Scooter over at A Nod to Nothing has been giving me a hard time because I haven't blogged in awhile. Since my husband never reads my blog, we'll blame him and say he is always hogging the computer. But I'm back now....and irritated! I remember reading a posting from Wife, Mother & Student about how network news (especially local) is more interested in scaring you into watching their show rather than actually giving decent news coverage. After this week, I definitely have to agree with her.
The clinic where I work received a call from a local news station asking if one of our physicians would give a statement on the FDA's approval of Xenical to go over the counter. For those who don't know, Xenical is a weight-loss drug that basically makes you poop out the fat you eat. Sounds lovely, doesn't it? While I have not read any journal articles about it, it sounds like most physicians aren't prescribing it much anymore because it's really not that effective and patients find all that pooping annoying and somewhat messy. So in order to make some extra money off this worthless drug they invented, the company has decided to take a 1/2 strength version and sell it over the counter (OTC). This way, stupid people can be sucked in by their advertising and spend lots of money buying it.
Anyway, we did have a physician willing to go on camera, so the newsguy and his cameraguy showed up (late). Neither one introduces themselves to me or bothers to shake my hand. The room we set up for them looked perfectly lovely, freshly painted, new cupboards and computer, but to them, it wasn't "medical/scary" enough. Their words, not mine. So we had to move to a procedure room with more "scary medical stuff". Later, they wanted to tape the provider with one of her patients talking about the drug - preferably someone who was "overweight". Then, they got a shot of the newsguy by the bathroom, making a comment like "If you eat the wrong foods on this drug, you'll end up in here..." And finally, over to the pharmacy, where they both were very exicted that we actually had a bottle of the drug so they could film that and the actual pills. It was quite a disgusting experience - they obviously did not give a hoot about whether this drug would help or hurt people, they just wanted a sensational story.
Oh well, at least our clinic got some media exposure and the physician was happy that they didn't use the part where she was talking about anal leakage.
