Results for: speculative medicine
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.
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?
Countering Geert Vanden Bossche’s dubious viral open letter warning against mass COVID-19 vaccination
Geert Vanden Bossche is a scientist who published an open letter warning of global catastrophe due to deadly variants of COVID-19 selected for by mass vaccination. His argument sounds a lot like an argument Andrew Wakefield once made for MMR. There’s even grift likely involved!
A “not antivaccine” antivax pediatrician asks how we will know a COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective
Dr. Liz Mumper is associated with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s antivax organization Children's Health Defense. She recently gave a presentation asking: How will we know that a COVID vaccine is safe? It's a presentation that provides an excellent example of how to identify if someone is antivaccine.
Can mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines cause prion disease or Alzheimer’s?
Antivax immunologist J. Bart Classen published a paper claiming that mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines can cause prion disease leading to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's dementia. What are prions, and can these vaccines cause prion disease? (Spoiler alert: The answer to the second question is almost certainly no. It's speculation based on highly implausible biology.)
Psychic Mediums and Grieving Children
Self-proclaimed psychic mediums find a new way to exploit vulnerable children.
It was inevitable that antivaxxers would claim that COVID-19 vaccines make females infertile
Antivaxxers have been claiming that vaccines cause female infertility for as long as I can remember. So it's not surprising that they are now claiming that COVID-19 vaccines will cause miscarriages or even make women infertile. Their assertion is based on a highly speculative and incredibly unlikely immunologic mechanism. Same as it ever was.
COVID-19 and Tooth Loss
Reports that teeth are spontaneously falling out after COVID-19 recovery are surfacing. Is tooth loss yet another complication of this disease?
JAMA promotes the false equivalence of ‘focused protection’
On November 11 JAMA hosted a podcast with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, one of the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration. The discussion included factual inaccuracies and created a false equivalence between the fringe idea of 'focused protection' versus ongoing public health efforts to restrain community spread.
Irreversible Damage to the Trans Community: A Critical Review of Abigail Shrier’s Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters (Part Two)
Part 2 of the review of Abigail Shrier's "Irreversible Damage" provides insight into her harmful beliefs about trans youth, along with evidence-based counterarguments.