But where I agree that Taubes’ article tended to be couched in an unnecessarily negative tone, I also believe his approach was valid. As Nisbet himself asks, “Is it really ‘bad science’ or is it bad communication?” Regardless of whether a reporter seeks to discuss epidemiology generally, like Taubes and Von Bubnoff, or specifically, like Bowman, there is the original dilemma that most readers do not know the basic differences between observational studies and clinical trials. With this in mind, the generalized approach that Taubes took seems all the more useful.

“The fundamental problem is not necessarily reconcilable here,” Parsonnet told me, “because people have an innate desire to protect their health and the press has an innate desire to provide interesting information to sell newspapers.” As long as that is the case, there will continue to be three basic types of epidemiological journalism: that which typically finds its way into papers and magazines, heralding the latest research; that which, like Bowman’s piece in the Bee, relies on its own investigations; and that which, like Taubes’ and Von Bubnoff’s work, takes the wide-angle, explanatory approach.

With all three, however, the challenge is the same: journalists must explain that epidemiology is probabilistic, rather than absolute; that it is about chance, not certainty. With every story, reporters must precisely describe the likely consequence of any action -doubling or halving the risk of heart disease, for example. They must describe any internal factors that affect confidence in the study - the bigger the population and the longer the period of time examined, the better. And they must describe any external factors that affect confidence in the study - that is to say, the number and strength of supporting or competing hypotheses.

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