Triathlon and Cheerleaders

We were giving the weekly reading to our athletes.  It is an article written by a physician regarding what is happening in Oncology.  Of course, this is happening in Medicine in general, because we are ruled by pharmaceuticals and we have plenty of doctors that functioned as buffoons or cheerleaders.

A new class of physician has emerged in the era of social media. I call them "Twitter cheerleaders." A Twitter cheerleader is someone who bestows lavish praise on a new cancer drug, paper, trial, or test, while an objective and impartial look at the data may suggest caution or, at a minimum, less exuberant language. Cheerleaders uncritically parrot drug company marketing. How can readers recognize cheerleaders? Here are some of my tips…

1. Cheerleaders celebrate press releases that don't contain information on the magnitude of benefit.

2.     Cheerleaders celebrate a paper without reading it.

3.     Cheerleaders call a drug that does not improve overall survival "miraculous."

4.     Cheerleaders think any drug, no matter how marginal or ineffective, will be useful and it is just a matter of patient selection or some yet-to-be-discovered combination.

5.     Cheerleaders re-tweet cost-effectiveness analyses sponsored by the maker of the cancer drug that show favorable results.

6.     Cheerleaders make frequent, lavish, hyperbolic claims about the future.

7.     Cheerleaders point to improvements in 5-year survival statistics as a measure of how good cancer drugs have become.

Instead of cheerleaders, what we desperately need from physicians are realistic appraisals of what has been accomplished. Clear statements of future cancer goals. Cancer research funding policies that are driven by evidence, and greater honesty daily in the examination room and on the wards. Take off the rose-tinted sunglasses with the Pharma logo, and see the world with your own eyes. We would all be better off with fewer cheerleaders and more true scientists.

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/902027

Hey, we are not talking about Trump.  This is something to be aware of  Medicine in the USA.  This was present when I practiced there, but now they have megaphones (twitter) to do so.

Some Federations and related governing bodies practice marketing the same way the drug companies do.  They buy buffoons or cheerleaders to do the dirty job for them.  It is a matter of taking a look at our own environment and the way they twit or the way they do not twit.  Depending on the way of marketing we have the triathletes we deserve.  We do not twit at all.