A truth and reconciliation in evidence based medicine

Have you heard that stem cells can develop into any type of cell in the body? It’s a claim that’s been “very rigorously disproven,” says Charles Murry from the University of Washington in Seattle (doi:10.1136/bmj.q1581).1 Undaunted, private companies are asking parents to pay anything from £550 to £3000 to bank cord tissue. The promise is that, when needed later, these “pure and plastic” cells can become any body tissue and can even be “used to regrow entire organs.” Harvesting umbilical cord blood seems to be much more of a commercial opportunity than a beneficial one for health.Private companies profiting from health was a prominent theme of the pandemic response, and the UK’s Labour government plans to recoup billions of pounds of public funds by appointing a corruption tsar (doi:10.1136/bmj.q1657).2 The matter will also soon attract greater attention from the UK’s covid inquiry. The first report—which focused on resilience and preparedness—delivered…
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