Results for: lyme
Is COVID-19 transmitted by airborne aerosols?
A recurring debate about COVID-19 bubbled up late last week, when a group of scientists announced an as-yet unpublished open letter to the World Health Organization arguing that COVID-19 transmission is airborne and urging it to change its recommendations. What is this debate about, and, if coronavirus is airborne, should we be more scared?
New Drugs for Sickle Cell Disease: Small Benefit, Large Price
The FDA has approved two new drugs to treat sickle cell disease. They don’t do much, and they are prohibitively expensive.
COVID-19 Testing
Currently available tests for COVID-19 are imperfect but useful if used properly, with rapidly evolving research on new tests underway.
COVID-19: Out-of-control science and bypassing science-based medicine
During the COVID-19 pandemic, there hasn't just been a pandemic of coronavirus-caused disease. There's also a pandemic of misinformation and bad science. It turns out that doctors today are just as prone as doctors 100 years ago during the 1918-19 influenza pandemic to bypass science-based medicine in their desperation to treat patients.
“Miracle cure” testimonials aside, azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine probably do not work against COVID-19
Here we go again. Didier Raoult has published another uninformative study looking at the use of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin to treat COVID-19. Unfortunately, recent data examining these drugs have been trending in the direction of the conclusion that these drugs probably don't work against COVID-19 but do cause harm. Sadly, the lack of evidence hasn't stopped the hucksters from promoting hydroxychloroquine as...
Canadian authorities warn chiropractors and naturopaths against making false COVID-19 claims
Regulators in British Columbia are investigating bogus COVID-19 preventatives and issuing public alerts warning chiropractors and naturopaths against advertising information that is not evidence-based. Other Canadian and U.S. authorities should follow suit to protect the public against pseudoscience.
Are hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin an effective treatment for COVID-19?
Saturday morning, President Trump Tweeted a claim that the combination of azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine "have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine" and hoped that they be "put in use IMMEDIATELY" to treat COVID-19. His claims were based on a single clinical trial out of France. Unfortunately, although it is not implausible that...
BioCharger’s Claims Are Too Silly to Take Seriously
The BioCharger is a subtle energy device based on fantasy, not science. At $15,000, pretty expensive for a placebo.
Is defending science-based medicine worth it?
Pseudoscience, denialism, fake news, and disinformation about health are a bigger problem than ever, thanks to social media. As doctors and scientists join lay defenders of science on social media, will they be willing to pay the price in terms of harassment? Or will they decide it's not worth the hassle? And what about our fellow docs who think that it's beneath...
How do we stop crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe from being used to fund quackery?
GoFundMe and other crowdfunding sites have long been used by desperate patients seeking to fund their use of unproven and downright quacky treatments. How can these sites be changed in order to keep them from being used as a funding supply for unethical quacks?