February 25, 2005

The Virtues of Sensationalist Scaremongering

Let me continue from theme of the last post. I do understand Sean's comment that media tends to sensationalize scientific news. But the real problem is that we have dearth of trustworthy sources. It's hard to relax when experts tell us, relax, they're looking into it. I say let's be sensationalist scaremongerers until such time that enough scared people act to fight off, and reverse, the political pressure on science to be mindful of profits rather than life.

Take this example from the ongoing arthiritis drug scandal:

Ten of the 32 government drug advisers who last week endorsed continued marketing of the huge-selling pain pills Celebrex, Bextra and Vioxx have consulted in recent years for the drugs' makers, according to disclosures in medical journals and other public records.

If the 10 advisers had not cast their votes, the committee would have voted 12 to 8 that Bextra should be withdrawn and 14 to 8 that Vioxx should not return to the market. The 10 advisers with company ties voted 9 to 1 to keep Bextra on the market and 9 to 1 for Vioxx's return.

In other words, the drugs would have remained off the market had the people with financial ties to the drug companies been recused from the panel. Defenders of the panel's composition argue that it's impossible to be in a position of expertise about such drugs unless one has been involved at some point with the drug companies.

At best, this means there are no independent experts out there.

Add this to the nugget buried later in the story that "Celebrex, Bextra and Vioxx have never been proved in clinical trials to cure pain any better than ibuprofen or more than a dozen other, older pain pills," you see the serious problem here. And Ellen and Bob's comments from the last post do add to the case for concern. But even without more evidence for concern, here's our bigger problem. If the authorities and public health officials told us there was nothing to worry about, how could we evaluate their trustworthiness?

Posted by zeynep at 03:42 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack