Results for: COVID-19
What the heck happened to The BMJ?
Last week, The BMJ published an "exposé" by Paul Thacker alleging patient unblinding, data falsification, and other wrongdoing by a company running three sites for the massive clinical trial of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. It was a highly biased story embraced by antivaxxers, with a deceptively framed narrative and claims not placed into proper context, leading me to look into the broader...
Too many lab tests still escape FDA review, threatening patient safety
Even as the lab testing market grows, too many tests escape FDA review based on a meaningless categorization that has nothing to do with patient safety. Congress should pass the VALID Act of 2021, allowing the FDA to adequately regulate direct-to-consumer and other lab tests with the potential to harm the public.
Third Dose Prevents Infection
The evidence is in. Booster shots work.
Don’t Jump to Conclusions About So-Called TikTok Tics
A lot of people, even some experts, are making assumptions about so-called "TikTok tics" that might be inaccurate or even harmful for young people with Tourette syndrome.
The Anti-Vaccine Movement Supports Big Pharma
It's common knowledge that anti-vaxxers are dedicated to filling the coffers of Big Coffin. Simple math leads to another obvious conclusion: they also work extremely hard to enrich hospitals and Big Pharma.
How we got here with political and health misinformation: The case of “Hacker X” and Mike Adams
Ars Technica recently published a story about Hacker X, who helped Mike Adams expand his online empire of health fraud into an empire of fake news and political disinformation, thus intertwining health and political misinformation into the deadly combination we see now.
Comment policy
SBM’s comment policy has historically been mostly hands-off. Moderation tended, for the most part, to be fairly light (at times even almost nonexistent), at least compared to that of many other blogs. We (mostly) relied on our community of commenters to regulate themselves. As the blog grew in prominence and traffic, we found that we could no longer be as laissez-faire about...
The Road to Hitler is Paved with… Masks and Vaccines?
The next time a healthcare worker or educator is attacked by a "freedom-loving" anti-vaxxer, it's reasonable to wonder who convinced the assailant that life-saving public health measures are in fact a ruse to pave the way for the next Hitler. Warning: This article contains offensive images about the Holocaust and sexual assault
Even in a pandemic, bait-and-switch acupuncture studies still get published in Nature
Last week, a study claiming to have identified a neurologic mechanism by which acupuncture reduces inflammation was published in Nature. It does no such thing. it's another bait-and-switch mouse study that likely would never have been published in such a high profile journal if it hadn't rebranded electrical stimulation as "electroacupuncture".
Experts Abused for Talking to the Public
Nature survey finds that most media experts talking about COVID are facing threats and attacks.