An injection of good sense

The commonest myth about science in the media is that journalists are interested only in doom and disaster. The second commonest is that rare reports of good news are invariably ruined by error and sensationalism. The UK media on 10 March provided ample evidence to explode these myths simultaneously. The occasion was the publication of two closely linked papers (Science 2000, 287:1809-1815 and 1816-1820) concerning Neisseria meningitidis serotype B. The first — by researchers in Rockville in Maryland, Oxford and Siena — reported the organism’s complete genome sequence. The second, from these and other centres, described studies on several surface-exposed proteins, conserved in a range of strains, which have been tested as the possible basis for a vaccine. Such was the level of media interest in these announcements that one of the Oxford authors, Richard Moxon, appeared live on both BBC Breakfast News and (20 minutes later) GMTV to discuss their implications. Each programme gave him enough time to explain precisely what had, and had not, been achieved. In neither case did the interviewer put him under pressure to exaggerate the imminence of a vaccine against this form of meningitis. Newspapers showed appropriate caution, too, in some cases by placing the story inconspicuously on an inside page. Thus the Daily Telegraph reported that publication of the genetic blueprint “showed how the ‘genomic revolution’ will fuel medical advances.” The collaborative research team had “found seven surface proteins which can stimulate an antibody response capable of killing the bacterium, and are trying to identify the most promising vaccine candidates.” Even papers that produced longer, more prominent accounts took considerable care not to raise premature hopes among their readers. Writing on the front page of the Daily Mail, for example, science correspondent James Chapman explained: “researchers are confident they can use the genetic information to produce a vaccine. Though that could be four or five years away, tests in mice have already suggested that it will be effective.” Chapman continued, “Scientists say mapping the bug’s genes revealed crucial chinks in its armour, hitherto unknown proteins on its surface which could be used in a vaccine to stimulate the antibody response.” This is hardly the stuff of hype or irresponsibility.