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?

/ 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.

/ March 25, 2021

A Worthless Acupuncture Study in Cancer Patients

This study does not test the efficacy of acupuncture and was never designed to do so.

/ March 24, 2021

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?

/ March 23, 2021

COVID-19 vaccination and screening mammography

Reports of enlarged lymph nodes under the arm after COVID-19 vaccination have led doctors to tweak mammography guidelines. Antivaxxers, unsurprisingly, have tried to weaponize this observation to spread fear and confusion about these vaccines.

/ March 22, 2021

Ear Acupuncture for Procedural Pain in Neonates: More Randomized Controlled Nonsense

A recently published multicenter randomized and placebo controlled study attempted to answer the question of whether or not magnetic acupuncture beads stuck on premature baby ears reduced pain during a common screening exam. They don't. And they might have made things worse for these babies.

/ March 19, 2021

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!

/ March 18, 2021

Oxford-AstraZeneca Vaccine Safety

Reports of blood clots after receiving the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine are very likely just background events.

/ March 17, 2021

Rightful for Pain: Deceptive Advertising and a Dangerous Ingredient

Rightful is an herbal supplement mixture offering pain relief and much more. Its claims are deceptive and not backed by good science. Not only that, but one of its ingredients is contraindicated.

/ March 16, 2021

The Brownstein protocol is not a proven treatment for COVID-19

Dr. David Brownstein is a "holistic" physician who practices in Dr. Gorski's neck of the woods. Unfortunately, he just wrote a book promoting an unproven protocol involving vitamins, nebulized hydrogen peroxide and iodine, and intravenous ozone to treat COVID-19. There is no evidence that his protocol works, other than a very poor quality case series.

/ March 15, 2021