This post by Dr. Erika Schwartz, complaining about a breast cancer story in the NY Times, makes important points. When politicians — such as Joe McCarthy or Jean-Marie Le Pen — try to scare us, most of us appreciate the psychology involved: The more fearful we become, the more we will look to them to protect us, thus increasing their power. Our fear = their power. Schwartz is saying that respected doctors and journalists do the same thing. How prophetic was The Coming Plague (1994) by Laurie Garrett?
Schwartz’s post has too little detail to convince me that this particular story is guilty. Nor do I agree with her that statistics are “totally meaningless when applied to the individual.” Her contribution is to ask: how can we discuss these issues without fear-mongering?