NCCIH Strategic Plan 2021–2025: Meet the new plan, same as the old plan…?
The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health recently released its latest 5 year strategic plan. It's basically the same as the last strategic plan, but with one new addition. It's not really a new addition, but it signals a resurrection of an old trope about "integrating" quackery with science-based medicine.
Ivermectin is the new hydroxychloroquine, take 2
A few months ago, Scott Gavura wrote about how the veterinary deworming drug ivermectin has become the new hydroxychloroquine in that it is being promoted as a highly effective treatment against COVID-19—and by many of the same people who previously promoted HCQ—despite evidence that is, at best very weak and at worst completely negative. Unfortunately, with the publication of two new and...
“Depopulation” by COVID-19 vaccines?
COVID-19 and antivaccine conspiracy theorists like Joe Mercola, Michael Yeadon, and Peter McCullough are spreading the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 vaccines are intended as a tool for "global depopulation". This is nothing more than an old antivaccine conspiracy theory repurposed for the pandemic. As ridiculous as it might seem, it is nonetheless very appealing to antivaxxers.
“COVID-19 vaccines are going to sterilize our womenfolk,” Take 2
Antivaxxers have long claimed that vaccines, particularly HPV vaccines, can damage the ovaries and cause female infertility. That claim has been resurrected for COVID-19 vaccines. The first example relied on a dubious "similarity" between the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and a placental protein. This time, it's the lipid nanoparticles attacking the ovaries, echoing very old claims about polysorbate-80. Truly, everything old is new...
The origin of SARS-CoV-2, revisited
Since early in the pandemic, scientists have overwhelmingly concluded that evidence points to a natural origin for SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, as a far more likely explanation for the pandemic than a laboratory origin. In May, however, there has been a lot of media chatter about the "lab leak" hypothesis, and President Biden even ordered US intelligence agencies to look...
The “deadly” coronavirus spike protein (according to antivaxxers)
Antivaxxers are citing three papers to support their claim that spike protein produced by COVID-19 vaccines is dangerous. Unsurprisingly and as usual, they're misinterpreting the studies and misrepresenting their significance. COVID-19 vaccines are, in fact, very safe.
How antimaskers weaponize techniques of scientific analysis to attack mask mandates
There's a new paper out analyzing how antimask activists weaponize the tools of data visualization and scientific argumentation to produce convincing antimask propaganda. Antimaskers are claiming that it shows that they are more "scientific" than those supporting the consensus viewpoint with respect to COVID-19 and masks. What it really shows is that they are good at weaponizing the tools of data visualization...
The COVID-19 “Vaccine Holocaust”: The latest antivaccine messaging
The latest antivaccine disinformation consists of pointing to the large numbers of reports of death (and other adverse events) to the VAERS database. It's nonsense.
“The vaccinated are a danger to the unvaccinated because of shedding!”: The latest COVID-19 antivaccine disinformation
Antivaxxers are masters of projection, which is why the latest antivaccine disinformation about COVID-19 vaccines is that they lead the recipient to "shed" spike protein, which can can cause menstrual irregularities or even miscarriages in women who come into contact with the vaccinated and even make people very sick. This trope is nothing more than a clever repackaging of the old antivaccine...
The Science of Transgender Treatment
This is part I in what will be a short series of articles reviewing the science of transgender care and how it has been distorted by critics.