On Tuesday, it was excitement over vaccine news in 12 monkeys. (Journalism example.) On Wednesday, it was excitement over vaccine news in cells from mice. (National Institutes of Health PR example.) We’re going down the food chain. Today is Thursday. By Friday, we may be getting excited for nematodes that are vaccinated. Let me emphasize: […]
Many times through the years, HealthNewsReview.org has criticized the National Press Foundation in Washington, DC, for accepting drug company funding for journalism training. (See articles from June 2009, July 2009, August 2010, September 2010, October 2010, March 2014, March 2015, December 2015, November 2019. I may have missed a few, but you get the picture.) They’re doing it […]
On July 27, 2020, the Washington Post reported, Two coronavirus vaccines begin the last phase of testing: 30,000-person trials, wrapping it in historical terms: At 6:45 a.m. Monday, a volunteer in Savannah, Ga., received a shot in the arm and became the first participant in a massive human experiment that will test the effectiveness of an experimental […]
For years, substances called tau protein or beta-amyloid have been theorized to be signs or causes of Alzheimer’s disease. There have been many reports of tests and treatments based on theories that tau and/or amyloid are at least signs, if not causes, of Alzheimer’s. Scientific uncertainty remains about the precise role of tau and amyloid […]
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, […]
Before I even turned on my computer yesterday, the BBC had blared this headline about a trial of the protein interferon beta:The sub-headline read: The preliminary results of a clinical trial suggest a new treatment for Covid-19 reduces the number of patients needing intensive care, according to the UK company that developed it. Eventually some […]
Dr. Richard Saitz of Boston University School of Public Health and I co-authored this piece in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Here is an excerpt:
Yesterday on Twitter, several clinician-researchers urged me to weigh in on the New York Times’ introduction of a new Coronavirus Drug and Treatment Tracker. They were troubled by it. I was, too, when I saw it. But I had no time to address it yesterday and – more than 24 hours later – I still […]
The Reuters headline blared, “One in three South Korean COVID-19 patients improve with remdesivir.” The first sentence of the story repeated that number: “One in three South Korean patients seriously ill with COVID-19 showed an improvement in their condition after being given Gilead Sciences Inc’s antiviral remdesivir, health authorities said.” One in three. Was that 1,000 […]
Canadian physician-researcher James Brophy of McGill University read the news announcing, “US buys up world stock of key Covid-19 drug remdesivir.” Rather than reacting with shock and scorn as many observers did, Brophy celebrated the announcement as “good news for the rest of us” around the globe. Why? He explained in an opinion piece published […]
Opinions on other issues in news, journals, PR, advertising, marketing
The tsunami of news and information around potential COVID-19 vaccines is relentless. When communicating about this topic, choose your words carefully and focus on the data, says @garyschwitzer.
#scicomm #journalism #media
https://review.content-science.com/covering-covid-19-vaccine-news-part-two-from-the-publisher-of-health-news-review/
I find the work of @HealthNewsRevu amazing for Health journalists and people dealing with Health information, please look at their toolkits if you don't know them
https://www.healthnewsreview.org/toolkit/
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/
Tips & Resources for Analyzing Health Care Claims
