What Makes Medical "News?"

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docB

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The lay public has little conception of what goes on in and out of the medical world. They really haven't the foggiest idea, so things like this make the news. It's a "miracle" kind of survival story that the news media outlets love to snap up. That and the "butcher doctor" who killed his patients, blah, blah, blah...

A perfect example would be up here in New York City where several months ago all the local news channels were reporting on the "Super Bug" scare in New York (i.e., MRSA infections) as if it just happened last weekend. Of course all the health care people are like, "What's the big deal? Happens everyday." But to the lay public? It's the most horrific thing to hit the streets of Manhattan since King Kong.

And it gives these New York cynics more fuel to blame physicians for messing up their perfect lay person world.
 
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