Judges’ comments: In her four submitted pieces Trine Tsouderos reports on how members of the public and, in some cases, medical practitioners don’t follow evidence-based science in adopting health practices. She uses the medical literature and extensive sourcing to buttress her strong reporting.
List date(s) this work was published or aired.
Dec. 11, March 18 and June 19, 2011
Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
“Vaccine rates raise risk” examined vaccinate data from 5,500 Illinois public and private schools in an effort to look beyond the state’s relatively high overall immunization rate for children. Working with two other reporters, Tsouderos found pockets of low vaccination rates in two types of schools – public ones serving low-income students and private ones serving wealthier students. Clusters of unvaccinated and partially-vaccinated children have been identified as weak spots in a community’s herd immunity against preventable infectious diseases.
In “Hope Fades on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome,” Tsouderos discussed how one research paper cannot answer a scientific question, and what happens when patients, scientists and physicians forget that. A single paper published in the prestigious journal Science had reported a link between CFS and a retrovirus, but by 2011 that finding had largely been disproved. Yet, as Tsouderos wrote, the lead scientist as well as some patients and physicians maintained belief in the original study, with some of the patients continuing to take antiretroviral drugs. Her instincts about the Science study proved prescient. A few months later, the study was retracted, and the lead researcher was not only fired from her position but also arrested on criminal charges after being accused of stealing intellectual property.
In “Good Money, Suspect Medicine,” Tsouderos examined 12 years of funding at the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. She found the center had spent $1.2 billion, much of on it research, some of it on research of dubious value and quality, including studies on energy healing and distant prayer. One of her main findings was that there was a mismatch between the way the center interpreted studies on dietary supplements and the way it interpreted studies on “mind and body” therapies such as acupuncture. That offered an opportunity to discuss the placebo effect and the role of the placebo in studies. “NCCAM’s continuing interest in acupuncture comes even though many of its studies have found that acupuncture and similar therapies work no better than a sham treatment at easing symptoms like pain and fatigue,” Tsouderos wrote. “To most scientists, that would mean the treatments are failures – drug companies cannot sell medicines that work no better than salt water or a sugar pill.”
Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
For “Vaccine rates raise risk,” Tsouderos tracked down vaccination data for Illinois’ 5,500 public and private schools and, working with data analyst Joseph Germuska and health reporter Deborah Shelton, analyzed the data for clusters. They would create something useful for parents: a searchable online database of vaccination rates for every school in Illinois, a total of 5,500. The database and other online tools can be found at chicagotribune.com/immunization.
For “Good money, suspect medicine,” Tsouderos examined 12 years of funding at the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. She used the NIH’s RePorter online database to analyze 12 years of grants. She also made extensive use of Pubmed to track down whether grants had led to important medical findings.
Explain types of human sources used.
For each story, Tsouderos worked closely with researchers, physicians, public health officials and parents.
Results (if any).
Tsouderos’ stories have run in papers across the nation, including the Los Angeles Times and the Baltimore Sun. Her story on the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine was picked up by CNN, and she was invited to appear on the news network to talk about her findings. Her vaccination rate database has been accessed by parents and physicians alike. Her reporting on the purported link between a retrovirus and CFS proved prescient. As Tsouderos has been suggesting since 2010, the finding turned out to be due to lab contamination and the study was retracted in 2011. Her stories questioning the motivations and conduct of the lead researcher also proved prescient. In the last few months of 2011, the lead researcher was fired and later charged with allegedly stealing intellectual property.
Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
No corrections. The Tribune plans to update the immunization rate database each year with fresh schools data.
Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
Keeping lines of communication open with everyone – even when the story may not be flattering – has been invaluable. Not only does it ensure the story accurate, but it also ensures it is fair. In all of these stories, Tsouderos contacted her sources early in the process and kept talking to them throughout, developing richer stories.