(from Furious Seasons) Yesterday, I noted that CNN's chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon, was expected to be named Surgeon-General of the US by President-Elect Barack Obama. I noted that I had concerns because Gupta struck me as a lightweight as a reporter--and I am in a position to make that kind of judgment--and that he had openly supported the use of the HPV vaccine Gardasil, well in advance of its FDA approval, and that he downplayed the risks of Vioxx, months before the drug's maker took the drug off the market and months before thousands of lawsuits erupted around the drug and how its risks were hidden by Merck.
I noted that I didn't want Gupta anywhere around mental health issues if he had such a track record of being wrong and intellectually incurious, but I hadn't been able to track down how Gupta had handled issues like depression and anti-depressants and suicide while at CNN. I've now rectified that and it is clear that Gupta screwed up his reporting on anti-depressants and suicide in 2004, ignoring evidence that was available to him before he went on-air.
In late 2003, Britain banned the use of anti-deperssants, excepting Prozac, in children under 18 years due to reports of suicides and suicidality. But nine months later, here's our Surgeon-General-to-be claiming children haven't committed suicide on these drugs. From Sept. 15, 2004 on CNN's "American Morning:"
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