Category: Science and Medicine
A Nice Chat with The Infant Feeding Alliance on Breastfeeding Promotion Pitfalls
Last week I had the pleasure of sitting down with Ruth Harpur from the Infant Feeding Alliance for a nice chat about problems with aggressive breastfeeding promotion.
Health misinformation now has powerful allies
Misinformation and conspiracy theories about health had long been a growing problem before the pandemic, but it took COVID-19 to get the government and researchers to take it seriously. Now, a new report in The Washington Post adds to previous reporting from multiple sources describing how allies of misinformation—and not just health misinformation—are striking back under the guise of defending "free speech."
Part 1: “Don’t Minimize Myocarditis From The Vaccine”, By the Author of “Don’t Fear Literal Death From COVID”.
Once a doctor has minimized *literal death*, how can we take them seriously when they scold us for minimizing something not as severe as, say, *literal death*?
Doctors on Measles: “NEVER Listen to the Anti-Vax Cult When They Say This ‘Natural’ Disease is Harmless”. Doctors on COVID: 😂
Measles and COVID are different, of course, but they are not categorically different. With both viruses, unvaccinated children suffer the most. Yet, doctors who rightly said "measles can be a devastating childhood illness" also said it was "breathless fear-mongering" to acknowledge that COVID can also be a devastating childhood illness.
Did a Spicy Social Media Challenge Kill a Massachusetts Teen?
Did an absurdly spicy chip and a social media challenge kill a Massachusetts teen? His family sure thinks so, and it is possible. But skepticism is appropriate unless further details emerge. Still, these chips aren't for kids.
When Did “Herd Immunity” Become a Taboo Phrase?
Doctors who repeatedly predicted herd immunity in 2020 and 2021, mocking and berating those who disagreed, now treat herd immunity as a taboo phrase.
Dr. Vinay Prasad fully embraces the antivax message of “do not comply”
COVID-19 "contrarians" like Dr. Vinay Prasad have long complained about being labelled "antivaccine," which they view as unfair. Why, then, do they embrace antivax messages like "do not comply," even if they don't use the exact words?
Take a Pledge to Enroll in a Randomized-Controlled Trial
As COVID cases and hospitalizations increase yet again, I'd like my contribution to medical research to be more than convincing people to skip vaccine doses. So should you.
The Grand Debunk of the antivaxxer book “Turtles All the Way Down” (part 5/10)
The fifth installment in the grand debunk the antivaxxer book “Turtles All the Way Down”: Chapter 5.
The COVID-as-bacterial-pneumonia conspiracy theory rises again
In yet another example of everything hold being new again, antivaxxers have resurrected the claim that deaths due to COVID-19 are actually due to bacterial pneumonia, just as antivaxxers used to say the same thing about influenza deaths. It is, of course, another case of confusing cause and effect in order to obfuscate.