A New Medication to Combat Obesity
New study in The New England Journal of Medicine finds impressive evidence that weekly semaglutide injections produce clinically significant weight loss as well as many other benefits, approaching the improvements seen with weight loss surgery. Not a definitive answer to obesity, but a very encouraging step in the right direction. Science works.
Antivaxxers, COVID-19 vaccines, and “hacking the software of life”
Antivaxxers and COVID-19 conspiracy theorists were always going to spin conspiracies about COVID-19 vaccines. Unfortunately, some scientists have made it so much easier for them by having likened mRNA vaccines to "hacking the software of life" and being unclear on what gene therapy is.
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.
Sabotaging America’s Future: The Catastrophic Cost of Federal Research Cuts
The gleeful efficiency of an arsonist who mistakes the blaze for proof of his power