Category: Commentary
Is It Safe?
Is it safe to go to the dentist? Dentists are doing their best to try to ensure it is as safe as possible, with lots of guidance and extra measures to protect patients and staff.
Do face masks decrease the risk of COVID-19 transmission?
As wearing masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 becomes a culture war issue, the evidence for whether they prevent transmission of COVID-19 remains contested. A new systematic review and meta-analysis provides the best evidence yet that social distancing and masks are highly effective at decreasing the risk of contracting coronavirus, while eye protection might also help, but it's not a slam...
Winning the COVID Marathon
The most important difference between the COVID-19 pandemic and all previous pandemics is the power of our science. We should acknowledge and maximize that.
New York Times Goop Fail
A NYT opinion piece repeats all the common alternative medicine tropes in service to the further exploitation of women.
Marianne Williamson Is An Anti-Vaxxer
Spouting classic anti-vaccine tropes is no way to prove you are not anti-vaccine.
Reproducibility Follow Up
Let's explore dueling narratives about the reproducibility "crisis."
A world-renowned placebo researcher asks, “Does placebo research boost pseudoscience?”
Professor Fabrizio Benedetti is the most famous and almost certainly also the most influential researcher investigating the physiology of placebo effects. In a recent commentary, he asks whether placebo research is fueling quackery, as quacks co-opt its results. The answer to that question is certainly yes. A better question is: How do supporters of science counter the placebo narrative promoted by quacks,...
Gary Null’s Attack on SBM
Gary Null's fact- and logic-free attack on SBM.
Shaping Opinions About Science and Medicine
Responding to a commentary with all the usual anti-science tropes.
The Coming Age of Telehealth
Telehealth is finally here. We should keep it.