Saturday, March 13, 2010

Fosamax, vaccination confusion

Two recent stories on ABC's national news may have done more harm than good. The first one was about drugs used for osteoporosis, stating that a handful of people (of the millions who use them) have broken their femurs. The next day they did a follow-up, to say that most people who are on the drugs are safe, but I can only imagine how many spooked patients called their doctors asking for an explanation.
Last night, there was a story that was supposed to explain how, after a 19 month law suit, it was decided that vaccines do not cause autism. This story just glossed over the facts, but included an emotionally charged interview with a mother of an autistic child who insisted that it was a conspiracy, conducted by government scientists, working for government judges, who all, for some reason, want to give kids autism.
The first story, in my eyes, failed to convey that 99.999% of the time, drugs for osteoporosis prevent bone fractures, not cause them. And the second story failed to mention that all of the authors of the study linking vaccines and autism have withdrawn their names, while the lead author of the study was convicted of fraud. Also, no mention that herd immunity is not as strong as it used to be, so the dangers of not being vaccinated are exponentially greater.
So, if you're not satisfied with Diane Sawyer's news, just come to this blog!

1 comment:

Ben said...

I am not satisfied with Diane Sawyer's news. I have also never watched it. Good points about vaccines and autism, I didn't know all of that. But yeah, the benefits definitely outweigh the risks and the people who forgo them put others at risk, which is not very nice of them. As for Fosamax, it does pose some risks but I don't know the percentage of people affected by those risks, and it is probably very low as you suggested.