Dr. Nancy Snyderman of NBC News appeared on the Today Show with Matt Lauer last week, profiling a physician-author who has written that the best science does not establish a causal link between childhood vaccines and autism. 
Lauer, in a followup question, mis-spoke and called it a “casual” link – not causal. One wonders whether he truly knows what the words mean.
Snyderman talked about how the physician-author, Dr. Paul Offit (author of “Autism’s False Prophets”), has received death threats. Snyderman herself said she had been physically ambushed by those who contend that vaccines cause autism.
As Snyderman was wrapping up the segment, Lauer said – in typical anchor throwaway language:
“Controversial subject …”
Snyderman immediately shot back, “Not controversial subject , Matt. …It’s time for kids to get vaccinated. The science is the science. It’s not controversial.”
You can see the video here or here.
Kudos to Snyderman for educating her big-bucks anchor colleague live on-the-air.
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
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.
Gene
November 3, 2008 at 1:50 pmWay to go Snyderman! There is way too much fear-mongering going around about the supposed link between autism and vaccines. The biggest risk to children is that they don’t get vaccinated.
Andrew Holtz
November 3, 2008 at 5:35 pmWow. It is almost unheard of for a correspondent to challenge an anchor on-air. And it’s also too rare to see a specialized beat reporter clearly say ‘here’s the science, it’s not just he-said,she-said.’
That said… at the beginning of her report, Snyderman called Offit ‘controversial,’ so I’d cut Lauer a bit of slack for using that same term in his wrap. And I do wonder a bit about Snyderman reporting the story of an old friend. Her report included critics, but she makes it almost too easy for the anti-vaccine folks to dismiss her story because of her personal ties to Offit.
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