argument 51_四天倒计时_跪求猛拍_有一个新论点感觉很难说明

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TOPIC: ARGUMENT51 - The following appeared in a medical newsletter.

"Doctors have long suspected that secondary infections may keep some patients from healing quickly after severe muscle strain. This hypothesis has now been proved by preliminary results of a study of two groups of patients. The first group of patients, all being treated for muscle injuries by Dr. Newland, a doctor who specializes in sports medicine, took antibiotics regularly throughout their treatment. Their recuperation time was, on average, 40 percent quicker than typically expected. Patients in the second group, all being treated by Dr. Alton, a general physician, were given sugar pills, although the patients believed they were taking antibiotics. Their average recuperation time was not significantly reduced. Therefore, all patients who are diagnosed with muscle strain would be well advised to take antibiotics as part of their treatment."
WORDS: 436
TIME: 00:30:00
DATE: 2010/2/8 0:22:41

It is suggested by the speaker that patients with muscle strain take antibiotics as part of the treatment. In supporting the claim, s/he used evidences from an experiment in which two groups of patients are taking different medicines (antibiotics and sugar pills) and showed the result of that the antibiotic-using group having been treated within a shorter time. I find this experiment unconvincing in several logical ways which render the statement unreliable.

To begin with, the two groups of patients are totally uncomparable for the lack of controlled similarities between them in other basic factors than the medicine used. First, they were under the treatment of doctors in different fields. Dr. Newland, the specialist in sports medicine should know the function of antibiotics well so that he might to some extent having hinted his patients about his confidence in treating their diseases. In other words, the patients might be mentally encouraged that they were likely to be treated. This is obviously what Dr. Alton, a general physician lacks. Second, the severity of illness of the two groups are not provided. If most patients with severer syptoms accidentally went to Dr. Newland's group, the test result might be totally different. Third, The poor performance of the treatment in Dr. Alton's group might also have been affected by other factors. The sugar pills might be suspicous of having the opposite effect on healing muscle strain, thus making the time of healing longer than usual.

Therefore, it cannot be verified that because antibiotics can stop secondary infections, and that antiviotics helps to deal with muscle strains (only from what the flawed experiment showed), then the cause of keeping patients from healing quickly from muscle strain accounts for secondary infection. The speaker was in a way begging the question without taking other possible causes into account. If secondary infections are proved not to be the causes of a slow healing, then antibiotics as a way of treatment lost its theoritical basis. （就是这点说不清楚，不知道从何下手。作者用antibiotics实验来证明statement第一句话就是因为antibiotics可以治疗infection（这个常识假设大家都知道）.但是现在antibiotics实验很可能是巧合，所以infection可能就不是恢复慢的原因，于是用antibiotics治疗就失去了理论依据。 一直觉得这里有什么东西不对，但是就是不知道怎样去说明，望高手解答~~

Granted that antibiotics really helps to treat the disease, the speaker was wrong in advising all patients to take it as a treatment. Since certain people may be allergic to antibiotics, using it as a common solution may cause dangerous results for certain individuals. Concerning the possible negative effects that antibiotics has, the patients may also tend to prefer other choices which was not mentioned in the statement. There might be safer methods that can better deal with muscle strain such as having massages, doing more exercises, and maintaining a regular and healthy eating habit.

In sum, to really prove that antibiotics helps to deal with the disease, a well-designed experiment is needed. Yet no matter how delicate the statement has been proved, the hasty generalization should not be drawn to all patients that antibiotics is a universal treatment.