MSNBC’s Offensively Stupid Headline (and story) on Car Safety

Trevor Butterworth

Ok. Think. How might cars be dangerous? For starters, you can crash them and kill or maim yourself and others through careless driving or being drunk at the wheel. In fact, let’s stop there, as automotive crashes have accounted for roughly 38,000 deaths each year for the past 10 years. And that’s just the [...]

The National Journal Takes on the Lancet Iraq Casualty Figures

Rebecca Goldin Ph.D
Last week, The National Journal launched a scathing attack on the way casualties in Iraq were estimated by authors Gilbert Burnham, Riyadh Lafta, Shannon Doocy, and Les Roberts in a report published by Lancet in 2006. Many conservative pundits had already put their wits to the test trying to find ways to discredit [...]

Did Diet Politics Corrupt World Cancer Research Fund Recommendations?

Trevor Butterworth, Huffington Post
One of the World Cancer Research Fund’s key recommendations on how to avoid cancer may be flawed because of what was not included in the survey …more
Originally published October 31, 2007

How Dangerous Is Moderate Drinking?

The Chicago Tribune seems to have put moderate drinking in the doghouse. According to its a recent news story, “comprehensive reviews of the scientific evidence” have found people are at risk for cancer, even if they drink moderately. The point of the article seems to be a cost/benefit analysis. Do the known benefits of moderate [...]

Diabetes and Nursing

Rebecca Goldin Ph.D
A recent flurry of interest in the benefits of breastfeeding has led to some rather scary messages from the press: if you don’t nurse — or if you don’t nurse enough — your baby will have all sorts of problems, from obesity to leukemia. Parents are being told point blank: formula kills. A [...]

The Cost of Media Scare Stories to Diabetics

Trevor Butterworth
The current issue of Biocentury, a trade publication that covers the pharmaceutical industry, should be essential and chastening reading for the journalists, editors and politicians who helped turn a limited, problematic study on the risks of the diabetes drug rosliglitazone (brand name Avandia) into a major international health scare.
In a comprehensive report on the [...]

The Risks of Television

Trevor Butterworth and Jenna Krall
Sometimes it’s the actual set and not what you’re watching that’s dangerous to your health… more
Originally published July 17, 2007

FDA Drug Standards: What’s Safe Enough?

Trevor Butterworth
From Wired: Why would the FDA allow a pharmaceutical company to continue to sell an apparently dangerous drug? The answer is not simple, and at a time when mistrust of the government’s relationship with the healthcare industry seems to be increasing, the subtleties can get lost in daily news reports… more
Originally published August 2, [...]

Avandia Vote a Rebuke to Media Alarmism

Trevor Butterworth
A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended in a 22 to 1 to one vote that the diabetes drug Avandia remain on the market, with additional warnings about cardiac risk, but not the most extreme drug warning – a black box – in the FDA arsenal.
The recommendation, which is non-binding but almost certain [...]

New York Times Cherry Picks Data, Sources to Smear Avandia in Advance of FDA Hearing

Trevor Butterworth
The line between the New York Times editorial page, which has been highly critical of the FDA’s handling of the potential risk from the diabetes drug Avandia, and the health news pages appears to have disappeared in the Times’ coverage of the forthcoming FDA hearings on the drug… more
Originally published July 27, 2007