Category: Critical Thinking
The return of the revenge of “COVID-19 mRNA vaccines permanently alter your DNA” and “lab leak”
Claims that COVID-19 vaccines "permanently alter your DNA" or that SARS-CoV-2 was engineered in a lab were resurrected last week based on two dubious studies. No matter how many times you think these myths have been debunked, they always come back for another installment of the same misinformation franchise.
“Debate me, bro!”: Debate challenges by science deniers in the age of COVID-19
Quacks, science deniers, and conspiracy theorists love to challenge doctors, scientists, and science communicators to "live public debates" over the science they deny. I just say no, and you should say no too if you are in a position to receive such a challenge.
The Misinformation Dilemma
Is there a workable solution to the social media dilemma?
Illness, Healing, and Other Terms That Can Be Confusing
Watch your language. Some terms that are frequently confused: pain vs. suffering, disease vs. illness, cure vs. healing. Science-based medicine focuses on diseases; alternative medicine focuses on illness: that explains a lot.
Yes, the FDA really HAS given full approval to the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine
After the FDA announcement a week ago that Comirnaty, the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer, had been approved, it took less than a day for antivaxxers to spin a conspiracy theory claiming that the FDA hadn't really approved the Pfizer vaccine at all and that Comirnaty wasn't available, all to protect Pfizer from liability. It's a superficially plausible conspiracy...
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.
Artificial Sweeteners – A Free Lunch, or an Obesogenic Carcinogen? What 80+ Studies Say (part 1 of 2).
In this two part series, I explore the impact of artificial sweeteners on obesity, diabetes, the gut microbiome, and cancer. Part one of two!
Antivaxxers, COVID-19 vaccines, and “hacking the software of life”
Antivaxxers and COVID-19 conspiracy theorists were always going to spin conspiracies about COVID-19 vaccines. Unfortunately, some scientists have made it so much easier for them by having likened mRNA vaccines to "hacking the software of life" and being unclear on what gene therapy is.
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.
Sex and Racial Bias in Cardiac Care
Sex and racial biases in cardiac care partly reflect cognitive biases that can be corrected with education.