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
We’ve written about the hype of liquid biopsies for years (see link in comment below). And now this…. https://www.statnews.com/2022/01/12/medicare-shouldnt-cover-liquid-biopsies-early-cancer-detection/
Case counts still matter. “(There) are stories that may not be told adequately if only hospitalizations and deaths are emphasized.” @garyschwitzer interviewed by @dbauder of @AP. https://apnews.com/article/omicron-changing-news-outlets-covid-data-da9272f7c4c8a109c3bfb56bed9e9c76
My friend Gary @garyschwitzer wrote to his city council representative in a Minnesota town about a Viva Las Vegas event scheduled for January.
The response he got seems to perfectly capture where we are now.
https://www.healthnewsreview.org/2021/12/2021-ends-with-covid-craziness-in-sports-and-politics/
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