TIL that your arm hurts from a flu shot because of the inflammation caused by your immune system trying to fight off the inactivated virus.

Yeah, pharmaceutical companies go to great lengths to advertise; not every doctor is getting free cruises though, thats blatantly blowing claims out of proportion. They're not paying them to prescribe the drug (that is illegal), they're paying them to learn about the drug, in the hopes of them prescribing it.

And you know, some doctors go way out of their way for these goodies, and its wrong. But its way overblown. Your local GP probably isn't getting wined and dined, let alone sent on a cruise; pharmaceutical companies selectively target doctors who have large patient populations for obvious reasons. They'd lose money if they went out and did this got every doctor that wanted to go on a cruise.

Ignorance is a powerful thing, don't give into it.

/r/todayilearned Thread Parent Link - popsci.com