You get a half hour on an international news network to report on health news and you use it to:
1. Tell people if you want to avoid the flu, “try to avoid getting too close to sick people.”
2. Feature a doctor who lost 70 pounds by using lots of hot sauce, even though you admit “it doesn’t really have any science behind it.”
3. Promote a “permanent” wrinkle filler, while minimizing evidence – and failing to quantify potential benefits or harms.
That’s what CNN did this weekend with its “House Call With Dr. Sanjay Gupta” program.
The first two were just laughable. The last was more dangeous.
The story described “ArteFill, billed as the first permanent filler.” It said “known side effects are minimal.”
But it’s easy to find the following on the FDA website:
Side effects of ArteFill® include:
* Lumpiness at injection area more than one month after injection
* Persistent swelling or redness
* Increased sensitivity
* Rash, itching more than 48 hours after injection
Let’s let consumers decide if those sound “minimal” or not. The story never mentioned that one of the conditions of FDA approval last fall was that a five-year study for safety be done after approval, a clear sign that reviewers were not convinced that all the evidence on safety was yet in.
Meantime, the story profiled a woman who had the injections: “In less than 30 minutes, (she) was sold. She thought she looked fresh with, if anything, her wallet, not her face, showing fatigue.”
Let’s let consumers decide if this sounded like a news story or a commercial.
Comments
Please note, comments are no longer published through this website. All previously made comments are still archived and available for viewing through select posts.
Comments are closed.
Our Comments Policy
But before leaving a comment, please review these notes about our policy.
You are responsible for any comments you leave on this site.
This site is primarily a forum for discussion about the quality (or lack thereof) in journalism or other media messages (advertising, marketing, public relations, medical journals, etc.) It is not intended to be a forum for definitive discussions about medicine or science.
We will delete comments that include personal attacks, unfounded allegations, unverified claims, product pitches, profanity or any from anyone who does not list a full name and a functioning email address. We will also end any thread of repetitive comments. We don”t give medical advice so we won”t respond to questions asking for it.
We don”t have sufficient staffing to contact each commenter who left such a message. If you have a question about why your comment was edited or removed, you can email us at feedback@healthnewsreview.org.
There has been a recent burst of attention to troubles with many comments left on science and science news/communication websites. Read “Online science comments: trolls, trash and treasure.”
The authors of the Retraction Watch comments policy urge commenters:
We”re also concerned about anonymous comments. We ask that all commenters leave their full name and provide an actual email address in case we feel we need to contact them. We may delete any comment left by someone who does not leave their name and a legitimate email address.
And, as noted, product pitches of any sort – pushing treatments, tests, products, procedures, physicians, medical centers, books, websites – are likely to be deleted. We don”t accept advertising on this site and are not going to give it away free.
The ability to leave comments expires after a certain period of time. So you may find that you’re unable to leave a comment on an article that is more than a few months old.
You might also like