DisInformation Chronicle Podcast with Dr. Adam Urato: AP's Bewildering Reporting on Antidepressant Risk to Fetuses
After writing fact-addled article that dismissed peer-reviewed research finding antidepressant harms, Associated Press doubles down and gives journalist award.
3 minute read
I wrote a piece a few weeks back about this bewildering Associated Press story that made several false claims, some of which appear to be fabricated. I sent several questions to AP’s global health editor Jonathan Fahey, but he did not respond to repeated requests to explain the article’s puzzling errors.
The article claimed that the Food and Drug Administration’s top drug regulator, Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg, was trying to hire a “friend” named Dr. Adam Urato, which is false. Hoeg and Urato are professional colleagues and only know each other through work.
The AP story also claimed that Urato is promoting “unproven pregnancy risks” about antidepressants, which is also false. Researchers have been publishing studies on the dangers of antidepressants to developing fetuses for decades, and some of these studies have been reported on in the past.
While I was running congressional investigations into corruption in science and medicine, I caught a researcher at Emory promoting claims that antidepressants were safe, while secretly taking money from GlaxoSmithKline which sold the antidepressant Paxil. I gathered all this information together and the Senate Committee then handed it off to the Wall Street Journal.
AP failed to correct several errors in their story after Urato sent an email pointing out numerous falsehoods, and then gave the story an award. I’m not joking. AP’s editors gave the story an award for “honorable mention.”
However, the award softened the language in the original reporting, essentially acknowledging the errors that Urato pointed out to AP editors. It’s a wild and crazy story.
I spoke with Urato about the insanity of all this at The DisInformation Chronicle Podcast, and we discussed what women of child-bearing age need to know about antidepressants. Listen and enjoy. And remember: read widely, read wisely.