Express atrocity update

This piece of shit



has now been withdrawn by the Express at the request of the Professor quoted, who was unequivocal when contacted by Ben Goldacre:

“I did not say that Cervarix was as deadly as cervical cancer. I did not say that Cervarix could be riskier or more deadly than cervical cancer. I did not say that Cervarix was controversial, I stated that Cervarix is not a ‘controversial drug’. I did not ‘hit out’ – I was contacted by the press for facts. And this was not an exclusive interview.”

Furthermore:

Professor Harper did not “develop Cervarix”, as the Sunday Express said, but she did work on some important trials of Gardasil, and also Cervarix. “Gardasil is not a ‘sister vaccine’ as the Express said, it is a different compound. I do not know of the side effects of Cervarix as it is not available in the US.” Furthermore she did not say that Cervarix was being over marketed. “I did say that Merck was egregiously overmarketing Gardasil in the US- but Gardasil and Cervarix are not the same vaccines.”

And also:

...Professor Harper has complained to the PCC. “I fully support the HPV vaccines,” she says. “I believe that in general they are safe in most women. I told the Express all of this.”

Which begs the question: if she did tell the Express all of this, why didn't they listen? One answer could be that they did listen, but cherrypicked the only things she did say that were slightly critical of the vaccine, then added a totally and utterly misleading headline in order to scare readers and flog a few more copies by lying to readers.

There's that possibility, of course.