The Associated Press is placing a story in newspapers and on television stations all over the country today, under the headline "Mouse Experiment Offers Alzheimer's Hope."
This is not a criticism of the science but of the journalistic hype. Several paragraphs deep in the story is the caveat from the researchers: "They cautioned that while encouraging, more studies are needed to determine if similar effects might occur in people."
Sick people have told me they don't need journalists to tell them where hope resides or where it doesn't. The trail of such pre-clinical hype, and the trail of tears of the false hope it engenders, is long and painful.
Let the facts speak for themselves. Avoid the confusing coloring language that complicates our comprehension.
Posted by schwitz at January 21, 2005 10:18 AM