Looking into all the research that takes place in science.
I was naive before. (This implies that I hope I am no longer naive)
I used to trust every piece of information and research that was presented in newspapers - especially papers such as the METRO.
Little did I know that there is no hard evidence for believing such claims.
As with many things in life you have to take it with a pinch of salt.
Dr Ben Goldacre's recently exploited many of the scandals of drugs companies who provide misleading data.
They can do so like this (as mentioned by him in the TED talks):
- by cherry picking their volunteers
- by stopping their study half way through when their desired results are produced
- or by compraing their drug to a placebo or one they know does not work very well
more on this can be found on Goldacre's blog: http://www.badscience.net/2012/10/
So drugs companies are profit hungry, ruthless and provide no benefit to patients. Well or so it seems for some companies - some are now ready to release data so we will have to see about that.
On a more positive note to a study that I thought was good.
The recent study with ONE MILLION women - testing the effects of smoking.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19946427
I am impressed - they used so many volunteers - this to me shows dedication and effort in a genuine attempt to inform the public.
Although i do wonder why they didn't do the same for men. The costs for funding it? Were men less likely to volunteer for something like this? Would men have to be paid more as volunteers?
Just some thoughts that came into my head.
I was naive before. (This implies that I hope I am no longer naive)
I used to trust every piece of information and research that was presented in newspapers - especially papers such as the METRO.
Little did I know that there is no hard evidence for believing such claims.
As with many things in life you have to take it with a pinch of salt.
Dr Ben Goldacre's recently exploited many of the scandals of drugs companies who provide misleading data.
They can do so like this (as mentioned by him in the TED talks):
- by cherry picking their volunteers
- by stopping their study half way through when their desired results are produced
- or by compraing their drug to a placebo or one they know does not work very well
more on this can be found on Goldacre's blog: http://www.badscience.net/2012/10/
So drugs companies are profit hungry, ruthless and provide no benefit to patients. Well or so it seems for some companies - some are now ready to release data so we will have to see about that.
On a more positive note to a study that I thought was good.
The recent study with ONE MILLION women - testing the effects of smoking.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19946427
I am impressed - they used so many volunteers - this to me shows dedication and effort in a genuine attempt to inform the public.
Although i do wonder why they didn't do the same for men. The costs for funding it? Were men less likely to volunteer for something like this? Would men have to be paid more as volunteers?
Just some thoughts that came into my head.
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