This segment barely scratched the surface of reporting on animal research on an injectable drug approach to weight loss.
It failed to:
To make the leap that this is a "promising new drug that could ultimately impact how to control obesity and diabetes" is simply unfounded.
No estimate of costs – which may be understandable given the early phase of research. But if the drug contains the active ingredients of two drugs already in use – and if it would be a weekly injection – couldn’t some projection of these costs have been made based on what’s known about the two existing drugs’ prices and the cost of a weekly visit to the doctor?
All we were told was that "A single injection of this drug decreased the rodents’ body weight by a quarter and fat mass by 42 percent after just one week." But a quarter of what? 42% of what? What were the longer term results? Anyone can deliver anecdotes about weight loss results in a week.
Potential harms were waved away with this exchange:
(Robin Roberts:) "there’s been no adverse effects, right?
(David Muir:) Not yet.
None? What’s the track record of Byetta and Glucagon? Drawing conclusions about side effects in rodent models as if they are applicable to humans is absurd. All drugs have side effects.
The limitations of animal research- and the enormity of the leap from mice to men – were important factors that received no attention.
No overt disease mongering. But hype for the drug, framing it as if it is for the "millions who want to lose weight." A hesitant satisfactory score on this criterion.
Two people were interviewed but we weren’t told what their connection was to the research, what their expertise was, etc.
The story simply stated, "Despite the introduction of the weight loss pill Alli in 2007, surgical interventions like gastric bypass remain the closest thing to an obesity cure. Experts say this new drug mimics the action of that surgery and that this drug shows we’ve made enormous progress in understanding obesity." That’s totally insufficienct context for all of the treatment options for obesity. And equating the drug to a surgical approach is puzzling.
Confusing terms used – at one time saying "science is about to help you out" but at another point it said it was "years away from human trials" and "10 years out." Nonetheless, we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt on this criterion.
The segment made no attempt to put this research into the context of other weight loss research.
Two different sources were interviewed, so the segment did not appear to rely solely or largely on a news release.
Systematic, Criteria-Driven
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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