> “I don’t argue with their data,” says David Fisher, chair of the dermatology department at Massachusetts General Hospital. “But I do disagree with the implications.” The risks of skin cancer, he believes, far outweigh the benefits of sun exposure. “Somebody might take these conclusions to mean that the skin-cancer risk is worth it to lower all-cause mortality or to get a benefit in blood pressure,” he says. “I strongly disagree with that.” It is not worth it, he says, unless all other options for lowering blood pressure are exhausted. Instead he recommends vitamin D pills and hypertension drugs as safer approaches.
To paraphrase "the data isn't wrong, but it contradicts dogmatically held beliefs, and so a strict regime of pills and treatments are required first before indulging in this heresy".
It takes a lot to break persistent medical dogmas, and these platitudes of "avoid sun exposure at all costs because skin cancer" are starting to become generational sayings that are ingrained in prevalent thinking.
Also just want to point out what is touched on in the article - melanoma (skin cancer caused by UV) in the USA kills about 7000-8000, with that trend line decreasing. Heart disease kills around 700,000 people a year in the USA alone.
Food for thought.