Month: March 2021

Oxford-AstraZeneca Vaccine Safety

Reports of blood clots after receiving the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine are very likely just background events.

/ March 17, 2021

Rightful for Pain: Deceptive Advertising and a Dangerous Ingredient

Rightful is an herbal supplement mixture offering pain relief and much more. Its claims are deceptive and not backed by good science. Not only that, but one of its ingredients is contraindicated.

/ March 16, 2021

The Brownstein protocol is not a proven treatment for COVID-19

Dr. David Brownstein is a "holistic" physician who practices in Dr. Gorski's neck of the woods. Unfortunately, he just wrote a book promoting an unproven protocol involving vitamins, nebulized hydrogen peroxide and iodine, and intravenous ozone to treat COVID-19. There is no evidence that his protocol works, other than a very poor quality case series.

/ March 15, 2021
COVID-19 vs. FDA and CDC

State legislatures consider bills prohibiting COVID-19 vaccination mandates and other public health measures

Bills seek to prevent the states and private employers from mandating COVID-19 vaccines and other pandemic mitigation measures. Some proposed legislation would severely handicap public health officials in combating future health emergencies.

/ March 11, 2021

COVID Vaccines Probably Prevent Spread

The evidence is preliminary, but it looks like the COVID vaccines do reduce the risk of spread of SARS-CoV-2.

/ March 10, 2021

Energy Medicine Pain Relief Patches Are Laughable Quackery

There's no acceptable scientific evidence that these patches work to relieve pain. The advertising features pseudoscientific energy medicine gibberish. Good for a laugh, but not to be believed.

/ March 9, 2021
Central Dogma of Molecular Biology

Antivaxxers misrepresent a study to falsely claim that COVID-19 vaccines cause cancer

The latest antivaccine propaganda claims that a 2018 research paper published by researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center shows that the RNA in the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines can cause cancer. As usual, it's a complete misapplication of a cherry picked study grounded in a lack of understanding of molecular biology. Same as it ever was.

/ March 8, 2021

Nonsense for Elephants: The Houston Zoo Promotes Kinesiology Tape

The Houston Zoo is promoting a bogus therapy as a treatment for aging elephants.

/ March 5, 2021

Vitamin D shows no efficacy against moderate to severe COVID-19 infections

A new trial failed to find evidence that a massive dose of vitamin D improves outcomes in patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 infections.

/ March 4, 2021

The Next Pandemic

COVID-19 may have been a dress-rehearsal for more serious pandemics to come. How do we prepare?

/ March 3, 2021