New Food and Drug Administration head says ‘Misinformation is now our leading cause of death’
Recently confirmed Food stuff and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf claims “the issue that keeps him up at night… is the proliferation of bogus and deceptive health facts, especially on line — and the distrust in institutions, knowledge, and expertise that it has wrought.”

Fda Commissioner Robert Califf, M.D., speaks with an attendee at the occasion. (AHCJ picture by Paola Rodriguez)
So stories Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico for the Affiliation of Well being Treatment Journalists, from an job interview AHCJ client-basic safety workforce chief Kerry Dooley Younger performed with Califf on Friday in Austin at Health Journalism 2022, AHCJ’s annual conference.
“I believe that misinformation is now our primary induce of demise,” Califf mentioned, citing resistance to COVID-19 vaccination, the quantity of folks having the anti-parasite drug Ivermectin, and escalating use of electronic cigarettes.
“Historically, the Food and drug administration has been rather peaceful and puts out definitive information via guidance or labels or regulatory steps … that would be transmitted to buyers and individuals via trustworthy intermediaries,” he mentioned. “But the environment has transformed at this position.”
The change has fueled the fall in Americans’ lifestyle expectancy in comparison to other rich nations, Califf claimed, and he “urged reporters to avoid clickbait, lean into fact-checking, make confident the headline matches the duplicate, and just take other methods to responsibly express information about COVID-19 and other urgent wellness fears,” Ollstein reports.
Califf claimed, “People are distracted and misled by the medical facts Tower of Babel, but journalists like yourselves enjoy an important job here and your get the job done has a remarkable effects on public trust.”
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