Journalistic hype of health news never stops.
The latest: ABC News last week called the drug Dimebon a “miracle drug” for Alzheimer’s Disease on its website.
It was tested in about 100 people. It was only tested against placebo, not head-to-head with any other existing Alzheimer’s treatment.
ABC News didn’t interview the principal investigator in the story that aired last Thursday night. HealthDay did, and she told them: “This is not a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, but the benefits could last for a long time. The drug appears to slow the clinical progression of the disease.”
Sounds like the PI is much more cautious than the “journalists” at ABC.
HealthDay also reported that the PI is on the Scientific and Clinical Advisory Board of the company that makes Dimebon and has stock options in the company. None of this was revealed in the ABC story.
And nothing that warranted calling it a miracle.
Opinions on other issues in news, journals, PR, advertising, marketing
Monday at #ADA2021, an infectious disease epidemiologist, a journalist, and a researcher shared perspectives on communication of risk in the era of COVID-19: http://ow.ly/ROfR30rMeE7 @AstleyCM @garyschwitzer @berthahidalgo @ADA_DiabetesPro
Shoutouts to @susan_bewley @drkevinknopf @MichaelBaum11 in this call for more than fawning coverage from press releases for these kinds of stories.
Also, linked history inside goes back 5 years just on Grail apparently trying to become Holy Grail. https://twitter.com/garyschwitzer/status/1408849696416841731
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