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Monday, December 16, 2002A publicist from a big agency with corporate clients called on a hunch. "This might be a long shot," she said. "But this is the hot new disease." Everybody who is anybody has I.B.S., she said, rattling off names: a comedian, an actress, a celebrity couple. Even John F. Kennedy, whose diagnosis was just made, posthumously. "Irritable bowel syndrome," the publicist said. Lynda Carter - an actress perhaps best remembered as Wonder Woman in the 1970's - was to be the new celebrity spokeswoman for the syndrome. John F. Kennedy didn't have irritable bowel syndrome. He had some sort of inflammatory bowel disease - much more serious, poorer prognosis, and many more serious health implications for the rest of the body. Musn't get our celebrity illnesses confused. Lynda Carter doesn’t have IBS, either, but evidently her mother did. It’s basically a nervous gut. Stress tends to set off the symptoms of diarrhea and gas, and sometimes constipation. It’s never fatal, but it can be uncomfortable and inconvenient. She is, of course, pushing a drug, although she never mentions it by name. She’s on the payroll of Novartis. As a society we must be reaching the point where we’re no longer impressed by celebrity opinions. They voice them so often and so stupidly. This may be the unintended benefit of their political activism. One day they won’t have as much influence in other areas, like disease promotion, either. Soon, the majority of the public will think like this man: Celebrities, he said, often want to raise money for so-called orphan diseases. "And that is wonderful," he said. "But the science may not yet be there to treat a certain form of Alzheimer's in quite the same way it is there to treat, say, diarrhea in third-world Africa." "You could save a lot of lives with simple vaccinations, with oral rehydration in Africa," he continued. "But the celebrity fund-raisers don't care. It is not wrong to raise that money. But someone on the political or foundation or even university side ought to say, `Thank you, Mr. Celebrity, and you ought to give us a little discretion.' " posted by Sydney on 12/16/2002 07:36:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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