Category: Critical Thinking

A shadowy figure manipulates strings connected to scientific symbols while anxious people wearing tin foil hats look on, surrounded by skeptical onlookers with smartphones.

Trust Me-I’m a Doctor

Trust is a fragile yet critical resource for any institution. At the end of the day, civilization is mostly built on a handshake and a mutual agreement to follow the rules. This includes trust that designated experts have the expertise they claim, are competent, and are acting appropriately in the interest of others, rather than exploiting their position for self-dealing. A critical...

/ April 30, 2025
Illustration of a smartphone screen against a yellow and blue background. The yellow side displays words like "fake," "minimize," "chaos," while the blue side shows "verified," "fix," "trust," and "reliable.

The Misinformation Wars

The core mission of SBM comes down to a few things – examining the complex relationship between scientific evidence and healthcare, exploring issues of how optimally to regulate health care and health products, and fighting misinformation. Over the years I think we have made some solid strides on the first category. The medical infrastructure has been trending increasing towards higher standards of...

/ April 9, 2025
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
A grayscale image of a man wearing glasses and a suit, speaking into a microphone against a black background.

Bhattacharya for the CDC?

The Stanford health economist turned right-wing pandemic star could help take down academia and scientific institutions in a second Trump administration

/ November 3, 2024
Wuhan Institute of Virology, focus of "lab leak"

How conspiracy theories like COVID-19 “lab leak” harm science and public health

Ever since COVID-19 first emerged in 2020, evidence-free claims that it had arisen due to a "lab leak" have proliferated. A recent paper argues that this conspiracy theory has been very harmful to science. I argue that it's more than just lab leak that is harmful.

/ August 5, 2024
conspiracy theory

The ultimate COVID-19 antivax conspiracy theory, courtesy of the Brownstone Institute and Jeffrey Tucker

I've long argued that antivax beliefs, indeed all science denial, is conspiracy theory. Leave it to The Brownstone Institute's Jeffery Tucker to make my point better for me than I ever could. Of course, Brownstone was always going to "go there."

/ May 27, 2024
EDTA structure. Chelation

We finally learn from TACT2 what we should have known two decades ago: Chelation therapy doesn’t work for heart disease

At SBM, we've long argued that chelation therapy for heart disease is quackery. An abstract presented recently finally confirmed that. Why did it take so long?

/ April 29, 2024

The Menace of Wellness Influencers

Wellness influencers are often also conspiracy theorists, as both mindsets rely upon the same underlying methods, motivation, and narrative.

/ February 7, 2024
EBM hierarchy

Evidence-based medicine vs. basic science in medical school

Last week Dr. Vinay Prasad wrote a Substack arguing that medical students should learn the principles of evidence-based medicine before basic science.This is a recipe for amplifying the main flaw in EBM that science-based medicine was meant to correct, and Dr. Prasad's arguments would have been right at home on an integrative medicine blog. [Note ADDENDUM.]

/ May 22, 2023