# 8550
Somehow, with all of the MERS news coming out of the Middle East, I managed to miss a terrific piece of analysis by our favorite Risk Communications experts, Dr. Peter Sandman and Dr. Jody Lanard, published last week on the The Peter M. Sandman Risk Communication Website.
Their website is a repository of invaluable risk management advice, that quite frankly should be second home for anyone involved in public relations or risk communications.
I’ve highlighted their work often in the past,including Sandman & Lanard: WHO, Pandemic Phases & Public Preparedness, Sandman: A Tale Of Two CDCs, Lanard: China’s Risk Communication On H7N9, and Referral: Sandman On The H5N1 Moratorium.
Their latest analysis centers on the recent release of (and media hype surrounding) a recent Cochrane group analysis that found insufficient evidence to show whether Oseltamivir (Tamiflu ®) and other NAI antivirals reduces influenza complications and transmission.
I wrote about this report earlier this month in Revisiting Tamiflu Efficacy (Again) & The CDC Responds To The Cochrane Tamiflu Study, where I posited the preponderance of evidence supports the use of NAI antivirals for severe influenza.
Early last week Declan Butler, writing for the Journal Nature, wrote a piece called Tamiflu report comes under fire, for which Sandman & Lanard have supplied some quotes. Building on their emailed comments to Butler, they penned and posted a longer analysis on their website the following day.
Since it would do an injustice to the authors to try to excerpt highlights, I would simply suggest you follow the link below to read it in its entirety.
Overstated Attack Hiding Behind Scientific Assessment: An April 2014 Cochrane Review Trashes the Usefulness of Influenza Antiviral Drugs
by Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard
(an April 15, 2014 email responding to Declan Butler of Nature)
Declan Butler’s April 22, 2014 article drew from this email.
Introductory Note
In early April 2014, the Cochrane Collective published two journal articles and a news release that went out of their way to understate the value of Tamiflu and Relenza, the two antiviral drugs used against influenza. When Nature reporter Declan Butler asked for our comment, we quickly sent back the short email posted below.
The Sandman site is a treasure trove of risk communications information, and you could literally spend days just hitting the highlights.
Highly recommended.
