The Doctor’s Death Knot?

I don’t like ties.

Never have.

(Except, I do like bolo ties, of which I have quite a collection.)

Thus I am natively sympathetic to this story, which suggests that doctors shouldn’t wear ties on the grounds that they might spread diseases to patients.

Trouble is, if there is one thing I like even less than ties, it’s junk science. This article is qualifies as either junk science or at least junk reporting of science.

The article discusses a study that found that “Clinicians were eight times more likely to wear a tie carrying bacteria than by hospital security staff.”

If that’s the only finding of the study then it’s junk science. For this to constitute a real reason for doctors not to wear ties, one needs more than that. In particular, one would want some direct evidence that ties pass diseases (e.g., a finding that doctors who regularly wore ties had a higher rate of cross-patient infections than doctors who did not wear ties).

However, even in the absence of that one would want an indication that the amount of bacteria on the ties had been controlled against the amount of bacteria on the people. In other words, maybe doctors have more bacteria on their ties than security guards because doctors have more bacteria on them in general than security guards. In this case, leaving the tie at home wouldn’t really help unless the doctor left all his other clothes and his person at home as well when treating patients–unless there was, again, evidence that ties spread disease more than other parts of the doctor (such as his hands) or his clothing.

Now, maybe the original study accounted for factors such as these. If so, the study wouldn’t be an example of junk science but the story would be an example of junk reporting of science.

For more info on junk science, see JunkScience.Com

Oh yeah, did I mention that this entry was about junk science?

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live." View all posts by Jimmy Akin