An innovative treatment has come to our attention that promises to sig

Prompt

The following report appeared in the newsletter of the West Meria Public Health Council.

"An innovative treatment has come to our attention that promises to significantly reduce absenteeism in our schools and workplaces. A study reports that in nearby East Meria, where fish consumption is very high, people visit the doctor only once or twice per year for the treatment of colds. Clearly, eating a substantial amount of fish can prevent colds. Since colds represent the most frequently given reason for absences from school and work, we recommend the daily use of Ichthaid — a nutritional supplement derived from fish oil — as a good way to prevent colds and lower absenteeism."

Response

The argument presented here claims that in order to lower the absenteeism in schools and workplaces, due to the most common reasons like cold can be prevented by a fish oil namely ichthoid that is said to be nutritional of high value. This conclusion was reached after studying the nearby East meria region where people visit doctor only once or twice a year because their fish consumption is really high.However this argument tis incomplete and cannot be solidly reasonable until some clarifications are made.

One of the underlying assumption that the author makes here is that East Meria and West Meria are exactly same, as based on the study reports people visiting a doctor about cold is really less because their fish consumption is high. The author fails to capture more information about other food habits of the East Meria residents that are in contrast to the West. Do we know what kind of lifestyle people follow, as lifestyle plays a very vital role in one’s health. Also may be the environment of East Meria is much cleaner and far away from an urban activities as compared to the west. In order to bolster the argument, author needs to throw some light on other common factors between the East and West and to prove that both the regions are very similar in many ways like environmentally, food habits and lifestyle.

Secondly, author assumes that based on a report people visit doctor for treatment of cold only once or twice the year. What are the factors that study has considered like what was the age group of people involved in the study, maybe cold is less seen in adults and more in children and study considered only adults. Moreover, during what time of the year was this study conducted as during winter the incidents of the cold might be more as compared to summer, what if this study was conducted during summer. Also what if people do get cold but only small population actually visit doctor complaining about it, maybe people follow home remedies to get rid of it. Hence, in order to strengthen the argument author needs to answer all of these questions about the study itself and also hold into account the portion of population treating themselves at home during cold.

Thirdly, author suggests to consume Ichthaid, a nutritional supplement to lower colds and in turn absenteeism. How do we know that students are skipping school just for cold and not using this as an excuse to bunk classes and the same applies for working professionals as well. Moreover how do we know that fish oil contains has no added artificial supplements and it has no side effects as its recommended to consume on daily basis. To strengthen the argument author needs to rule out any possibilities of students or professionals lying to their respective institution about their sick leaves and give out more information about fish oil that is recommended with all its positive and negative effects and it would greatly help if this oil was tied and tested before launching to the common people.

Lastly, given that we don’t know answers to a lot of questions, it is unreasonable to overthrow any kind of conclusion.