The Residency Match is Broken
The National Resident Matching Program (Match), the program to align med school applicants with their preferred residency program, is broken and filled with disincentives. The fix might be easy.
More Data Supports Delayed Antibiotic Prescribing for Kids with respiratory infections
Overuse of antibiotics is a big problem. New data supports delaying that prescription for kids with respiratory infections.
The “Disinformation Dozen” spreading anti-vaccine messaging on social media
Just twelve individuals are generating two-thirds of all of the anti-vaccine messaging on Twitter and Facebook.
The Origins of SARS-CoV-2
The joint WHO-China investigation report concludes that a lab origin for COVID-19 is "extremely unlikely" but doubts remain.
Access Consciousness: A New Version of Phrenology?
Phrenology assigned meanings to bumps on the skull. Access Consciousness claims to have located 32 points on the head that store thoughts, emotions, and memories. Is this a new version of phrenology?
What the heck happened to John Ioannidis?
John Ioannidis is one of the most published and influential scientists in the world, someone whose skewering of bad medical research we at SBM have frequently lauded over the years. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Since then, Prof. Ioannidis has been publishing dubious studies that minimize the dangers of the coronavirus, shown up in the media to decry "lockdowns," and, most recently,...
Did Microwaves Harm US Employees at Its Embassy in Havana?
A recent review of unexplained symptoms in employees of the US Embassy in Havana pointed to microwaves. Was it mass psychogenic illness instead? Or something entirely different?
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March 26, 2021
Legislative Alchemy: State licensing of “the profession of reflexology”
Following the playbook of other practitioners of pseudoscience, reflexologists aim to become state-licensed health care professionals, a status they've already achieved in four states. With bills pending in New York and Nebraska, they move closer to their goal of legitimizing their quackery in all 50 states.
A Worthless Acupuncture Study in Cancer Patients
This study does not test the efficacy of acupuncture and was never designed to do so.
Who Is Amy B. Scher?
Amy B. Scher is a proponent of energy medicine and things like astrology and homeopathy. She claims to be a "science geek," but how could anyone who understands science think that tapping on the breastbone will fix the thymus?