The decidedly anti-vaccine group (hypocritically) named the National Vaccine Information Center is running an ad on the Times Square jumbotron claiming vaccines are dangerous.
It is co-sponsored by Mercola.com, a commercial website run by self-styled alternative health guru Joseph Mercola. Mercola sells, among other garbage, vitamins he claims can kill Influenza since (as he asserts) vaccines don’t work.
CBS, Inc, the owner of the jumbotron, (whose evening news show was coincidentally, a platform for NVIC, Andrew Wakefield and other unscientific vaccine fear mongers) is a public company that is being paid by the same groups who profit from creating vaccine panic.
So what are officials at the Food and Drug Administration, who recently approved a new vaccine for pediatric forms of meningitis, doing about it? After all, both NVIC and Mercola.com are making public claims about the safety of vaccines that are at variance with FDA’s own data and making statements about the ability of the products they sell or promote that have not been evaluated by the FDA.
They are launching a program to Increase monitoring of the already regulated commercial speech of drug companies. Recently the FDA helpfully provided journalists a 30 minute webinar about the wonders of the agency’s “Bad Ad Campaign” In an effort to get the news media, doctors and the public to look for examples of presentations, ads or sales materials that could be misleading.
It's also looking into ways to monitor what sort of Information drug companies can provide on the web: “Currently, there are a number of questions surrounding how to achieve ‘fairy balance’” In online direct-to-consumer promotions, the agency said.
Companies should be called out when they go beyond the science in marketing efforts, to use social media to provide consumers information about their products via third parties and most importantly to team up proactively with the FDA to root out misleading claims such as those made by NVIC. That applies particularly to the spread of Tabloid Medicine through social media. Britain – which bars direct to consumer ads – has already figured It out: “Companies can use any method of communicating to any audience provided relevant requirements of the Code are followed,” the PMCPA said. Translation: keep It objective and science-based, provide links to reference sites that are not promotional in nature, don’t send people stuff if they don’t agree to receive it first and be honest about who is sponsoring sites and Information. To which I would add: those who want to make counterclaims should voluntarily hold themselves to the same standards.
The FDA can make the Web and other outlets safe for medical science. The FDA routinely works with the Securities Exchange Commission in Investigating whether a company is violating federal law by overstating the promise or effectiveness of products. The FDA has the authority to go after companies and Individuals who make unsubstantiated medical claims or market products directly or indirectly that could undermine the public health. For that reason the FDA has spoken out about ephedrine, caffeinated alcohol products, and green tea.
When she took office, FDA Commissioner Peggy Hamburg wrote, “The agency's success should be measured by its impact on promoting health, preventing Illness and prolonging life, not the number of facilities Inspected or drugs approved.”
Yet the FDA stifles companies marketing FDA approved products when it wants to respond while the agency has remained silent.
The FDA should not regulate even more free speech, whether it is broadly defined as promotion of FDA approved products or if it is dangerous and stupid, like the garbage peddled by Marcela and NVIC. But it should, consistent with Dr. Hamburg’s mission, join the national conversation about vaccine safety and noted those groups, websites and hucksters who -- to promote fear, publicity, profit and lawsuits -- are attacking the safety and effectiveness the FDA has approved. At the very least the FDA should work with the Federal Trade Commission, the NIH, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other agencies not to punish or prosecute or micromanage marketing, but to promote accuracy and point out when people spread unscientific claims designed to discourage the use of medical advances that enrich and extend life. As it stands now, groups like NVIC can effectively yell “fire” in a crowded theater where none exists without being held to account. The FDA has the ability and responsibility to prevent such panic now and in the future.
