Clever marketing but pathetic journalism

Further to the previous post on this clever marketing campaign for cough medicines, it’s generating some pathetic journalism.

On other media-related matters, Gary Schwitzer’s excellent Health News Review blog has given a scathing assessment of the media coverage of the “breast cancer vaccine” study that grabbed international headlines recently, including locally.

He says the study involved only six mice. That’s all it took to generate an international media storm that no doubt whipped up false hope for desperate patients and also wasted plenty of consultation time as clinicians had to explain, once again, why the headlines meant nothing for the real world of patients’ lives.

Sigh…