Tabloid Medicine: How the Internet is being used to hijack medical science for fear and profit

[HuckleB]

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=book-review-tabloid-medicine-how-th-2011-02-23

"In his new book, Tabloid Medicine: How The Internet Is Being Used to Hijack Medical Science for Fear and Profit, Robert Goldberg, PhD, explains why the Internet is a double-edged sword when it comes to health information. On the one hand, the Web can empower people with quality medical information that can help them make informed decisions. On the other hand, the Web is an unfiltered breeding ground for urban legends, fear-mongering and snake oil salesmen.

Goldberg uses case studies to expose the sinister side of health misinformation. Perhaps the most compelling example of a medical "manufactroversy" (defined as a manufactured controversy that is motivated by profit or extreme ideology to intentionally create public confusion about an issue that is not in dispute) is the anti-vaccine movement. Thanks to the efforts of corrupt scientists, personal injury lawyers, self-proclaimed medical experts, and Hollywood starlets, a false link between vaccines and autism has been promoted on a global scale via the Internet. The resulting panic, legal feeding frenzy, money-making alternative medicine sales, and reduction in childhood vaccination rates (causing countless preventable deaths), are sickening and tragic.

As Goldberg continues to explore the hyperbole behind specific "health threats," a fascinating pattern emerges. Behind the most powerful manufactroversies, lies a predictable formula: first, a new problem is generated by redefining terminology. For example, an autism "epidemic" suddenly exists when a wide range of childhood mental health diagnoses are all reclassified as part of an autism spectrum. The reclassification creates the appearance of a surge in autism cases, and that sets the stage for cause-seeking.

Second, "instant experts" immediately proclaim that they have special insight into the cause. They enjoy the authority and attention that their unique "expertise" brings them and begin to position themselves as a "little guy" crusader against injustice. They also are likely to spin conspiracy theories about government cover-ups or pharmaceutical malfeasance to make their case more appealing to the media. In many cases the experts have a financial incentive in promoting their point of view (they sell treatments or promote their books, for example).

..."

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Definitely needs to be read in whole, but most things should be read in whole, no? Anyway, this sounds like a worthy book, IMO.

:hi:

[bemildred]

1. Seems sort of obvious, but I suppose it can't hurt.

"Dang, information on the internet is unreliable, and people lie to make money? We better spread the word!"

[HuckleB]

2. Clearly, it's not so obvious to far too many.

[bemildred]

3. Well, that's true.

Snake oil has a long history, and not just in medicine or politics.

[HuckleB]

6. It is everywhere, but it does appear that this new communication tool has helped ...

... a new generation of snake oil sellers to spread.

[bemildred]

7. No, the internet is not good that way.

The internet is Darwinian to the core. But public debate has always tended to favor the loud.

[xchrom]

4. recommend

[varkam]

5. +1