Pater Familias

Theories, observations, and articles, by Philip Schaefer · All posts · Categories

SHOULD EVERYONE CARRY ASPIRIN?

July 29, 2009 at 10:44 AM · Economics, Science

SHOULD EVERYONE CARRY ASPIRIN? There is a considerable effort being made to make defribillators more available in public spaces, such as airports, which seems to be a good idea. David Brown’s article suggests another one. The article begins: “Two decades ago, a famous clinical experiment showed that if a patient in the throes of a heart attack chewed and swallowed an aspirin tablet, the risk of dying fell from 13.2 percent to 10.2 percent.” Why hasn’t there been a campaign to have everybody carry a couple aspirin, just in case somebody in the vicinity has a heart attack?