Tag: COVID-19

The Suicide Holiday Myth, Now with COVID

There is no association between the holidays and suicide – that is a myth. The effect of the pandemic is less clear.

/ December 2, 2020
Central Dogma of Molecular Biology

No, the Moderna and Pfizer RNA vaccines for COVID-19 will not “permanently alter your DNA”

With the new mRNA vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna likely to be available soon, antivaxxers have been ramping up the fear mongering. Their latest claim is that mRNA vaccines will "permanently alter your DNA" or even "make you transhuman." Such claims rest on an utter ignorance of the totality of what we know about the biology of DNA, RNA, and how...

/ November 30, 2020
COVID-19 vs. FDA and CDC

Zinc and COVID

Should you take a zinc supplement to prevent a COVID-19 infection?

/ November 26, 2020
Mercola versus flu vaccines and COVID-19

There is no COVID-19 “casedemic.” The pandemic is real and deadly.

Antivaccine activists and pandemic minimizers Del Bigtree and Joe Mercola are promoting the myth of the "casedemic" that claims that the massive increase in COVID-19 cases being reported is an artifact of increased PCR testing and false positives due to too sensitive a threshold to the test. As they have done for vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases many times before, they are vastly...

/ November 23, 2020
The Great Barrington Declaration

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.

/ November 20, 2020

FDA and FTC issue more warning letters citing products and services making illegal COVID claims

The FDA and FTC have issued hundreds of warnings to companies selling products and services claiming, without adequate evidence, that they can prevent or treat COVID-19, but the possibility of government action doesn't seem to be a deterrence.

/ November 19, 2020

Moderna’s COVID Vaccine

Preliminary results have been announced for a second mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine, with even better results.

/ November 18, 2020
Steak-umm

Frozen meat vs. COVID-19 misinformation: The strange case of Steak-umm

Of all the strange things that have happened during the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise of a frozen meat company as a source of critical thinking and skepticism regarding COVID-19 misinformation and disinformation is one of the strangest. How did Steak-umm become a champion of critical thinking about the pandemic?

/ November 16, 2020

Pfizer’s COVID Vaccine

Here is everything you need to know about the recently announced COVID vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech.

/ November 11, 2020

Jumping the Gun: Antibody Drugs for Covid-19

Why did the US government promise to buy a product that had failed testing?

/ November 10, 2020