The story made strong, clear attempts to report in a restrained manner, using terms/phrases such as:
Stories about cancer – perhaps especially melanoma because of its treatment challenges – should balance promise with realistic context. This story did a better job of that than the competitors’ efforts we reviewed.
The significant costs of both drugs were mentioned. Nice job.
Good job describing the benefits reported in the two drug studies. The two papers present a bewildering array of statistics. This story did a nice job distilling the information into a couple of very understandable sentences.
Good job explaining signifcant potential harms of both drugs – something competitors didn’t do at all.
Nice job, including linking (in the online version) to the papers in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Several independent sources cited.
The story adequately explained the comparisons between both new drugs and the older dacarbazine chemo drug.
Vemurafenib was described as experimental and as “expected to be approved by the FDA within a few months.” Ipilimumab was explained to be approved in March and already on the market.
The relative novelty of both drugs was well explained.
It’s clear that the story did not rely 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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