It's paywalled, but if you still have a NYT free read left you might want to check out Getting Rid of Joe Rogan Won't Solve the Health Misinformation Problem, by Julia Belluz and John Lavis. As they rightly point out, Joe Rogan and his guests spew dangerous falsehoods, but we're swimming in an ocean of crap.
Health disinformation is as old as commerce. In the 19th Century, all of medicine was basically bunk, but people made fortunes selling worthless "patent medicines," through traveling shows or by mail order, and in stores. It wasn't until 1912 that congress passed legislation outlawing labels with fake medical claims, but it wasn't until 1938 that congress required evidence of safety before medicines could be marketed.
Unfortunately, by calling products "dietary supplements" manufacturers could avoid the need for FDA approval. Legislation passed in 1994 allows the FDA to ban false claims about supplements, and to assure that they contain what they purport to contain, but they can still make whatever false claims they want if they include the statement " "This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease." So the pharmacy shelves are full of worthless products. In addition to selling worthless pills and devices, people make money the way Joe Rogan and Fox News do, by attracting advertisers to their fake news shows.
There are also essentially cult leaders who push one or another false theory of health and illness. We've been over the disinformation about Covid-19 before, but much of it falls in this category. As far as I know the manufacturers of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine aren't behind the false promotion of these products, but the people who do promote them evidently do it as a political strategy, pretending to be rebels against an oppressive orthodoxy.
And this brings us to the point that really interests me, which is the question of why so many people would rather believe snake oil peddlers than trust the scientific consensus. There are probably a few reasons, but it doesn't make any sense to me. Pharmaceutical research is indeed tainted to some degree by the profit motive, but the FDA and scientific norms do put real constraints on it. When people try to discredit "Big Pharma" by claiming they're in it for the money, why do they think all that crap is for sale at the GNC? I don't get it.
1 comment:
I have addressed, elsewhere, why people believe these things. The situation with Rogan, however, has nothing to do with the vaccine issue. Follow the money: this is entirely driven by hedge funds trying to buy up spotify and Bezos trying to move people to amazon music. Hence, an editorial in WaPo on how to move your playlist.
You're right, removing Rogan won't help at all because it's not meant to.
Post a Comment