Category: Epidemiology
Antivaxxers misuse the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database to demonize COVID-19 vaccines
Over the last couple of weeks, a claim that the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED) shows that COVID-19 vaccines have caused a massive increase in cancer, neurological, and cardiovascular diseases in military personnel has gone viral. A closer look shows that the increases are almost certainly spurious and due to underreporting in previous years.
The misuse and abuse of meta-analyses
The meta-analysis has been misused and weaponized to promote dubious COVID-19 treatments.
The dumpster diving VAERS preprint debacle: How did we get here?
Last week, SBM devoted a lot of digital ink to a poorly done study analyzing the VAERS database for myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination that was widely publicized to imply that the vaccine is more dangerous than the disease. Three out of the four authors should have known better, leading me to ask: How did we get here?
Dumpster diving in the VAERS database to find more COVID-19 vaccine-associated myocarditis in children
"Dumpster diving" is a term used to describe studies using data from the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System database by authors, almost always antivaxxers, who don't understand its limitations. Last week, non-antivax doctors who should know better fell into this trap when they promoted their study suggesting that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are more dangerous to children than the disease.
Peer review of a VAERS dumpster dive
A new preprint study on COVID vaccine myocarditis dives into the VAERS dumpster with predictable and embarrassing results.
School mask mandate wars: Politics (Florida) v. Science (North Carolina)
Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, dictated a state-wide ban on school mask mandates based on misinformation and pure politics, while North Carolina officials took a bipartisan approach to masking based on science.
“We’ll Have Herd Immunity by April”: Reflections on a Failed Prediction
Surgical oncologist Dr. Marty Makary predicted in February that we would have herd immunity to COVID-19 in April. In late July now, it is clear that we do not, but Dr. Makary continues to make dubious and outright incorrect statements about COVID-19 on national platforms to which he has access. Why can't he just admit that his prediction had been in error?
We are not “losing the war on cancer” (belated 2021 edition)
The narrative we hear time and time again is that we are "losing the war on cancer". The latest cancer statistics show that this narrative is not true.
COVID-19 is Deadlier Than the Flu for Children
While COVID-19 killed 500 children over the past year, the flu killed just one.
COVID-19 and balancing the risks: The vaccine or the virus
Given recent reports of myocarditis after vaccination with mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines in young people, we think it's a good time to reexamine the risk/benefit ratio of these vaccines in this population.