#461: Deborah Cohen, BBC & ITV journalist: Has the Internet Hijacked Our Health?

Deborah Cohen is a medically qualified investigative journalist, formerly science editor at ITV News and health correspondent at BBC Newsnight, where she led the programme's COVID coverage. Her book, "Bad Influence: How the Internet Hijacked Our Health", shortlisted for the Royal Society science book prize, started from one question: are influencers making us sick? She spoke to more than 200 people to answer it, and the answer turned out to be more nuanced than the title suggests. She and James get into what happens when health information travels through people rather than institutions. Where companies get into trouble, which she puts at the point the hype outflanks the evidence. Why the Advertising Standards Authority is playing regulatory whack-a-mole, and how a prescription only migraine drug ended up advertised in her feed by a Kardashian, in a country where that advertising is banned. Why she would ban the words anti-vaxxer and anti-masker before she banned anything else. And what she thinks would actually help, from a register of influencers working with companies to better health literacy and real transparency about where our information comes from. James puts himself in the frame too, on the Instagram ad promising employers a better bottom line if their staff take GLP-1s, and on the work SomX turns down. Deborah's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-cohen-journalist Deborah's Book: https://oneworld-publications.com/work/bad-influence/ Apply to be a guest: ⁠www.thehealthtechpodcast.com⁠ Subscribe to Healthtech Pigeon 🐦: ⁠www.healthtechpigeon.com⁠ Get in touch with James: ⁠www.jamessomauroo.com⁠ This podcast was brought to you by ⁠SomX⁠.