73 percent of those new prescription drugs advertised on U.S. television had low therapeutic value, offering only slight benefit over other drugs already on the market, says a recent study. Those drugs accounted for $15.9 billion worth of advertising spending. Of the advertised drugs that had a value rating from Canada, France or Germany, 53 of them were classified as low-benefit, at best.
Back in 2015, the American Medical Association called for an all-out ban on DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) ads for prescription drugs and medical devices, saying they drive demand for expensive treatments despite the clinical effectiveness of less costly alternatives.
More:
“70% of drugs advertised on TV are of “low therapeutic value,” study finds,” Beth Mole, Ars Technica
Trichobezoars are hairballs occasionally found in the stomachs of cows or other ruminants. Historically, they were thought to be antidotes for poisoning. Other types of bezoar, formed by ingestion of other kinds of objects, more closely resemble stones. The word is derived from the Persian pād-zahr (anitidote). Anne Garner of the New York Academy of Medicine Library explains in an Atlas Obscura video.
Scientific Method be damned, medical journals have an economic incentive for publishing papers with postive outcomes. When a drug study shows positive outcomes, pharmaceutical companies buy reprints of it in bulk to distribute it to prescribers.
Those purchases can add up to over $2 million. For journals like The Lancet ($40 annual revenue) and NEJM ($100 million/yr.), that’s huge. 41 percent of The Lancet’s 2021 income came from reprints. When it comes to drug studies, Big Phama’s thumb is firmly on the scale.
More:
Scientific journals are incentivized to publish positive drug studies,” Annalisa Merelli, Quartz
Related:
“Why Most Published Research Findings Are False,” John P. A. Ioannidis, PLOS Medicine
President Donald Trump’s favorite COVID-19 preventing snake oil, Hydroxychloroquine, has been shown to be ineffective against the novel coronavirus in yet another medical study, this one involving health care workers.
More:
“Trump-touted hydroxychloroquine shows no benefit in COVID-19 prevention: study,” Reuters
“Hydroxychloroquine didn’t prevent Covid-19 among health care workers in new study,” Jacqueline Howard, CNN
“No Evidence That Hydroxychloroquine Can Prevent Covid-19, Concludes New Study,” Ed Cara, Gizmodo
A bill introduced in the Missouri State Legislature by veterinarian and state Senator Dan Brown (R) would allow motorcycle riders over the age of 18 to decide whether to wear a helmet. The bill attempts to mitigate the ensuing increase in police, ambulance, and emergency room services by requiring those bareheaded riders to carry $1 million worth of insurance or more. What it won’t do is increase the number of ambulances, EMTs, cops, and emergency rooms in the Show Me State, so other folks will die because some guy on a Harley wants to feel the wind in his hair.
Not there wouldn’t be medical advantages. Repealing the mandatory helmet law would increase the pool of donor organs. Maybe Missouri motorcyclists who choose to forego helmets should be required to register as organ donors.
More:
“Repealing motorcycle helmet laws does have a health benefit: More organ donors,” Fredrick Kunkle, Washington Post
Henry Tudor, aka HRH Henry VIII, King of England, Wales, Ireland & etc. and Supreme Head of the Church of England, was also a musician, composer, poet, firm believer in marriage, and a devoted sportsman. He liked archery, dressage, hawking and hunting, but most of all he loved jousting. HRH suffered jousting accidents in 1524 and 1525, while he was in his thirties. A later jousting accident in 1536 seriously damaged His Majesty’s leg, and Henry’s tyrannical behavior has often been attributed to that injury.
One of the so-called “gotcha” questions Carl Quintanilla asked Dr. Ben Carson on CNBC’s October 28th reality show was about his involvement with Mannatech, a shady medical supplement company. “I didn’t have an involvement with them,” the candidate replied. “That is total propaganda, and this is what happens in our society. Total propaganda,” the Doc harrumphed. A great media moment, but denying a verifiable fact is never a good long-term strategy.
Ten months before the debate, Jim Geraghty of the National Reviewdescribed Ben Carson’s decade-long relationship with the purveyor of unproven “neutraceutical” nostrums, a firm that paid $4 million to settle a false medical claims suit, a firm thouroughly discredited in a 2007 ABC 20/20 investigation.
So Mr. Quintanilla’s debate question should have come as no surprise. Ben Carson shilled for Mannatech on PBS in 2014 and The Wall Street Journal‘s Mark Maremont had outlined Dr. Carson’s decade-long relationship with Mannatech just weeks before the CNBC event.
Since the debate, has Dr. Carson addressed the fact that for 10 years he promotedmedical hokum for money? No. He tried to sidestep the issue of his personal and professional ethics by blaming his political opponents for raising this controversy, another clear falsehood. So much for the moral high ground.
More:
“What Ben Carson’s Mannatech Answer Tells Us,” Jim Geraghty, National Review
In a three-page, 881 word statement Monday afternoon, Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump clarified statements he made on June 16th. Mexican immigrants, he claimed, are not just drug dealers, killers, and rapists; they’re responsible for “tremendous infectious disease … pouring across the border.”
There would be good reason to fear immigrant-borne epidemics if vaccination rates in Mexico and Central America were not among the highest in the world. The measles vaccination rate in those countries, in fact, is higher than that of the US. “If anything,” points out Peter Weber, “those countries should be concerned about Americans coming down to visit.”
Of course, it’s not like Mr. Trump believes in vaccination … or climate change or Barack Obama’s Hawaiian birth, come to think of it.
So Donald Trump is no physician. Neither is Maria Konnikova, but she offers a very convincing diagnosis of Donald Trump: Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
Related:
“Donald Trump’s most delusional statement yet: ‘I’ll win the Latino vote,’” Sophia Tesfaye, Salon
“Donald Trump: The Democrats’ Best Campaign Asset,” Bill Humphrey and Stephan Richter, The Globalist
“Donald Trump is the ultimate opportunist: Why his racist theatrics—and surging popularity—explain everything about the modern GOP,” Heather Digby Parton, Salon
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