Tag: HIV
Science vs HIV
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a global pandemic, with 39 million cases worldwide, and over 1 million new infections each year. While it rose to epidemic and then pandemic levels in the 1980s, the first case goes back to 1959. HIV is a retrovirus that inserts its genetic material into the DNA of host cells, and targets the immune system as...
PreP for HIV/AIDS
Two pills and an injection are FDA-approved to prevent HIV infection. Not enough patients and providers know about them.
Pfizer’s new COVID-19 protease inhibitor drug is not just “repackaged ivermectin”
Pfizer recently announced that its new protease inhibitor-based drug was 89% effective in preventing hospitalization due to COVID-19 and it is seeking an emergency use authorization for it from the FDA. Antivaxxers claim that ivermectin targets the same protease and is being "suppressed" to protect Pfizer's profits from the new drug. What's the real story? Hint: Antivaxxers took a grain of truth...
Plandemic: Judy Mikovits and the mother of all COVID-19 conspiracy theories (some final thoughts)
Last Friday, I deconstructed Plandemic, a misinformation conspiracyfest of a video that went viral last week. It turns out that Judy Mikovits, the disgraced scientist featured in the video has even more conspiracy theories and misinformation up her sleeve.
Plandemic: Judy Mikovits and the mother of all COVID-19 conspiracy theories
Judy Mikovits is a disgraced scientist who published a paper claiming that a retrovirus called XMRV causes chronic fatigue syndrome, results that other investigators were unable to replicate. Since then, she's been a regular on the antivaccine circuit, but now she's been reborn as a "Fire Fauci" COVID-19 conspiracy theorist. Sadly, it worked. Her book is #1 on Amazon.
Second Patient Cured of HIV Still Clear
The second patient apparently cured of HIV had a good 30 month check up. What are the implications for HIV treatment?
The Null hypothesis: Gary Null attacks science-based medicine
Over the last couple of weeks, one of the old men of quackery, Gary Null, has decided (yet again) that he really, really doesn't like science-based medicine. That includes Steve Novella, Susan Gerbic, and...me. As is his usual habit, Null teamed up with his producer Richard Gale and wrote some seriously off-base screeds against Wikipedia, skeptics, and science-based medicine, basically the forces...
SXSW Wellness Expo and Goop: Accepting HIV/AIDS denialism and antivaccine pseudoscience by embracing Dr. Kelly Brogan
Dr. Kelly Brogan is doing well these days. Invited to be a headliner at Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop Summit and to be on the advisory board of the 2018 SXSW Wellness Expo, she's riding high. Unfortunately Goop and SXSW appear not to care about her being an HIV/AIDS denialist, antivaxer, and all around quack.
When antivaccine pseudoscience isn’t enough, Bill Maher fawns over Charlie Sheen’s HIV quack
I know I must be getting older because of Friday nights. After a long, hard week (and, during grant season, in anticipation of a long, hard weekend of grant writing), it’s not infrequent that my wife and I order pizza, plant ourselves in front of the TV, and end up asleep before 10 or 11 PM. Usually, a few hours later, between...
On the “right” to challenge a medical or scientific consensus
While everyone has the "right" to challenge a scientific consensus, overthrowing a scientific consensus takes data. Lots and lots of data. Few people realize how difficult it is.