Advocating for Comparative Effectiveness Research

Comparative Effectiveness Research is guided by the goal of creating information capacities regarding the best comparative evidence base on treatment effectiveness, side effects, and benefits of different treatment options. The CER process is one that attempts to de-center the shroud of secrecy and scientific legitimacy that the medical industry (pharmaceuticals, physicians etc.) rely on. What is most important about the CER process is the implicit acknowledgement that is built into it: that the culture of medicine operates often under a great deal of uncertainty, misinformation, and lack of solid information. The CER process therefore seeks to a) foster a scientific evidence base for comparing different treatments, and b) de-center the blindfolded legitimacy patients put in physicians by seeking to put information in the hands of patients.

It is precisely in this backdrop that I have witnessed resistance from physicians about CER in one-on-one interactions with them. That the transparency of information in CER threatens the privilege that many physicians enjoy in the status quo (based on the fundamentalism of science) does not come as a surprise. What however does come as a surprise is the argument that is being used by physicians and several lobbies funded by physicians: that patients don't know what is good for them, and medical decisions are best left in the hands of physicians.

Consider the hypocrisy of the argument that uses the language of science to make the very processes of science invisible to local communities. Part of the medical establishment is up in arms about CER precisely because physicians are scared about what this means for their practices and profts.

Personally, I am excited about what the CER processes promise to bring into medicine in the US, perhaps an opportunity for culture change, one that moves medicine from this hollow relic of sacredness that it occupies to a practice that is constituted in relationships, through struggles, and through the practices of healing and curing that work in the intimate spaces of phsyician-patient relationships, working together to heal the marks of disease and illness.

The whiteness of binaries that erase the Global South: On Communicative Inversions and the invitation to Vijay Prashad in Aotearoa

When I learned through my activist networks that the public intellectual Vijay Prashad was coming to Aotearoa, I was filled with joy. In my early years in the U.S., when learning the basics of the struggle against the fascist forces of Hindutva, I came in conversation with Vijay's work. Two of his critical interventions, the book, The Karma of Brown Folk , and the journal article " The protean forms of Yankee Hindutva " co-authored with Biju Matthew and published in Ethnic and Racial Studies shaped my early activism. These pieces of work are core readings in understanding the workings of Hindutva fascism and how it mobilizes cultural tropes to serve fascist agendas. Much later, I felt overjoyed learning about his West Bengal roots and his actual commitment to the politics of the Left, reflected in the organising of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), a political register that shaped much of my earliest lessons around Global South resistance, collectivization, and orga...

Libertarianism, the Free Speech Union, and the Life of Disinformation

The rise of the far-right globally is intertwined with the globally networked power of libertarian think tanks, funded at the base by the global extractive industries . In this blog post, through an analysis of the disinformation-based campaign I have personally experienced since October 2023 mobilised by the communicative ecosystem of the Free Speech Union (FSU), I will attend to the lifecycle of disinformation in libertarian networks, arguing that the disinformation ecosystem is invested in upholding both white supremacy and extractive capital. The FSU’s investment in disinformation I argue that the FSU is invested in producing and circulating disinformation. In response to my analysis of the hypocrisy of the Free Speech Union (FSU) that positions itself as a champion of free speech in Aotearoa while one of its co-founders, council members and spokespersons David Cumin (who is also one of the key actors representing Israel Institute of New Zealand) actively targets the freedom of a...

Zionist hate mongering, the race/terror trope, and the Free Speech Union: Part 1

March 15, 2019. It was a day of terror. Unleashed by a white supremacist far-right terrorist. Driven by hate for brown people. Driven by Islamophobic hate. Earlier in the day, I had come across a hate-based hit piece targeting me, alongside other academics, the University of Auckland academic Professor Nicholas Rowe , Professor Richard Jackson at Otago University, Professor Kevin P Clements at Otago University, Dr. Rose Martin from University of Auckland and Dr. Nigel Parsons at Massey University. Titled, "More extremists in New Zealand Universities," the article threw in the labels "terror sympathisers" and "extremist views." Written by one David Cumin and hosted on the website of the Israel Institute of New Zealand, the article sought to create outrage that academics critical of Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid are actually employed by universities in New Zealand. Figure 1: The web post written by David Cumin on the site of Israel Institute ...

Mohan Dutta: Culture-Centered Approach

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