Facebook Values Profit Over Medical Safety of its Users
Facebook values making a quick buck over the medical safety of its users. For a company that continues to find itself in the media spotlight and tries to promote itself as morally & ethically “woke”, it doesn’t seem to care about making as much revenue as possible from advertising snake oil products, devices, and so called “cures” to its vulnerable users. It’s not that advertising these false miracles is a new phenomenon; we’ve seen bogus TV ads, heard “too good to be true” claims on the radio, and seen cheesy material in magazines. But, it’s the fact that Facebook has so much user data at its fingertips and that it allows these unscrupulous companies to precisely target vulnerable populations on its platform: those with mental illness, chronic pain, addictions and significant medical issues, which makes this a problem worse than prior generations of shady advertising practices in my opinion.
Don’t lie, you’ve either clicked on them before, seen the automatic videos play, or at least scrolled past these sensationalistic ads. “Our secret, proprietary nano-tech pain patch can cure your chronic pain instantly.” “Get off prescriptions, get rid of your anxiety with a natural cure from the bark of trees from the Amazon, it’s an ancient secret uncovered by our leading neuropsychiatrist.” “Our clinical studies have proven our device will make your stress will go down instantly, it’s the secret the medical industry doesn’t want you to know about.” People suffering from psychiatric and physical illnesses are searching for hope, answers, and options but are being targeted with precision scumbaggery on Facebook.
I’m a realist. I understand, social media is here to stay. I also realize that social media has made positive impacts on our society as well. But, I also realize, there will always be individuals and companies looking to prey upon the vulnerable to make a profit, preying upon their desperate hopes. Facebook needs to play a role in screening and limiting these types of ads from playing. But, the ultimate responsibility lands on us, to make our own decisions. So rather than giving the cop out “don’t use Facebook” or “don’t ever use social media” response, let’s go through some quick tips on how to educate yourself or your loved ones on how to spot some of the more shady so-called medical products and devices that are bombarding your social media feeds.
Age Old Wisdom: If it Sounds Too Good to be True…
If the ad sounds too miraculous and overreaching, your spidey-sense is probably correct in smelling out a scam. When something is amazing, it’s hard to keep it a secret. If we had a cure for depression, anxiety, pain, and addictions… a lot of the world’s problems would have been solved by now. It would be hard to keep that a secret. If you see something that is pretty close to being a miracle cure, your best bet is to “x” it out and ask for these types of ads not to be shown again.
Be Skeptical of the Terms “Clinically Tested” or “Clinically Proven”
These terms usually are meaningless without context. There is a difference between being FDA approved to treat a disease vs claims of something being ”clinically tested” or “clinically proven” to work. If something is FDA approved, that means: the medication or device went through rigorous FDA clinical testing for efficacy and safety, and that the benefits of the product outweigh the knowns risks for the disease it was intended to treat. Simply claiming something has been “clinically tested” or “clinically proven to work”, actually means nothing. If I gave you a delicious peanut M&M, and my theory was, eating something delicious would calm down your anxiety… I could technically say, I “clinically tested” this hypothesis on you. Should I just prescribe peanut M&M’s to all my patients now?
I’ve researched numerous products and devices that have shown up on my Facebook feed. For the vast majority, you can’t even find any of their so called “clinical tests” or trials in the public domain. Many of them say “Message us and we will message you or email you a link” to potential customers. If your data was so good and so miraculous, why wouldn’t you share it with the entire medical community?
Remember Theranos? Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos were going to revolutionize the medical field by allowing lab tests to be performed with a pinprick of blood. This was going to be a game changer in reducing patient burden and improving safety. Yet, they always refused to share their “secrets” with the medical community. And, voila, Theranos ends up being one of the biggest scams of our generation.
Other products and devices have actually run some “studies”. But, when you read the actual data, more often times than not, these studies are very lacking, uncontrolled, and had huge conflicts of interest. For example, a breathing device that promotes itself as a game changer for anxiety and panic attacks, did a study on a handful of college students and another study in an ER with less than 10 people, without a control group to compare it to. Hardly a well controlled scientific study.
Don’t be fooled by highly unproven medical claims because it was published in a journal either. I can google and find you 100 journals right now, where you can pay to be published.
Don’t Confuse FDA Registered vs. FDA Approved
A number of the ads on Facebook that specifically are marketing medical devices use the phrase “FDA registered”. FDA Registered is not the same thing as FDA Approved. If a device is FDA approved, this means it has demonstrated with sufficient, valid scientific evidence that there is a reasonable assurance that the devices are safe and effective for their intended uses. Being FDA registered, simply means that the FDA is aware that your device exists and that it belongs to a certain company. Nothing more. But, many companies try to pull one over on potential customers by touting their devices are “FDA registered” and then begin to make bold medical claims, trying to confuse people into thinking it is “FDA approved”.
Don’t Believe the Narrative of: “Hospitals and doctors don’t want you to know this secret…”
Trust me. Successful hospital are professionals at being profitable. If this so called product, drug, supplement or device actually worked with real medical proof, hospitals would be milking it for all its worth. When MRI imaging pays a lot, the rates of doing MRIs go up at hospitals. If knee replacements are getting reimbursed well, the rates of knee replacements go up. So trust me. If that drug or device on Facebook worked that well, hospitals would find a way to corner the market and profit off it. Most doctors (minus shady ones that sell their souls for these snake oil ads), want their patients to get better. We want to heal physical disease and emotional & mental suffering. If we had access to true “instant cures”, we would not be withholding them from our patients. Don’t fall for the “them vs us” narrative these snake oil salesmen are peddling. They are master manipulators, commercial sociopaths, that know how to tap into your frustration, anger, and desperation. They want to act like they are on your side, turn you against the medical field, and they want to turn that anger into their next sales bonus.
Don’t Forget About the Placebo Effect
“But, it worked for me! It worked for my friend’s, sister’s, cousin’s daughter! You’re just another critic.” I hear that all the time, when I try to warn people on Facebook message boards and comments about some of these shady ads. Can any of these devices or products help people? Sure. But, I would say for the vast majority, it’s likely a placebo effect. And for certain products, I can guarantee you it’s 100% placebo effect. A placebo is typically a harmless pill, medicine, or procedure prescribed more for the psychological benefit to the patient than for any physiological effect. What is a placebo effect? Well the Oxford dictionary defines it as:
“ a beneficial effect produced by a placebo drug or treatment, which cannot be attributed to the properties of the placebo itself, and must therefore be due to the patient's belief in that treatment.”
The placebo effect is real. I work in clinical trials for drug development. In the last decade, when we work on clinical trials for Major Depressive Disorder, the group receiving the “placebo”, has had their depression resolve in roughly 33% of the patients. That’s 1 out of 3 people who came into a research study, as clinically depressed, then leaving it cured of their depressive episode without receiving actual treatment with the study drug. The power of the mind, the power of wanting something to work affects your behaviors, and the power of belief is strong my friends. You can literally will something to work sometimes, even if the effect is temporary.
So, if you take an individual who wants a snake oil product to work so badly and puts all of their effort into making it work with their mindset and behaviors, there’s a chance it can. At the end of the day, if it provides relief for them great. But, in reality, the vast majority of folks won’t get relief. They will have burnt their hard earned money, be even more frustrated, they may have pushed off or foregone legitimate treatments to pursue the snake oil, and God forbid end up having significant medical or psychiatric consequences as a result.
Bottom Line:
Educate yourself. Protect yourself. Consult with your physician or qualified licensed medical professional for medical recommendations. Don’t rely on a Facebook commercial.
To Facebook: I don’t have a problem with making a profit. Businesses need to be profitable to stay viable. But, you have billions of dollars of potential revenue from a myriad of various revenue streams. Don’t participate in preying on your vulnerable users, especially in a time of need like this current pandemic. Prove to us that you are as morally and ethically “woke” as you claim to be. Be a part of the solution, not the predatorial problem.
~Andrew Kim M.D.
Disclosures: At the time of writing this article, I am working as a clinical research principal investigator in the clinical trials industry on psychiatric FDA clinical trials. Working to help find potential new treatments for mood disorders and schizophrenia is a passion of mine. I also work as an independent contractor on the Janssen speakers bureau. Though I work in the pharmaceutical industry, I believe everyone has a unique path to healing and recovery that may or may not involve the use of medications. I am also a big believer in not being a huge A-hole to patients and the public by scamming them and preying on their hopes like many companies that advertise on Facebook do.