GETTING TESTED: A Limerick-Based Handbook on MEDICAL TESTING

coaster from a medical school reunion

SATIRE COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio and Dr. GH, 2020.  

Those readers with a medical bent might want to click to review earlier poetic collections by our intrepid pair of writers, as tabulated (with links) at the end of this post:

Hello! I'm your social distancing trainer!

 

CURRENT CONTENTS:
Medical tests (introduction)

True positive rate (sensitivity)

False positive rate

Screening

Back to normal

Randomized controlled trials

Worm with a germ 

Imaginary clinical trial: "A gram of prevention" (5 stanzas, a           'brief saga')

 

EPILOGUE: With respect to false-positive testing for COVID-19, this anecdote may be enlightening ... 

Note that the four stanzas of this "brief saga" can be found in more readily legible format on the blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense"; click HERE. 

And as a later development, we put words to music. You can now sing along with the song "CLINICAL TRIAL: Prevention and Cure" by proceeding to our song-blog "Silly Songs and Satire". Click HERE .

Here's a LIST OF LINKS to collections of intriguing poems (over 200 !) on medical/dental topics, updated to December 2024. 

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR WEB-EXPLORERS: 

To resume your review of the sequence of daily titillations on our related blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings at the bottom of the page, and check the daily offerings for any month from the start of 2020 until July 2025. 

As of July 20, 2025, there are 2,000 unique entries available on the daily blog, displaying individual poems (often illustrated) and wordplay, but also with some photo-collages and parody song-lyrics. 

Most of the key elements, such as this one, are also assembled here on "Edifying Nonsense" in topic-based collections.

The "Daily" format, a formidable mix of genres, also has the advantage of including song-lyrics, videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.