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12/09/2008: "Drug-Safety Data: Too Much Information?"

After a series of prescription-medication scares in recent years, consumers are receiving a flood of safety information about the drugs they take - so much that it risks scaring some people.

Too much information about drug safety - disseminated through media, online alerts from consumer watchdog groups and even by the Food and Drug Administration itself - might overwhelm patients and raise undue alarm, some medical professionals caution. Consumers may forget about the benefits of a medication if they focus only on risk. And the health consequences associated with stopping a medication, particularly for a chronic condition, may be far worse than the possibility of a side effect.

[ This sort of report is deeply sinister. It suggests that it is not good for the public to be able to consider the possible harmful side effects of medicines. Medicines are very dangerous. Everyone should consider the side effects. This is more "don't panic the cattle" rhetoric. The Wall Street Journal had a column recently suggesting that news should be censored because it provokes Islamic terrorists, for example, to hear of Israelis mistreating Palestinians. We have to be kept ignorant so we are kept in line. This is the reason that many media reports avoid mentioning, or play down, crimes or other socially disturbing phenomena that could be blamed on minorities. ]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122876878853188981.html?mod=googlenews_wsj