Terra Sigillata

The Detox Delusion: Kudos to Duke Integrative Medicine Nutritionist

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:33:50 -0500

Yesterday, the real-life mailbox brought the Pharmboy household the Fall 2009 issue of DukeMedicine connect, a biannual publication on current news from the Duke University Health System. Produced by DUHS Marketing and Creative Services, it "strives to offer current news about health topics of interest" to its readers. This issue is not yet online but you can see the Spring 2009 issue here.

What caught my eye was a cover teaser titled "Detox Delusion" and an article on detoxification diets focusing on an interview with Beth Reardon a nutritionist with Duke Integrative Medicine.(The articles sadly don't have bylines so I can only give credit to the editor, Kathleen Yount.)

The article focuses on the fallacy of detoxification diets, extreme and sometimes dangerous regimens of purges, enemas, supplements, herbs, with the misguided goal of clearing one's body of "toxins." These amorphous toxins are never named, much less denoted with an IUPAC chemical name, but prey upon the fears of our "chemical" environment.

The article refers to the current "Master Cleanse" craze, known also as the Lemon Cleanse or Maple Syrup Diet. Not mentioned in the article is that the diet was developed in 1941 by an unlicensed practitioner named Stanley Burroughs and popularized most recently in the 2005 Peter Glickman book, Lose Weight, Have More Energy and Be Happier in 10 Days and his MasterCleanse/Raw Food website.

So, I was very pleased to see this:

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Response to Dan Ariely's Duke Sex Toy Study Is Predictably Irrational

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:02:01 -0500

Father Joe Vetter, director of Duke University's Catholic Center, is protesting trial participant accrual for a study being conducted on campus directed by Dr Dan Ariely, the James B Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics in the Fuqua School of Business (story and video). Ariely is also the author of the best-selling book, Predictably Irrational, an engaging, science-based examination of the rational and not-so-rational influences that contribute to decision-making. The new and expanded version of the book ranks #442 on Amazon.com book sales in the United States.

Look for that number to improve after the attention to Professor Ariely this weekend.

So, to what is Father Vetter objecting?

Ariely and his postdoctoral fellow, Dr Janet Schwartz, received IRB approval to recruit female study participants from the Duke campus community to examine the influence of Tupperware-like sex toy parties on sexual attitudes. A recruitment advert had been posted on the university website, as is commonly done for any clinical or social science study, ~~but was pulled yesterday following the objection of Rev Vetter.~~ Correction: Duke VP of Public Affairs Michael Schoenfeld notes in the comments below that the ads were removed after accrual was complete. Indeed, going to http://tinyurl.com/toyparty reveals that enrollment is closed.

However, here is one of the four ads:

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"Stiff Nights" Falls on Hard Times

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:02:59 -0500

I should probably create a new blogpost category just for erectile dysfunction dietary supplements adulterated with authentic or synthetic analogs of prescription phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE5) inhibitors (e.g., Viagra, Cialis).

However, FDA has already created a page for this earlier this year after dozens of companies have been identified as putting real drugs into their erectile dysfunction products.

Do the brains behind these companies not realize that FDA is now monitoring every erectile dysfunction supplement for all manner of PDE5 inhibitors?

Apparently not:

For Immediate Release: Nov. 5, 2009

Media Inquiries: Christopher Kelly, 301-796-4676, christopher.kelly@fda.hhs.gov
Consumer Inquiries: 888-INFO-FDA

FDA Warns Consumers on Sexual Enhancement Products
Another dietary supplement is found to be contaminated with potentially dangerous ingredient

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers that Stiff Nights, a product marketed as a dietary supplement for sexual enhancement, contains an ingredient that can dangerously lower blood pressure and is illegal.

Over the past several years, the FDA has found many products marketed as "dietary supplements" for sexual enhancement that contain undeclared active ingredients of FDA-approved drugs, analogs of approved drugs and other compounds that do not qualify as "dietary ingredients." The FDA has issued multiple alerts about these contaminated dietary supplements.

Consumers and health care professionals should be aware of this problem and the health hazard it presents. Sexual enhancement products that claim to work as well as prescription products are likely to contain a contaminant. Use of such products exposes consumers to unpredictable risk and the potential for injury or even death.

In the case of Stiff Nights, following a consumer complaint, the FDA determined that the product contains sulfoaildenafil. This is a chemical similar to sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra. Sulfoaildenafil may interact with prescription drugs known as nitrates, including nitroglycerin, and cause dangerously low blood pressure.

The product is distributed on Internet sites and at retail stores by Impulsaria LLC of Grand Rapids, Mich. It is sold in bottles containing 6, 12, or 30 red capsules or in blister packs containing one or two capsules.

"Because this product is labeled as an 'all natural dietary supplement,' consumers may assume it is harmless and poses no health risk," said Deborah M. Autor, director of FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research Office of Compliance. "In fact, this product is illegally marketed and can cause serious complications."

The FDA advises consumers who have experienced any adverse events from sexual enhancement products to consult a health care professional. Consumers and health care professionals should report adverse events to the FDA's MedWatch program at 800-FDA-1088 or online at www.fda.gov/medwatch/report.htm

The FDA remains committed to stopping the illegal marketing of unapproved drugs and will continue to protect the public with vigorous law enforcement and criminal prosecution of violators.

I'll be very serious about this for a moment because, in this particular case, it appears that FDA was acting on a consumer complaint that I suspect arose from an adverse health reaction to the product. Taking a PDE5 inhibitor on top of prescription vasodilators can cause a very frightening drop in blood pressure that, at the very least, could cause one to briefly lose consciousness and fall.

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Bring Rebecca Skloot and Henrietta Lacks (HeLa) to your town

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:02:49 -0500

Some readers may be aware that Rebecca Skloot is about to release her much-anticipated book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a story that is about much more than the black Southern woman whose cervical cancer gave rise to the most famous human cancer cell line. (Crown, 2 Feb 2010, preorder here).

HeLa cells, as they are known, have played a role in the development of vaccines for polio and cervical cancer, the part of last year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Harald zur Hausen, and the PhD thesis 20 years ago of a certain natural products pharmacology blogger.

Having been invited to serve as a scientific reviewer of the manuscript, I can tell you that Skloot's book is a wonderfully engaging tale that is about much more than the history of the establishment and propagation of a cell line. Indeed, this is unquestionably and foremost a painstakingly-researched narrative of the science behind the cells and the personalities at the center of their popularization. But the true power of this work is that it is woven with a simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking tale of the Lacks family and the evolution of bioethics in medicine.

What I least expected, perhaps, was to be so deeply touched by Skloot's rich account of African-American medical history and life in the South for blacks from pre-slavery times through the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. I could almost feel the oppressive humidity and smell the sun-bleached wood of long-abandoned tobacco drying houses. Since joining ScienceBlogs over three years ago, I've received a large number of free books to review. None have ever touched the scientist and the soul like this book.

Skloot's book is already drawing acclaim, having been named a Barnes & Noble "Discover Great New Writers" pick for Spring 2010 and this starred review by Publishers Weekly:

Science journalist Skloot makes a remarkable debut with this multilayered story about "faith, science, journalism, and grace." It is also a tale of medical wonders and medical arrogance, racism, poverty and the bond that grows, sometimes painfully, between two very different women--Skloot and Deborah Lacks--sharing an obsession to learn about Deborah's mother, Henrietta, and her magical, immortal cells. Henrietta Lacks was a 31-year-old black mother of five in Baltimore when she died of cervical cancer in 1951. Without her knowledge, doctors treating her at Johns Hopkins took tissue samples from her cervix for research. They spawned the first viable, indeed miraculously productive, cell line--known as HeLa. These cells have aided in medical discoveries from the polio vaccine to AIDS treatments. What Skloot so poignantly portrays is the devastating impact Henrietta's death and the eventual importance of her cells had on her husband and children. Skloot's portraits of Deborah, her father and brothers are so vibrant and immediate they recall Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's Random Family. Writing in plain, clear prose, Skloot avoids melodrama and makes no judgments. Letting people and events speak for themselves, Skloot tells a rich, resonant tale of modern science, the wonders it can perform and how easily it can exploit society's most vulnerable people. (Feb.) [tagline emphasis mine -APB]

I wanted to share an idea on how readers can support Rebecca (and other writers like her) who have books from major publishing houses that increasingly do not provide support for book tours (no offense intended to the publishing house since I had a book with them in 1997 and did not get a book tour either).

For such an academically-minded book that appeals to both scholars and the lay public interested in science, ethics, race, culture, and medicine, I've been working on funding Ms. Skloot's visit to PharmboyLand by soliciting support from various university lecture series programs.

How can you do the same?

If you're at a medical or pharmacy school, hit up your cancer center or medical humanities program. If you are at a minority institution, you can hit up your programs that address health disparities or medical mistrust/racism issues. If you are in an arts & humanities department, you can hit up the folks who bring in speakers on Southern culture and history.

For you undergraduate, graduate and medical students, I know that you have student activities fund pools that would give you hundreds of bucks to a grand or two to bring in a speaker and that those funds sometimes go unspent because you really don't know who would be a good choice.

Well, choose Skloot. Rebecca is the kind of writer and speaker you want to bring to town. I know about 300 folks who would tell you the same after we all packed a lecture hall last year at ScienceOnline'09 to hear her talk about the book and read excerpts. "Moving and engaging of both the heart and mind" is what my tasting notes read from last year.

Then, when Skloot is at your university, you'll bring her around to all the indy bookstores in your area that host readings and signings. Organize dinners with local media, bloggers, women in STEM groups, local authors. Get her on your local radio station. Help her make interview contacts for your local paper. People will thank you for bringing Rebecca's work to your community. I've done this kind of thing for others before and it's great fun, especially when you're promoting someone who you admire.

And to think that you don't even have to take ten years out of your life to write a book to have such a satisfying experience.!

Here is her tour map below and you can click on this link to go to Google and get the embed code for your own blog to produce this annotated map.

View The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Book Tour in a larger map

Note that if you are in the Northeastern US, you will have the double pleasure of being joined by Skloot's father, creative nonfiction, writer, poet, and novelist, Floyd Skloot. Here is a lovely article, Tales of a Literary Dynasty, by John Calderazzo from the alumni mag of Colorado State University about the father and daughter team (Rebecca is a 1997 BS biological sciences grad of CSU).

To contact Rebecca Skloot regarding a book tour stop in your town, email her and get more details from this post on her blog, Culture Dish.

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Latisse®: Tell me more about my eyes

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:02:48 -0500

Lookie what came in to my e-mail box overnight after yesterday's post about the hypotrichosis treatment, Latisse® brand of bimatoprost.

Hmm...I have a few ideas who might have sent this (no profanity, so it wasn't Comrade PhysioProf). And very interesting that this comes just a week before FDA holds an opening hearing entitled, "Promotion of FDA-Regulated Medical Products Using the Internet and Social Media Tools. For your information, here's the PDF schedule courtesy of colleague John Mack - Pharma Marketing Blog and @pharmaguy. John is currently running a survey in his masthead to solicit reader input as to what topics might interest them most - John is scheduled to speak early on the first day.

Just an aside: does the fact the hearing is being held at the National Transportation Safety Board Conference Center in DC mean it's going to be a trainwreck? (sorry, couldn't resist)

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Lashing out at Latisse®

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:24:00 -0500

I am running out of eyelash puns having written at least six posts since the summer of 2007 on a class of anti-glaucoma drugs that have been harnessed for their cosmetic side effect: promotion of eyelash growth. Bimatoprost (Lumigan®) and latanoprost (Xalatan®) are members of the prostamide class of drugs that can manage some forms of glaucoma by reducing intraocular pressure. When administered as eye drops, the drugs mimic the effect of endogenous prostaglandin PGF2α, acting as a local hypotensive to promote outflow of aqueous humor from the eye through the trabecular meshwork.

Invoking the tagline of one of my pharmacology profs, "today's side effects are tomorrow's therapy." From the prescribing information for Lumigan® brand of bimatoprost (PDF):

Lumigan® may gradually change eyelashes and vellus hair in the treated eye; these changes include increased length, thickness, and number of lashes. Eyelash changes are usually reversible upon discontinuation of treatment.

This effect was picked up first by cosmeceutical companies that began marketing chemical relatives of the prescription drugs as eyelash rejuvenators, only to have action brought against them by the US FDA. FDA does not recognize "cosmeceuticals" as a product class but stepped in because cosmetics companies were selling unapproved drugs.

About the same time, Allergan, manufacturer of the Lumigan brand of bimatoprost, sought approval for a product called Latisse, comprised of the same compound but applied to the eyelash line with a sterile brush rather than into the eyes as ophthalmic drops. FDA regulates this latter product because it was approved to treat hypotrichosis, the lack or paucity of eyelashes. Nevertheless, it is clearly being sold as a cosmetic judging from their website's "Eye Candy" tab and video advertisement with Brooke Shields.

I can't watch the time-lapse segment of the advert without thinking of a Saturday Night Live parody where the lashes would continue growing incessantly.

Today, several medium-circulation national newspapers picked up on a 27 October blogpost by Julie Deardorff (Julie's Health Club) of the Chicago Tribune where she pointed out that Allergan has had some difficulty with FDA regarding their incomplete disclosure of potential side effects in commercial advertising materials.

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What a blockbuster movie can do to a small town (Miss Cellania at mental_floss)

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:02:46 -0500

Miss Cellania is the very clever 'nym of a Kentucky-based full-time blogger, radio producer, and more-than-full-time mother. She consistently puts up very imaginative and insightful content at her home blog but in her other gigs at mental_floss and Geeks Are Sexy. I love mental_floss so that's where I first learned of Miss C. (She's also been very kind to link to us on occasion despite her reputation for

During my Sunday morning leisure reading and catch-up on my Twitter feed, I came across her post from Thursday on how small towns are affected when they are the setting for blockbuster movies (think Long Island's Amityville). It can be a blessing or a curse.

The post itself is fascinating as are the comments from readers who provide other cases of their own local experiences. The current baseball World Series got me thinking about one of the more widely-known of such movies.

Terra Sig readers know that I am a proud transplant to Durham (NC, not NH or England) whose legendary historic ballpark was the centerpiece of the classic baseball film, Bull Durham, with Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, and Tim Robbins. While seemingly quaint, the name Bull Durham comes from a brand of tobacco that was grown and manufactured in the area following the Civil War - many Union and Confederate soldiers were stranded here following the April, 1865 surrender agreement forged at Bennett Place, ending the war in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. The relatively mild "brightleaf" tobacco grown in these parts was embraced by the soldiers and brought home, thereby ensuring that the Civil War would lead to many more deaths in both the North and South (my, can you tell I am a cancer researcher?).

(More about tobacco advertising can be found in this library collection from the university-that-tobacco-built, Duke).

Endangered Durham, arguably the finest historical preservation blog in the American South, has the ultimate pictorial history of the Durham Athletic Park. Turns out that baseball has a far longer tradition than ACC basketball in the Research Triangle area: after 50 or so years of organized baseball being played around town, the Durham Athletic Park, then "El Toro Park," was opened in 1926.

For the next few decades, the park was the site for games by community and semi-pro teams, including the legendary players of the Negro Baseball League. The 1960s saw the main team, the Durham Bulls, become a major league farm team for two successive major league baseball expansion teams: the Houston Colt .45s and the New York Mets.

Following the 1988 release of Bull Durham, increased interest in minor league ball led to local investment to construct a new stadium for the Bulls rather than renovate the historic structure (a 1990 bond referendum failed). In 1995, when the Durham Bulls AAA ballclub moved to that newly-constructed ballpark in the increasingly gentrified warehouse district of town, the American Tobacco Historic District, the old historic ballpark fell into disrepair.

In 2007, the Durham City Council approved $5.5 million to upgrade the Durham Athletic Park (DAP) to its former glory, including a modern rain collection system to maintain the grounds in a "green" manner. While I don't have any hard data, I hypothesize that the civic pride and connection to the movie contributed significantly to public support of the project.

The PharmKid and I spent a sweltering (even by NC standards) 15 August 2009 afternoon at the re-dedication of the ballpark. WRAL-TV has a somewhat more extensive history of the path to the reopening this past summer.

A month later, the Durham Bulls won the Triple-A National Baseball Championship.

How about you? Has any movie about your neck of the woods influenced your community, positively or negatively?

Photo source: Bulls at the East Durham Ballpark, 1913. Via Endangered Durham
From "Baseball's Hometown Teams: The Story of the Minor Leagues" by Bruce Chadwick

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On the Origin of Witches, Broomsticks, and Flying

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:02:00 -0500

This post appeared here originally on 31 October 2007

Have you ever wondered, perhaps on 31 October, why witches are depicted as riding brooms?

The answer is alluded to by Karmen Franklin at Chaotic Utopia in her post as to why witches need to know their plant biology.

The excerpts I'm about to give you come from a superb and accessible pharmacology text entitled, "Murder, Magic, and Medicine," by John Mann, host of the BBC Radio 4 series by the same name.

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Revere(s) on pseudonymous vs. anonymous blogging

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:02:39 -0500

No, this is not the same old beaten horse.

Revere at Effect Measure, one/some of the best public health writers on the web, has written a splendid piece on the difference between the two types of blogging in response to the denial of his registration at the Knight Science Journalism Tracker. Revere has intended to comment on their coverage of the Brownlee and Lenzer cover article on swine flu at The Atlantic.

I was going to pick out some excerpts but the whole post is so clearly written and important in its entire context that I refer you to read it in its entirety.

I don't believe that I have ever read a more insightful treatment of the "pseudonym" issue regarding those blogging about science and medicine.

Science journalists, bloggers and the Brave New World we live in by Revere at Effect Measure

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What is squalene?

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:46:28 -0500

Meet squalene:

Squalene is a 30-carbon branched structure made from isoprene units in the production of cholesterol and other endogenous compounds such as glucocorticoids and sex steroids.

We all have squalene in our bodies. We NEED squalene. All mammals make squalene. Even fungi make squalene (for a compound called ergosterol that is required in their cell membranes).

So ubiquitous is squalene is that it is extracted commercially from shark liver oil. Squalene is intentionally added to cosmetics sold as "natural."

Squalene is also a component of a vaccine adjuvant that has been used for over 10 years in Europe but is still pending approval in the US for use in the H1N1 flu vaccine.

In the context of immunology, an adjuvant is a chemical or combination of chemicals used to improve the immune response to vaccines.

But squalene is already in our bodies. We make the stuff. A vaccine with squalene will just be adding a little more squalene into our bodies.

Any questions?

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Wired posts Amy Wallace love/hate mail compiled from Twitter feed

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:20:45 -0500

Just a quick follow-up from our last two posts about Amy Wallace's article, "An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All," in Wired magazine about vaccine developer Dr Paul Offit and the anti-vaccination movement:

Wired has now compiled Wallace's tweets from the last two days into blog-readable narrative.

Only a week after Wired published "An Epidemic of Fear", we've received more reader responses than any other story in memory. Journalist Amy Wallace has received hundreds of messages, weighing in on all sides of the issue, and posted some of those comments on her Twitter feed.

Readers Respond to "An Epidemic of Fear," Part 1
Readers Respond to "An Epidemic of Fear," part 2

To be fair, putting Amy's tweets together was originally the idea of Sydney-based IT blogger, Bastard Sheep (part 1, part 2; the illegitimate sheep also twitpic'd last night a screen shot of his blog traffic before and after these posts).

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When critics disagree with me, I'm a Pharma Shill. When critics disagree with a woman, it gets sexual.

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:02:08 -0500

Case in point:

A few days ago, I sang the praises of last week's article in Wired magazine by Amy Wallace on pediatric infectious disease and immunology specialist, Dr Paul Offit, and the anti-vaccination movement in the US.

Wallace's article has been widely heralded by the scientific community but has evoked the wrath of several anti-vaccination groups and individual followers.

When the target is a man, their motives are questioned and their intellect maligned. But when the target is a woman, guess what happens? Here is a compiled thread from a series of tweets yesterday from Amy Wallace (@msamywallace)

I've been called stupid, greedy, a whore, a prostitute, and a "fking lib." I've been called the author of "heinous tripe."

J.B. Handley, the founder of Generation Rescue, the anti-vaccine group that actress Jenny McCarthy helps promote, sent an essay title" "Paul Offit Rapes (intellectually) Amy Wallace and Wired Magazine." In it, he implied that Offit had slipped me a date rape drug. "The roofie cocktails at Paul Offit's house must be damn good," he wrote. Later, he sent a revised version that omitted rape and replaced it with the image of me drinking Offit's Kool-aid. That one was later posted at the anti-vaccine blog Age of Autism. You can read that blog here

I've been told I'll think differently "if you live to grow up." I've been warned that "this article will haunt you for a long time." Just now, I got an email so sexually explicit that I can't paraphrase it here. Except to say it contained the c-word and a reference to dead fish.

Amy Wallace is a seasoned journalist with over 25 years of experience writing professionally for such publications as The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and Condé Nast. She has covered the highly-contentious and often backstabbing culture of the entertainment industry, topics as polarizing as the death penalty, and charged profiles such as that of an emotionally-terrorized woman who murdered her husband. Yet, she notes that she has never before "experienced such an avalanche of letters and emails."

Well, Ms. Wallace, you have committed the sin of 1) being a female professional and 2) questioning a vocal and vitriolic pseudoscience demographic.

And like every other woman science blogger I know, without exception, you are now the target of the type of electronic criticism of the lowest common denominator.

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Passionate scientific imagination, fatherhood, and Google voice search

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:18:11 -0500

While working on a science-rich post and writing an exam, something came across Twitter that is, well, too good to just be seen only on Twitter.

Fullsteam is the name of the plow-to-pint Southern microbrewery in Durham, NC, no-longer-in-planning-but-not-quite-done and I have written about the tweeter several times. The imagination behind brewing a beer with sweet potatoes (it's awesome, btw) or kudzu comes from the very same mind that burped into his iPhone for the benefit of shared education with his daughters.

The result:

I use Google voice search all the time and have been very impressed with its accuracy and utility.

But now I'm not sure who's more clever: Sean or the Google programmers.

(P.S. - but it didn't work for me. I also tried to sneeze in it and it returned a search for "untouched." Is Sean just taking the piss out of me knowing that I would be inclined to post this?)

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Run, do not walk, to register for ScienceOnline2010

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:02:53 -0500

Over the weekend, registration opened for ScienceOnline2010, the fourth annual science communicators conference to be held January 14-17, 2010, in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina.

Please join us for this free (but donations are accepted) three-day event to explore science on the Web. Our goal is to bring together scientists, physicians, patients, educators, students, publishers, editors, bloggers, journalists, writers, web developers, programmers and others to discuss, demonstrate and debate online strategies and tools for doing science, publishing science, teaching science, and promoting the public understanding of science.

Launched by Anton Zuiker, Bora Zivkovic, Paul Jones, and Brian Russell, ScienceOnline began as the North Carolina Science Blogging Conference in January 2007 and was already an international gathering in its first year (very quick descriptions of these fine, young boys here).

As is my habit of just stumbling into things like Forrest Gump, I help out here and there with hotel, food, and a session or two. We were able to secure the same good rate at the headquarters hotel this year ($72/night, $81.90 with taxes) and I'm firming up the Saturday banquet issues. I won't be around for the whole meeting this year but don't let that stop you from coming.

Without going into a huge diatribe, this conference has become as valuable to me personally and professionally as the majority of my research conferences, primarily because of the diverse backgrounds (and utter coolness) of each attendee whose passions converge on the goal of improving science communication.

As of the time of this post, there were 189 registrants for the 225 available slots, then names will be added to a wait list. Last year, I believe it took three weeks for the meeting to fill up and we thought that was fast. Well, I doubt seriously that open registration will see the end of the current week.

Hence, get thee to the registration page posthaste.

Pretty-much-close-to-final program HERE

See who's coming HERE

REGISTER HERE!

No, really, I'm not kidding. Don't hate yourself for not signing up: REGISTER HERE!

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Amy Wallace in Wired on Dr Paul Offit and the Anti-Vaccination Movement: Superb, Engaging Science Journalism

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:26:29 -0500

One of the most engaging and clearly-written pieces of science journalism over the last year or so was published in Wired magazine last week. Amy Wallace's, "An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All," is part interview with rotavirus vaccine developer, pediatric infectious disease physician, Dr Paul Offit, and description of the anti-vaccination movement in the United States.

Wallace's work is the centerpiece of a collection of smaller articles providing science-based information about vaccination that also refutes common anti-vaccination myths including "How To Win An Argument About Vaccines" and "The Misinformants: Prominent Voices in the Anti-Vaccine Crusade".

Wired's follow-up discussion of the issue includes, "A Short History of Vaccine Panic," for those of us who "have a day job" and not enough time to read Paul Offit's 2008 book, "Autism's False Prophets."

I have to admit that it wasn't until I began blogging four years ago that I realized just how vocal the anti-vaccination movement was in the United States. I come from a time (just on the tail end of the Baby Boom) where I still have relatives who were afflicted with polio and other now-preventable infectious diseases. The devastation of these childhood illnesses makes the risks (yes, I agree there are some risks) of vaccination itself inconsequential.

Vaccination is a risk-benefit proposition but one where someone else's view affects us all. Lack of vaccination compromises "herd immunity" that keeps us all safe, for example, from diseases like smallpox that have been eliminated from the face of the earth. For example, I wrote most recently about a whooping cough outbreak in southwestern Colorado and prior calls in Durango for vaccination as a socially responsible act, much like cutting brush on one's property to protect a neighbor's house in a wildfire.

Others, such as my colleague, Orac, have commented on Wallace's article for its scientific and medical accuracy. However, I wanted to focus on the effectiveness of the writing as a scientific communication tool because much of the article gives the reader a concise view of issues and psychology that often take typical bloggers thousands of words to express (and still less effectively!).

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