Yesterday I briefed the media on my work and recent book on philosophy of epidemiology, ahead of next week’s launch event at the University of Johannesburg, and today one piece appeared in the Times (here) and two (here and here) in the Star. All the pieces are reasonably fair, and the latter two in particular are more conceptually focused, and thus quite a nice reflection of what I try to do. But it’s interesting for me that what grabbed the most attention were largely empirical claims. A couple of radio stations picked up on the claim that the vitamin supplements industry is a “con”, appearing in the Times piece, and I was interviewed at lunchtime today by Talk 702 and RSG. Both homed in on my claims about vitamins. Talk 702 asked if I expected any defamation actions. I guess this is how the media works – you never quite know which part of what you say is going to be amplified over the rest. That said, I am very grateful to the Times journalist that the context of my “con” claim was included in the piece.

For interest, I thought I would upload the presentation I gave yesterday. Not much about vitamins in there, you will see: 2013-09-10 Media Briefing – Philosophy of Epidemiology