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Michael Specter Quotes
Michael Specter Quotes
Michael Specter
American
Journalist
Born:
1955
Change
Every
Food
People
Will
World
Related authors:
Ambrose Bierce
Dave Barry
Erma Bombeck
Hunter S. Thompson
Mignon McLaughlin
Walter Cronkite
William F. Buckley, Jr.
William Lloyd Garrison
Universal vaccination may well be the greatest success story in medical history.
Michael Specter
Success
History
Well
Greatest
May
Story
Success Story
Medical
Universal
Vaccination
If there is anything more frightening than the threat of global nuclear war, it is the certainty that humans not only stand on the verge of producing new life forms but may soon be able to tinker with them as if they were vintage convertibles or bonsai trees.
Michael Specter
Life
War
New Life
Trees
Threat
Able
Life Forms
More
Only
Soon
New
Global
Verge
Were
Than
Frightening
Tinker
May
Anything
Forms
Them
Producing
Stand
Certainty
Nuclear
Vintage
Nuclear War
Humans
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has established highly specific criteria for the diagnosis of Lyme disease: an acknowledged tick bite, the appearance of a bull's-eye rash, and, for those who don't live in a region where Lyme is common, laboratory evidence of infection.
Michael Specter
Control
Live
Evidence
Bite
Those
Criteria
Rash
Prevention
Highly
Tick
Diagnosis
Infection
Laboratory
Disease
Common
Established
Where
Acknowledged
Centers
Region
Who
Appearance
Specific
We inherit every one of our genes, but we leave the womb without a single microbe. As we pass through our mother's birth canal, we begin to attract entire colonies of bacteria. By the time a child can crawl, he has been blanketed by an enormous, unseen cloud of microorganisms - a hundred trillion or more.
Michael Specter
Time
Mother
Single
Cloud
Every
Enormous
Birth
Our
Hundred
Has-Been
Bacteria
Trillion
Entire
More
Colonies
Through
Unseen
He
Genes
Attract
Without
Pass
Leave
Been
Womb
Begin
Child
Canal
Crawl
Inherit
By The Time
Clearly, some of the reason people embrace alternatives and reject vaccines is that they are angry and mistrustful of government and of pharmaceutical conglomerates. More than that, we pay too much for health care, it's not good enough, and the system is too complex. We need alternatives.
Michael Specter
Government
Health
Good
Angry
People
Care
Too Much
Not Good Enough
Pay
Too
Enough
Complex
System
Embrace
Some
More
Clearly
Health Care
Alternatives
Than
Much
Reason
Pharmaceutical
Reject
Vaccines
Need
Until the Nineteen-Eighties, when Deng Xiaoping designated the area as China's first special economic zone, Shenzhen had been a tiny fishing village. Suddenly, eleven million people appeared, seemingly out of nowhere; factories sprang up, often housed in hastily constructed tower blocks.
Michael Specter
People
First
Out
Seemingly
Constructed
Economic
Area
Factories
Had
Tower
Until
Blocks
Been
Fishing
Up
Often
Tiny
China
Special
Village
Appeared
Suddenly
Nowhere
Eleven
Million
Million People
Zone
With a hundred and seventy-eight machines to sequence the precise order of the billions of chemicals within a molecule of DNA, B.G.I. produces at least a quarter of the world's genomic data - more than Harvard University, the National Institutes of Health, or any other scientific institution.
Michael Specter
Health
World
National
Other
Hundred
Machines
Harvard
Data
More
Institute
Institution
Within
Scientific
Chemicals
Least
Quarter
Than
Precise
Any
Order
Produces
Molecule
Sequence
Billions
University
It is not possible to assert publicly that Monsanto is anything other than venal without being accused of being a sellout, a fraud, or worse.
Michael Specter
Other
Monsanto
Worse
Possible
Fraud
Without
Sellout
Than
Accused
Being
Anything
Assert
Publicly
The numbers matter: underreporting of Lyme disease obscures the true burden of the illnesses, on individuals as well as on health-care systems. It also makes it harder to convince Congress to fund research.
Michael Specter
Matter
Burden
Congress
Research
Systems
True
Individuals
Also
Well
Makes
Disease
Convince
Illnesses
Fund
Harder
Numbers
There has never been a verified scientific report that chelation therapy, a gluten-free diet, or anything else can cure autism.
Michael Specter
Autism
Else
Never
Scientific
Verified
Been
Cure
Report
Diet
Anything
Anything Else
Therapy
Lyme disease is the most commonly reported tick-borne illness in the United States, and the incidence is growing rapidly. In 2009, the C.D.C. reported thirty-eight thousand cases, three times more than in 1991. Most researchers agree that the true number of infections is five to ten times higher.
Michael Specter
Three
States
Rapidly
Thousand
Cases
Ten
More
Ten Times
Higher
True
Most
Five
Times
Than
Reported
Disease
Commonly
Incidence
Researchers
Agree
Illness
Growing
United
United States
Number
There are people who could watch a hurricane like Sandy blow out of the Atlantic every other day and blame it on anything but human activity. They are like those who, having been diagnosed with diabetes, eat donuts for breakfast. There's not much to do about them.
Michael Specter
Day
Blame
People
Diabetes
Breakfast
Every
Other
Those
Out
Hurricane
Atlantic
Eat
About
Having
Could
Like
Diagnosed
Been
Blow
Human
Donuts
Human Activity
Anything
Them
Much
Sandy
Who
Activity
Watch
Every Other Day
The best way to deal with climate change has been obvious for years: cut greenhouse-gas emissions severely. We haven't done that. In 2010, for example, carbon emissions rose by six per cent - the largest such increase on record.
Michael Specter
Best
Change
Example
Rose
Increase
Way
Has-Been
Best Way
Record
Per
Emissions
For Example
Obvious
Deal
Climate
Climate Change
Been
Years
Done
Six
Cent
Cut
Carbon
Largest
There are many theories about the best way to remove excess carbon from the atmosphere - some are ludicrous, others are at least worth study. The most commonly discussed plan is to lace the sky with reflective chemicals.
Michael Specter
Best
Worth
Sky
Remove
Others
Way
Best Way
Some
Atmosphere
About
Excess
Study
Most
Chemicals
Least
Reflective
Discussed
Lace
Commonly
Plan
Theories
Many
Ludicrous
Carbon
Most reputable scientists agree that climate change is real and that the effects are likely to be bad. But nobody can say for sure exactly what 'bad' means. The safest and most equitable way out of this horrific mess is simple: cut fossil-fuel emissions.
Michael Specter
Change
Simple
Way
Say
Out
Bad
Exactly
Exactly What
Horrific
Emissions
Nobody
Most
Likely
Mess
Safest
Sure
Climate
Climate Change
Equitable
Real
Scientists
Effects
Reputable
Cut
Means
Agree
If left untreated, Lyme disease can be crippling, yet it is a difficult illness to contract: a tick needs to attach itself to your body for at least twenty-four hours. Even then, two weeks worth of commonly prescribed antibiotics will kill the bacterium.
Michael Specter
Needs
Worth
Will
Difficult
Crippling
Attach
Weeks
Tick
Hours
Least
Contract
Antibiotics
Left
Itself
Disease
Commonly
Then
Body
Your
Your Body
Illness
Even
Twenty-Four
Prescribed
Two
Two Weeks
The Maldives, a string of islands off the coast of India whose highest point above sea level is eight feet, may be the first nation to drown. In Alaska, entire towns have begun to shift in the loosening permafrost.
Michael Specter
First
Nation
String
India
Be The First
Entire
Above
Point
Highest
Drown
Feet
Towns
Islands
Shift
Off
Begun
May
Eight
Sea
Coast
Whose
Level
Alaska
Someone told me that they didn't want to take a flu shot because they didn't want to put a foreign substance in their body. What do they think they do at dinner every night?
Michael Specter
Me
Flu
Dinner
Every
Think
Someone
Take
Put
Because
Foreign
Substance
Want
Shot
Body
Every Night
Night
'Meat' is a vague term and can be used to refer to many parts of an animal, including internal organs and skin. For the most part, the meat we eat consists of muscle tissue taken from farm animals, whether it's a sirloin steak, which is cut from the rear of a cow, or a pork chop, taken from flesh near the spine of a pig.
Michael Specter
Animal
Animals
Skin
Farm
Consists
Spine
Eat
Steak
Part
Taken
Term
Most
Pig
Parts
Refer
Cow
Tissue
Whether
Which
Cut
Flesh
Rear
Used
Organs
Chop
Internal
Meat
Many
Including
Pork
Near
Muscle
Vague
Any group that intends to sell laboratory meat will need to build bioreactors - factories that can grow cells under pristine conditions. Bioreactors aren't new; beer and yeast are made using similar methods.
Michael Specter
Beer
Will
Made
Build
Group
Similar
Factories
New
Pristine
Methods
Yeast
Conditions
Sell
Laboratory
Any
Cells
Meat
Using
Grow
Need
The most blatant forms of denialism are rarely malevolent; they combine decency, a fear of change, and the misguided desire to do good - for our health, our families, and the world. That is why so many physicians dismiss the idea that a patient's race can, and often should, be used as a tool for better diagnoses and treatment.
Michael Specter
Health
Good
Change
World
Fear
Better
Decency
Patient
Tool
Our
Rarely
Physicians
Misguided
Blatant
Idea
Combine
Most
Malevolent
Families
Often
Forms
Race
Dismiss
Should
Used
Many
Why
Desire
Treatment
Denialist arguments are often bolstered by accurate information taken wildly out of context, wielded selectively, and supported by fake experts who often don't seem fake at all.
Michael Specter
Argument
Wildly
Out
Seem
Taken
Supported
Fake
Context
Accurate
Accurate Information
Often
Information
Experts
Who
There is a major problem with reliance on placebos, like most vitamins and antioxidants. Everyone gets upset about Big Science, Big Pharma, but they love Big Placebo.
Michael Specter
Love
Science
Problem
Big
Everyone
Reliance
Vitamins
About
Major
Like
Most
Major Problem
Gets
Upset
Placebo
Antioxidants are completely useless.
Michael Specter
Useless
I started to write about science and medicine at the 'Washington Post,' in the early days of the AIDS epidemic.
Michael Specter
Science
Post
Medicine
AIDS
About
Write
Days
Epidemic
Washington
Washington Post
Early
Started
Early Days
Newspapers and magazines are vanishing. But science writers are not. In fact, they are becoming so adept and varied that I hardly have time to read 'Gawker' anymore.
Michael Specter
Time
Science
Adept
Vanishing
Magazines
Varied
Fact
Writers
Read
Becoming
In Fact
Anymore
Newspapers
Hardly
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