Protective Power of Potter?

From MedPage Today:

When we last left Harry Potter his life was in mortal peril from Lord Voldermort and his Death Eaters, but the teen wizard was still able to cast a Protego spell to keep muggle (non-magical) kids from harm.

That's the opinion of researchers here, who found that when the latest installments of the Harry Potter books came out, the number of kids showing up in the emergency room with broken bones, sprains, scrapes and bruises went down significantly.

Apparently, kids were just so wild about Harry that they didn't have time to ride a skateboard down a flight of stairs, or weave a scooter through heavy traffic.

"It may therefore be hypothesized that there is a place for a committee of safety conscious, talented writers who could produce high-quality books for the purpose of injury prevention," wrote Stephen Gwilym, M.D., and colleagues in the department of Orthopaedic Trauma Surgery at the John Radcliffe Hospital here.

They published their magical findings in the Dec. 24-31 issue of the BMJ, the annual year-end issue when the normally staid journal lets its hair down with off-beat research, often tongue-in-cheek but legitimate nonetheless.