Argument166 7.26

heartleadingUID: 2850897

TOPIC: ARGUMENT166 - The following appeared in a local newspaper.
"People should not be misled by the advertising competition between Coldex and Cold-Away, both popular over-the-counter cold medications that anyone can purchase without a doctor's prescription. Each brand is accusing the other of causing some well-known, unwanted side effect: Coldex is known to contribute to existing high blood pressure and Cold-Away is known to cause drowsiness. But the choice should be clear for most health-conscious people: Cold-Away has been on the market for much longer and is used by more hospitals than is Coldex. Clearly, Cold-Away is more effective."

The argument is well-presented, but not thoroughly well-reasoned. By making a comparison of Coldex, which with a fewer hospitals can contribute to high blood pressure, with Cold-Away, a medicine resulting in drowsiness, the argument that Cold-Away is more effective seems logical.

However, the argument fails to consider other possible alternatives to the Cold-Away being more popular in hospitals. Such alternatives may include the fact that the Coldex is milder so that it needs longer to take effect, or that Cold-Away is in high efficiency so that it in the same long time can reach more desired effect. In addition, it is possible that Coldex is more expensive owing to the dear raw material or the complex manufacturing process than Cold-Away, just like the comparison between traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine. Besides, the time no matter it is long or short, it is but a criterion to judge when it comes into the market. That's to say, it is unreliable to take the time into consideration to judge the medicine. Even if the time is a factor to measure medicines, it also should be the case that the shorter time, the better medicine. After all, a medicine later always through more advanced technology.

The argument is still questionable because the efficiency depends on both the desired effect and the side effect. First, the desired effect is not mentioned in the argument. It is possible that Coldex has a more excellent result within fewer doses than Cold-Away. For instance, when it comes to a patient whose fever above 38 degree which is likely result in the death, the active remedy is more in need of, despite its side effect is more serious. Secondly, the argument is lacking of the severity of side effect. It is entirely possible that the Coldex with high blood pressure as mentioned in the argument may just result a temporary uncomfortableness, while the Cold-Away taking a drowsiness as side effect contributes the patients to a destroy in their brain irreversibly even a jeopardy. That's to say, without weighing the effect thoroughly, it is unwarranted to draw any conclusion about the efficiency of the two medicines. What's more, a long-term research concerning the general efficiency is helpful to substantiate the conclusion.

In conclusion, the argument that Cold-Away has better efficiency seems warranted. After all, the symptom of its side effect appears to be light and the using range is vaster. However, more concrete detail about two medicines and the research of patients' long-term effect are needed to solidify the argument.