"When many cures are offered for a disease, it means the disease is not curable" -Anton Chekhov
''Once you tell people there's a cure for something, the more likely they are to pressure doctors to prescribe it.'' -Robert Ehrlich, drug advertising executive.
"Opinions are like sphincters, everyone has one." - Chris Rangel
The National Medical Association, a professional organization of African-American physicians, wants more drug advertising aimed at minorities. That’s a little like complaining that telemarketers are ignoring you. They seem to feel that drug advertising is an advantage that minorities are somehow missing out on. This assumption is based on two fallacies. It assumes that information in drug advertisements is honest and useful (it isn’t) and that minorities somehow don’t see the ads on network television and in magazines and newspapers. A survey, sponsored by Pfizer, found that 53% of black physicians thought that drug advertising promoted patient education, and 48% thought they improve doctor-patient communication. This is not the same as thinking that drug advertisements are overall desirable. The National Medical Association, though, wants more advertising dollars spent on minority media outlets, including their own journal. They should just admit that, like the Canadian media, they want a share of the lucre the drug companies have been spreading around and not try to disguise it as a health issue or a race issue. posted by Sydney on
4/11/2002 05:42:00 AM
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