Month: March 2021

The Origins of SARS-CoV-2

The joint WHO-China investigation report concludes that a lab origin for COVID-19 is "extremely unlikely" but doubts remain.

/ March 31, 2021

Access Consciousness: A New Version of Phrenology?

Phrenology assigned meanings to bumps on the skull. Access Consciousness claims to have located 32 points on the head that store thoughts, emotions, and memories. Is this a new version of phrenology?

/ March 30, 2021
John Ioannidis with Laura Ingraham on Fox News

What the heck happened to John Ioannidis?

John Ioannidis is one of the most published and influential scientists in the world, someone whose skewering of bad medical research we at SBM have frequently lauded over the years. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Since then, Prof. Ioannidis has been publishing dubious studies that minimize the dangers of the coronavirus, shown up in the media to decry "lockdowns," and, most recently,...

/ March 29, 2021

Did Microwaves Harm US Employees at Its Embassy in Havana?

A recent review of unexplained symptoms in employees of the US Embassy in Havana pointed to microwaves. Was it mass psychogenic illness instead? Or something entirely different?

/ March 26, 2021

Legislative Alchemy: State licensing of “the profession of reflexology”

Following the playbook of other practitioners of pseudoscience, reflexologists aim to become state-licensed health care professionals, a status they've already achieved in four states. With bills pending in New York and Nebraska, they move closer to their goal of legitimizing their quackery in all 50 states.

/ March 25, 2021

A Worthless Acupuncture Study in Cancer Patients

This study does not test the efficacy of acupuncture and was never designed to do so.

/ March 24, 2021

Who Is Amy B. Scher?

Amy B. Scher is a proponent of energy medicine and things like astrology and homeopathy. She claims to be a "science geek," but how could anyone who understands science think that tapping on the breastbone will fix the thymus?

/ March 23, 2021

COVID-19 vaccination and screening mammography

Reports of enlarged lymph nodes under the arm after COVID-19 vaccination have led doctors to tweak mammography guidelines. Antivaxxers, unsurprisingly, have tried to weaponize this observation to spread fear and confusion about these vaccines.

/ March 22, 2021

Ear Acupuncture for Procedural Pain in Neonates: More Randomized Controlled Nonsense

A recently published multicenter randomized and placebo controlled study attempted to answer the question of whether or not magnetic acupuncture beads stuck on premature baby ears reduced pain during a common screening exam. They don't. And they might have made things worse for these babies.

/ March 19, 2021

Countering Geert Vanden Bossche’s dubious viral open letter warning against mass COVID-19 vaccination

Geert Vanden Bossche is a scientist who published an open letter warning of global catastrophe due to deadly variants of COVID-19 selected for by mass vaccination. His argument sounds a lot like an argument Andrew Wakefield once made for MMR. There’s even grift likely involved!

/ March 18, 2021