But we also know all about the futility of motorcycle helmet laws...

http://tinyurl.com/yuyrht

...which obviously you do not. Every time one of you myopic medical morons publishes a "scientific study" assuring the public that motorcycle helmets or mandatory helmet laws are the cure-all for motorcycle safety, you increase the risk of injury or death for millions of responsible motorcyclists by reinforcing the failed public policy focus on "crash survival" rather than "crash prevention".

Your medicine isn't saving lives, Doc. Instead, like the media who publish your perverse prescription, it's taking them:

http://tinyurl.com/yoqmke

Speaking strictly for myself and no other individuals or organizations,

Bruce Arnold

Bruce@LdrLongDistanceRider.com
Author and Publisher, LdrLongDistanceRider.com
Co-Moderator, Bruce-n-Ray's Biker Forum
Premier Member, Iron Butt Association
Sustaining Member, Motorcycle Riders Foundation
2007 Chairman's Circle, American Motorcyclist Association

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http://tinyurl.com/2hx8mq

Helmet debate: Public cost outweighs personal freedom
By the Staff of Clutch and Chrome
January 28th, 2008

As recently as last week, Clutch and Chrome reported on an international medical study urging mandatory motorcycle helmet laws not just for the United States, but in countries worldwide.

Today, Dr. Robert McNamara (pictured right) of Temple University in Philadelphia and a spokesman for the Academy of Emergency Medicine, said "the review confirms the belief of specialists in emergency medicine and should put an end to any further debate about the protective role of helmets regarding head injury in motorcycle riders."

He was referring to a recent review of motorcycle helmet studies by B.C. Liu of Oxford University.

"Motorcycle helmets protect motorcyclists who crash from sustaining head injury, and the results also suggest that motorcycle helmets protect motorcyclists who crash from death," study author Betty Liu, an epidemiologist at Oxford University in England, said in a statement.

Liu led an international group of researchers in updating a study conducted in 2004. After adding data from eight additional studies, the review of studies found helmet use reduced head injury risk by 69 percent and death by 42 percent.

The review, published in The Cochrane Library, said the findings are important to consider in those countries without mandatory motorcycle helmet laws, as well as in jurisdictions with weak or partial helmet legislation.

Asking riders to balance the personal freedom issue against with the cost to society of the care of patients with catastrophic head injury, McNamara said "Riders cite the pleasure of going helmet-less, but often the cost of care for the injured motorcyclist is passed on to society at large."

McNamara said he fears riders may not fully understand the scientifically demonstrated level of risk involved in riding without a helmet and just assume the risks are acceptable if the law does not prohibit it.

"The American Academy of Emergency Medicine believes that states should require helmet use in all age groups," McNamara said.

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