My father takes Avandia for his diabetes, so naturally I was a little alarmed when I saw the USA Today headline: Diabetes Drug Called Heart Death Risk. But one must turn to page 2 of the print version to get to the pertinent facts.

Taken together, the studies involved more than 27,000 patients. There were 86 heart attacks and 39 deaths from heart disease among Avandia patients; there were 72 heart attacks and 22 deaths among patients not taking the drug.

The story makes it sound as if GlaxoSmithkline were trying to cover up the risks, when in reality the test results were available on a website the company set up for the purpose of disclosure. The USA Today writer calls the website "obscure," showing obvious anti-corporate bias. Government officials are doing the "who knew what when" thing, as if 17 deaths in 27,000 diabetes-afflicted people is cause for government action.

It's true that 39 deaths instead of 22 is a 64% increase. But 17 deaths out of 27,000 is .0006, or 6 hundredths of one percent. That's barely within statistical significance.

Vioxx was taken off the market for an elevated risk that was fairly tiny compared to the number of people taking it, and by all accounts, suffering from arthritis pain much less because of it.

3.5% of the subjects on Vioxx had suffered a heart attack or stroke, compared with 1.9% on placebo.

Merck volutarily took Vioxx off the market. But USA Today ran a story that makes Merck seem shadowy, marketing relentlessly while withholding information about danger. But anyone on Vioxx would tell you about how it made their daily life less painful.

Marjorie Chepp of Milwaukee had been taking Vioxx for nearly two years. Her doctor first prescribed it for a knee injury, but Chepp found that it also relieved her osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia. She asked to remain on it.

Why, in a free country, can't adults in consulation with their doctor make an educated risk decision about a drug that works?