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Quantity, style and journalism
Mar. 7th, 2024 11:46 amhttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-03-07/ozempic-side-effects-users-turn-to-tiktok-for-medical-advice
Probably paywalled, sorry!
But if you can read it, it’s a great article in several ways. It discusses TikTok influencers who are sharing information about how to manage side effects of drugs like Ozempic, and whether they might be responsible for the very large drop in negative side effects of Ozempic and newer drugs of the same class such as Wegovy and Maunjoro.
The underlying “take” of the article is captured in the headline:
“TikTok Is Treating Ozempic Side Effects as Untrained Doctors Dole Out Prescriptions” (at the time of posting, at least for me)
I tripped over this sentence:
“And while the number of certified obesity doctors has more than doubled since 2018, the number of prescriptions for Ozempic alone has grown more than 5,000% in that same period — up to around 20 million last year.”
The basic idea of the sentence — the kind of people who might actually have relevant training in obesity are not increasing at nearly the rate that effective drugs for treating obesity have been in the last several years — is fine. I _hate_ mixed representation (doubling and 5000%), and also I am pretty sure that “more than” in front of 5000% is doing some extremely heavy lifting (like, might need a smaller initial number and an added zero, type of heavy lifting). But I love this article. It points out bad advice from doctors (a shot of zofran for nausea from ozempic, when the person was already having constipation) that a patient declined in favor of magnesium supplements and diet / hydration changes (excellent choices!).
A lot of “ink has been spilled” pixels have been manipulated? About patients who ignore the advice of their doctors in favor of something a non-medical person recommends. I tend to feel like advice in general should be assessed on a case by case basis, until you notice that someone consistently gives advice of a particular quality and then you can trust (or avoid) that person’s advice on the basis of their performance over time. There are some bad doctors out there, and there are some nerds out there who really know their thing, independent of their credentials.
Probably paywalled, sorry!
But if you can read it, it’s a great article in several ways. It discusses TikTok influencers who are sharing information about how to manage side effects of drugs like Ozempic, and whether they might be responsible for the very large drop in negative side effects of Ozempic and newer drugs of the same class such as Wegovy and Maunjoro.
The underlying “take” of the article is captured in the headline:
“TikTok Is Treating Ozempic Side Effects as Untrained Doctors Dole Out Prescriptions” (at the time of posting, at least for me)
I tripped over this sentence:
“And while the number of certified obesity doctors has more than doubled since 2018, the number of prescriptions for Ozempic alone has grown more than 5,000% in that same period — up to around 20 million last year.”
The basic idea of the sentence — the kind of people who might actually have relevant training in obesity are not increasing at nearly the rate that effective drugs for treating obesity have been in the last several years — is fine. I _hate_ mixed representation (doubling and 5000%), and also I am pretty sure that “more than” in front of 5000% is doing some extremely heavy lifting (like, might need a smaller initial number and an added zero, type of heavy lifting). But I love this article. It points out bad advice from doctors (a shot of zofran for nausea from ozempic, when the person was already having constipation) that a patient declined in favor of magnesium supplements and diet / hydration changes (excellent choices!).
A lot of “ink has been spilled” pixels have been manipulated? About patients who ignore the advice of their doctors in favor of something a non-medical person recommends. I tend to feel like advice in general should be assessed on a case by case basis, until you notice that someone consistently gives advice of a particular quality and then you can trust (or avoid) that person’s advice on the basis of their performance over time. There are some bad doctors out there, and there are some nerds out there who really know their thing, independent of their credentials.