Gary Schwitzer is the founder and publisher of HealthNewsReview. He has covered health care news almost exclusively since 1973. Here is his online bio. He tweets as @garyschwitzer or as @HealthNewsRevu.
I’ve been asked to do more interviews in the past six months than in any recent comparable time span. COVID-19 is almost always the reason for the requests.
Some of the more recent requests were spawned by the JAMA Viewpoint article, Communicating Science in the Time of a Pandemic, that I co-authored with Richard Saitz, MD, of Boston University School of Public Health,
Covering COVID-19: A health check for science journalism – the cover story of the summer issue of the Gateway Journalism Review (what used to be the St. Louis Journalism Review) – included interviews with many fine journalists about the challenges of covering the pandemic.
They chose to lead the story by quoting me about what keeps me up at night – personally and professionally.
“Personally, Schwitzer is aggrieved by his battle with board members of his homeowners association, who he said have resisted his recommendation for residents in his Twin Cities condo complex to wear masks.
Professionally, it’s journalism, specifically the state of science and health journalism during a global pandemic that follows a decade during which newsrooms have lost dedicated science and health reporters.”
Among other recent articles mentioning HealthNewsReview.org were these:
CNN’s story, Science by press release: When the story gets ahead of the science. In the interest of full disclosure, that story probably should have noted that I covered medical news for CNN from 1984 through 1990.
The Washington Examiner’s piece, ‘General public grasping at straws’: Flawed science communications mislead a scared public.
The Association of Health Care Journalists’ Covering Health blog article, Protect readers’ time and bandwidth from unpublished trials.
A blog article from The Center for Health Journalism at The Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California, How can reporters responsibly cover preliminary research on COVID-19 drugs and vaccines?
And in one week’s time a while back, in both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times:
How coronavirus is revealing the problems with ‘fast science.’
Opinions on other issues in news, journals, PR, advertising, marketing
A week like this should teach you how/what to ignore: #COVID19 news & PR about studies in monkeys & mice...about studies of dishonesty & BMI…and about rating attractiveness of women with endometriosis!!! https://www.healthnewsreview.org/2020/08/crazy-week-of-pr-news-on-studies-should-teach-us-how-what-to-ignore/
“to project certainty where it simply does not exist is communication malpractice at a time like this and with a public health issue like this.” @garyschwitzer on @ContentScience https://review.content-science.com/covering-covid-19-vaccine-news-part-two-from-the-publisher-of-health-news-review/
In case you weren't aware: Prestigious journalism organizations and outlets take money from pharma, @garyschwitzer https://www.healthnewsreview.org/2020/08/drug-company-influence-on-journalism/#.XyrYGZeNvXA.twitter @HealthNewsRevu
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