Boris Johnson isn’t just endlessly entertaining, intelligent and amusing, but he is actually, as Mayor of London, in a position of power.
So it was amusing to read his newspaper column about how his private medical examination (“my feeling from the female doctors and nurses was that I was doing better than I ever thought possible … the general ego-boost was what I imagine it must be like to be in a South-East Asian massage parlour and receive a series of extravagant and wholly warranted compliments on one’s physique.”)
However Mr Johnson’s check-up did not go to plan, because he received the results not of his own blood and other tests, but of some other unfortunate person with leukaemia. Boris laughs this off and gets his real results couriered round.
Apparently the Mayor of London’s annual exam has to be done for “insurance purposes”. But what a waste of time and money!
These check-ups have a very low positive predictive value – if abnormalities are found, what they mean is questionable, as it what to do about them. What we should all be doing to stay healthy is actually quite easy – don’t smoke, drink within limits, exercise preferably every day, maintain a sensible weight, and eat a diet based around fruit and vegetables. These, together with the existence or not of poverty, are far bigger predictors of early death.
Mr Johnson should forthwith forbid himself from wasting taxpayers’ money on the needless screening tests of private companies, be properly in charge, and stop the check ups.
These tests can be worse than useless - as is amply demonstrated by the wrong data and false cancer alarm. Come on, Boris: stop giving us the ”I rather enjoy the experience” line, and get with the science.
Margaret McCartney
Clive Cookson
Andrew Jack