Consumer groups urge feds to act against Mercola and his false COVID-19 claims
Consumer rights organizations urge the FDA and FTC to take action against Joseph Mercola and his businesses over their false, misleading, and dangerous claims that their products will prevent, treat or cure COVID-19.
Russian and Other COVID Vaccines
Russia's approval of a COVID-19 vaccine is premature and counterproductive.
Visual Stress
The Opticalm Clinic claims to diagnose and treat visual stress with colored lenses and other aids. Visual stress is a poorly defined, questionable condition and Opticalm's claims are not backed by scientific evidence.
HCQTrial.com: Astroturf and disinformation about hydroxychloroquine and COVID-19 on steroids
Late last week, a "study" published on HCQTrial.com by an anonymous source claiming to be a group of PhD scientists went viral. It claimed that countries that used hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 had a 79% lower fatality rate than those who didn't. It was horrible science and quickly debunked on Twitter by several epidemiologists. That didn't stop it from going viral. Disinformation...
Science-Based Satire: Area Child Killed by Unwieldy Backpack
Was a child recently murdered by a heavy backpack? Do unwieldy backpacks cause scoliosis and long term general health problems? Should we care what chiropractors have to say about pediatric spinal health? No. This isn't remotely true and honestly I'm a little surprised that you would even ask me that. It's satire.
Vitamin D supplements do not reduce the risk of depression
A newly-published randomized controlled trial finds vitamin D supplementation has no effect on depression. This adds to the long list of medical conditions for which vitamin D supplementation has turned out to be ineffective.
UK Recommendations Wrong on Acupuncture
NICE draft recommendations on acupuncture don't even make sense from an EBM perspective, and utterly fail to consider SBM principles.
The Recipe for Making Stupid Videos
A promotional video for a prostate remedy could serve as a template for deceptive videos about dietary supplements. All marketing, no science, and plenty of red flags.
The perils and pitfalls of “doing your own research” about COVID-19 (or any other science)
Ethan Siegel at Forbes argues that you "must not 'do your own research.'" While the title grates, Siegel is correct that most of us are not really capable of "doing our own research" about most scientific and medical questions because we lack the necessary background. We must therefore be humble and be very, very careful about "doing our own research."
Monsanto gets injunction against California’s mandated cancer warning for glyphosate
A federal district court permanently enjoined California from requiring a cancer warning for glyphosate on First Amendment grounds. The battle between the law and science continues.