‘Scientific American’ suggests Stephen Colbert for top FDA post

Hee! Check out Scientific American’s take on last night’s chapter of “Cheating Death with Dr. Stephen T. Colbert”:

Stephen Colbert for FDA commissioner?
Ivan Oransky
Nov 13, 2008 02:00 PM in Health

Stephen Colbert does not have an MD. But he apparently has a keen understanding of clinical trials, perhaps because of his DFA – doctor of fine arts.

Colbert – or should we say Dr. Colbert? – reviewed the results of the JUPITER trial last night in the latest installment of “Cheating Death with Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, DFA.” That trial, you may recall, suggested that even people with normal cholesterol levels may benefit from the drug Crestor (rosuvastatin), if their C-reactive protein (CRP) levels (inflammation markers) were high.

Colbert’s analysis cut right to the chase: “This is a great breakthrough in the battle to find things to prescribe to people who don’t need them.”

“True, the drug costs $100 a month,” he later added. “But that is a small price to pay to not have the heart attack that there’s no way of knowing that you would have had.”

This is the kind of intellectual rigor that is – and I’ve removed my tongue from my cheek only somewhat – too frequently missing from news reporting on medical studies.

. . .

Read the full post here

On reading the rest of that post, I can say without reservation that Ivan Oransky is an it-getter. Love his suggestion for a magazine.

• Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist – March 13, 2010
• Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist – March 3, 2010
• Stephen Colbert in the Zeitgeist – Vancouverage Wrap-up
• Ujjal Dosanjh: Stephen Colbert’s message “worth reflecting on”