Category: Science and the Media
The Washington Post publishes an advertorial on IV drips
Last week, I had a choice between two poorly framed articles on health to discuss. I wrote about the one on "vaccine injury." But the second one about IV drips kept nagging at me. Why do journalists do so poorly on issues like this?
A poorly framed article on COVID-19 vaccine injury in the New York Times
A poorly framed article on people who believe that COVID-19 vaccines injured them is being trumpeted by antivaxxers. Where the New York Times and its reporter Apoorva Mandavilli go wrong?
Science Based Satire: What I Would Have Done
A man who experienced the pandemic entirely from his laptop, explains what he would have done had he actually done anything.
Why Are Sensible Medicine Doctors Indifferent to the Nonsense Comments of Sensible Medicine Commentators? As Instructed, I Consider the Dualities of Interest and Motivating Biases.
Sensible Medicine doctors often utter the words "do an RCT". So why are their readers so ignorant about RCTs?
Dr. Adam Cifu: “We Now Need to Accept That This is Here to Get Infected With Again and Again.”
If Dr. Adam Cifu were genuinely concerned about vaccine hesitancy, I would strongly encourage him to learn about the anti-vaccine movement. He'll discover that it is fueled not by a lack of "robust data" on COVID boosters, but rather by exactly the sort of mistrust and anti-vaccine misinformation spread by his own blog and collaborators.
Hospital Measures Prevented COVID Transmission
A new study finds that hospital measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 worked, and we probably should keep them.
Dr. Lucy McBride: “As physicians, dispensing false hope is dangerous & unethical.”
The many sheltered physicians like Dr. Lucy McBride who confidently said herd immunity was at hand and fear of COVID was pathological are the last people who should be sanctimoniously sermonizing about the importance of trust in medicine.
RFK Jr. and his “I’m not anti-vaccine” rejoinder to being confronted with his past antivax statements: A primer
On Friday, CNN host Kasie Hunt interviewed antivax presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Although she did better than most journalists confronting him for his past antivax statements in that she played a clip of one of his antivax statements, she clearly hadn't anticipated his response, which should have been very predictable given that he's been using it for at least 15...
When a “gender critical” is a runner-up for the Maddox Prize for standing up for science…
Helen Joyce, a virulently anti-trans "gender critical" campaigner, was recently shortlisted for the Maddox Prize, which purports to recognize people who "who stand up for science and evidence, advancing public discussion around difficult topics despite challenges or hostility," even though she promotes an agenda that denies science and demonizes trans people. How could this have happened?
“Fauci Files” and Florida’s Grand Jury Investigations Fail to Deliver
Although multiple antivaccine investigations have failed to deliver any substantive evidence of alleged crimes, the latest antivax flops won't flip anyone.