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NBC closed with a Robert Bazell feature about people who have lost their sense of sight. CBS and ABC both brought us news about those who have lost their sense of smell. Zicam, the Food & Drug Administration warned, can take one's smell away and "if you cannot smell, you cannot taste," warned ABC's Lisa Stark. The ten-year-old zinc-based over-the-counter remedy for the common cold has been linked to 130 people losing their smell. "Both too little and too much zinc can potentially be harmful," Dr Jennifer Ashton warned CBS anchor Jeff Glor.
Ashton is a newly arrived in-house physician at CBS. The rookie showed her inexperience by offering confusing medical advice. "To be clear," she concluded with no apparent awareness that she was about to be unclear, "the FDA is recommending that, for the consumers who are using these products, they should discontinue the use--stop using it--and speak to their doctor, if they are having problems."
Or was this Ashton's advice? "The FDA is recommending that for the consumers who are using these products they should discontinue the use--stop using it; and speak to their doctor if they are having problems."
NBC's Bazell filed from the eyesight laboratory at the University of Southern California. Its engineers have invented a miniature camera that converts light into a neural code that is transmitted to electrodes that stimulate cells in a blind person's retina. Already the technology can make out the shape of a face and the top two lines of letters on an eye chart. The next step is to develop cameras that can be implanted directly into a blind eye. "Absolutely incredible," marveled NBC anchor Brian Williams.
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