I got smacked with this headline:
Pfizer Issues Recall of Chantix After Finding High Levels of Carcinogens | PEOPLE.com
Holy crap! People who took the drug to quit smoking and not get cancer are gonna get it anyway!! ZOMG!
Not so fast, Francis.
Pfizer is recalling batches of its anti-smoking medication Chantix after an increased level of impurities that can cause cancer were found in the drug.
Included in the nationwide recall are two lots of Chantix 0.5mg Tablets, two lots of Chantix 1 mg Tablets, and eight lots of a Chantix kit of 0.5mg/1 mg Tablets, the drug manufacturer announced on Friday.
So a total of ten lots of recently-produced medication have been recalled, but you do not get to find out unless you bother to not just read the headline but actually go in deep in the article. Some proud journo and/or editor doing his duty to drive clicks to the failing website, crafts a alarming headline without giving a scrap if smokers who want to quit and may benefit from Chantix will now reject the idea to go into treatment.
I did Chantix and come November, I’ll be 5 years free of the clutches of nicotine after 30 years of addiction. I am not saying it will work for you because my best friend tried it and failed to kick the habit. But to sabotage somebody’s the possibility of quitting by scaring him into staying away from the medication just for shits and page clicks? They deserve to have an enema radioactive waste every day for six months.
The headline got you to read the article, so as far as the media outlet is concerned … Mission Accomplished!
Newspapers have been doing this for centuries now; but it does seem to have become worse with the rise of the internet.
Did they answer the question of where the “tainted” batches were manufactured? And you did have to did deeply into the article they do admit the FDA said keep taking it until you get a replacement.