Category: Public Health
It Will Take More Than “Courage” to Restore Public Trust in Medicine
Judah Kreinbrook, a first year medical student, responds to a post on Sensible Medicine by a medical student that exaggerated the risk of myocarditis from COVID-19 vaccines while expressing anger at how trust in medicine has been undermined. Having been raised by a family steeped in antivaccine views, Kreinbrook invokes his journey to SBM to gently correct his fellow medical student and...
Brownstone uses flawed data analysis to minimize COVID in NYC; An NYC hospitalist’s perspective
Guest posters Drs. Eric Burnett and Jonathan Laxton provide a lengthy rebuttal to Dr. Jessica Hockett's claims that NYC did not suffer a deadly, almost overwhelming wave of COVID-19 in 2020.
What does “antivaccine” really mean since the pandemic hit?
We frequently use terms like “antivaccine,” “antivax,” and “antivaxxers.” Critics think it’s a “gotcha” to ask how we define “antivax” or to accuse us of reflexively label "questioning" of vaccines as "antivax." It's not. There are gray areas, but not so gray that the word is never appropriate. Has anything changed since I first tried to define "antivaccine" in 2010? The answer:...
Don’t Forget About the Flu
We are heading into a bad flu season. Get vaccinated.
Risk of Myocarditis Following COVID-19 Vaccine
Risk of myocarditis following mRNA vaccines is real but tiny, and far outweighed by the benefit of vaccines.
The war on the science-based regulation of medicine accelerates
Last week, it was reported how increasingly there is a war on the science-based regulation of medicine and physicians. It's an old story, but unfortunately the forces arrayed against science-based policy have been emboldened by the pandemic and an stronger alliance with political groups that are against government regulation in general.
The Subvariants Are Coming
A wave of Omicron subvariants are coming. So get vaccinated.
Sleep Duration and Health
Poor sleep is a genuine concern, but the results of a new cohort study are complex to interpret.
Burden of Proof Studies and Health Risk
A new way of presenting knowledge about health risks highlights the ambiguity of the evidence and the importance of basic health behaviors.
The State of Florida spreads antivaccine disinformation disguised as an epidemiological “study”
On Friday, Florida State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo released a non-peer-reviewed "study" that recommends against males aged 18 to 39 receiving mRNA COVID-19 vaccines based on bad epidemiology and science. This is the first time that we've seen a state government weaponize bad science to spread antivaccine disinformation as official policy, a dangerous new escalation in antivaccine propaganda.