“Miracle cure” testimonials aside, azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine probably do not work against COVID-19
Here we go again. Didier Raoult has published another uninformative study looking at the use of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin to treat COVID-19. Unfortunately, recent data examining these drugs have been trending in the direction of the conclusion that these drugs probably don't work against COVID-19 but do cause harm. Sadly, the lack of evidence hasn't stopped the hucksters from promoting hydroxychloroquine as...
COVID-19 conspiracy theories: Vaccines and 5G (along with Bill Gates) are responsible!
The COVID-19 pandemic will almost certainly wind up being by far the worst pandemic we have experienced in a century. Given a huge pandemic with tragic death tolls, it's not surprising that conspiracy theories are popping up. Here, we look at two of the most common kinds of COVID-19 conspiracy theories. One blames 5G. The other blames—of course!—the flu vaccine.
Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin versus COVID-19: Grift, conspiracy theories, and another bad study by Didier Raoult
On Friday, Prof. Didier Raoult posted another study of azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine used against COVID-19. It is a single arm observational study of patients with mostly mild (or even asymptomatic) disease that is painfully uninformative with respect to the question of this treatment's effectiveness. That didn't stop America's Quack Dr. Oz and other grifters from touting Raoult's study, as well as a...
Are hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin an effective treatment for COVID-19?
Saturday morning, President Trump Tweeted a claim that the combination of azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine "have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine" and hoped that they be "put in use IMMEDIATELY" to treat COVID-19. His claims were based on a single clinical trial out of France. Unfortunately, although it is not implausible that...
COVID-19 update: What you need to know now that it’s officially a pandemic
On March 11, the World Health Organization officially declared the COVID-19 to be a pandemic. The causative virus, SARS-CoV-2 is spreading through the population. What can be done? Social distancing is the only hope of slowing down spread of the disease.
No, editors of The Atlantic, reiki does not work
Over the weekend, The Atlantic published an article by Jordan Kisner touting the benefits of reiki and arguing that you shouldn't listen to all those nasty skeptics calling it woo-woo. Unsurprisingly, the article is a credulous mess citing only token skepticism and relying on weak evidence. The Atlantic's embrace of quackery continues.
“Personalized” dietary recommendations based on DNA testing: Modern astrology
GenoPalate is a company that claims to give "personalized" dietary recommendations based on DNA testing. Unfortunately, what is provided by such companies is more akin to astrology than science.
Quoth RFK Jr.: Vaccines and glyphosate are responsible for the obesity epidemic!
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. published an article claiming that vaccines and glyphosate are responsible for the obesity epidemic. Too bad he cited the work of two longtime antivaccine cranks to support his bogus claim. He's really scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Genetics and evolution in cancer
Several new studies were published earlier this month describing the sequencing of over 2,600 cancer genomes. What the results show include what sorts of mutations drive cancer development and how evolution makes cancers so difficult to treat.
No, James Lyons-Weiler did not “break the coronavirus code”
Last week, a new conspiracy theory about the coronavirus outbreak by James Lyons-Weiler went viral (if you'll excuse the term) after antivax conspiracy theorist Del Bigtree interviewed him. Lyons-Weiler strongly implies that the strain of coronavirus behind the outbreak (2019-nCoV) has a SARS-like sequence that came from a laboratory working on a SARS vaccine. Fortunately, Dr. Gorski has the mad molecular biology...