Dear oh dear! It's not been a good week for health journalists over at the dear old 'Auntie Beeb'. Not content with accusing Wolverhampton eye specialists of abandoning their patients to jet off to Las Vegas for a jolly at the tax payer's expense (a story inelegantly back-tracked from during the day in piecemeal fashion), they have now been duped into doing advertising work for a formula baby feed manufacturer - as chronicled so adeptly by the incomparable Dr Crippen.
It obviously didn't occur to anyone that the 'press release' from Act Against Allergy that they swallowed hook, line and sinker was meerly a thinly veiled advertising stunt for the manufacturers of a very expensive formula feed that is prescribable on the NHS.
This story even appeared on BBC Breakfast television news, much to Dr Informed's disbelief, as it prompted Mrs Informed to accuse her husband of 'misdiagnosing' their youngest child who ' in retrospect was obviously allergic to cow's milk'. This makes the man very angry indeed!
Dr Informed is a staunch supporter of the BBC normally, but descending to Daily Mail standards of journalistic integrity and rigor is not the way to justify the latest licence fee increase is it?
and further to this, I was checking your BBC news links and thinking that they were taking the piss and wondering where you'd found such a good spoof: 'NHS not spending enough on IT' was the first. Then I realised that it wasn't taking the piss, except it is taking the piss.
ReplyDeleteHave you actually tried reading the article and the links to the BDA pages that Dr Crippen gave?
ReplyDeleteWhile it drives me nuts that the article is using the word 'allergy' when what it actually means is 'intolerance', milk intolerance *is* a genuine problem. The BDA links back up the claim in the BBC article that 1 - 2% of children will get various rather unpleasant symptoms as a result of drinking milk. While I wish the BBC had used the correct name for it, I can't fault the article apart from that. They've highlighted a problem that, currently, not that many people - especially, not that many doctors - are aware of.
And, despite Dr Crippen's ranting, the Beeb seem to have been up front about the source of their information. The first and last paragraphs of their article state that this information came from a formula manufacturer.
Dr Crippen does make some good points, but he also seems to have succumbed to the temptation to play a wee bit fast and loose with the facts. I'd recommend checking the original sources for yourself.
Sarah
ReplyDeleteI did check the original sources, and thought they were bollocks by and large. The intolerance/allergy mistake is as common as the 'MRSA is a deadly virus' rubbish the media often come out with.
In my experience, the potiential for intolence to either lactose or cow's milk protein is very often considered by doctors. Much of the responsibility must come doen to the parents in the end - they are the ones who can trial different diets etc, and only at the suggestion of the GP.
Personally, my youngest daughter's eczema vanaished within 2 day of stopping formula feed, and starting cow's mik.
Not easy is it?
Heidi
ReplyDeleteIt is taking the piss indeed! Also you may have seen that according to Patsy Fuckwit, we're also spending too much on doctors and nurses!
It really is getting like a Joseph Heller novel here.
So we have found Tovarich, now is 350 rem, or 4000 rem, we give you Americium 241 or was it Strontium 90. We have all these nuclear subs decaying products.
ReplyDeleteSarah V
ReplyDeleteThe original BBC online article made no mention of the source of the research (SHS International-owned group). It was only after a flurry of complaints from readers-myself included-that prompted them to add it.
Yes. I do indeed retract what I said and apologise to Dr Crippen.
ReplyDeleteHere's what happened: I posted the comment that I made above. I then noticed the similarity between Dr Crippen's quote from the original article and the lines from the amended BBC article, and realised what had happened. I posted another comment straight away amending what I'd said in the first comment. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to have shown up, and I didn't realise this until now.
However, I should have checked; and I should also have checked the quote in the first place, as you say. For that, I was out of line, and I do indeed apologise.
Dr Informed: I'm glad to know that your colleagues are more clued up about intolerances than has been my experience. I've rarely if ever seen doctors consider it, but it's good to know that your experience has been better!
Sarah
ReplyDeleteThe whole area of allergies, intolerances and the various categories of hypersensitivity reactions create a massive minefield. I have an interest in dermatology, my colleague has an MSc in allergy/immunology. Our practice is still trial and error as much as anyone else's.
Dr Crippen's work on this is very much a coup (unfortunatley not the kind that involves guns and politicians). The BBC are showing an alarming tendency to back-tract on stories as time goes by without 'fessing up' that the initial story was largely bollocks, and in retrospect they wish they hadn't started on it. They did this with the opthalomologists that went to Vegas.
May I propose a new sport: BBC U-turn spotting?
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ReplyDeleteI don't get this. "It obviously didn't occur to anyone that the 'press release' from Act Against Allergy that they swallowed hook, line and sinker was meerly a thinly veiled advertising stunt for the manufacturers of a very expensive formula feed that is prescribable on the NHS. " Could you please enlighten me on this? I keep following all your posts hope you can regularly post more. I get very useful information here. Thanks for having this.
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