At Taki’s Magazine, Dalrymple once again shows that analysis of medical studies indicates that much modern medical activity is useless or even harmful. So why is it carried out?

[W]e can safely conclude that annual health checks as carried out in Britain are a waste of time—unless wasting time by occupying it is the whole object of the activity, in which case wasting time is not wasting time but using it gainfully. Gainfully, that is, to the person who wastes his time (the doctor) rather than has his time wasted for him (the patient). His time is well and truly wasted.