Tag: human papillomavirus
Peter Gøtzsche teams with an antivaxxer to exaggerate the harms of COVID-19 vaccines
Peter Gøtzsche, formerly leader of the Nordic Cochrane Center, has teamed with Maryanne Demasi to write a systematic review of the "harms" of COVID-19 vaccination. Besides accepting the highly dubious methodology behind one study, their preprint is yet another example of how EBM can be corrupted to promote antivax ideas.
It was inevitable that antivaxxers would claim that COVID-19 vaccines make females infertile
Antivaxxers have been claiming that vaccines cause female infertility for as long as I can remember. So it's not surprising that they are now claiming that COVID-19 vaccines will cause miscarriages or even make women infertile. Their assertion is based on a highly speculative and incredibly unlikely immunologic mechanism. Same as it ever was.
SmartJane Test of Vaginal Health: Clever Marketing, Questionable Science
uBiome claims that its SmartJane test's proprietary technology empowers customers to assess their own vaginal health. The company is being investigated for fraudulent billing practices, and the rationale for the test makes no sense.
For Peat’s Sake! Naturopath Promotes Peat Bras and Tampons
This ND recommends peat therapy, including peat baths, peat tampons, and peat bras, for a variety of conditions including infertility and HPV infections. The evidence is lacking.
Death by Gardasil? Not so fast there…
There is a type of "vaccine injury" story promoted by the antivaccine movement that is particularly pernicious, a narrative I call "death by Gardasil." The stories, which use tenuous connections between vaccination against HPV to prevent cervical cancer and the unexpected death of a teen or young adult, are always tragic, and you can't help but feel incredible empathy for the parents....
Why Do Things That Are Unlikely to Harm Us Get the Most Attention?
We are very bad at assessing risk, often giving the most attention to the things that are least likely to harm us. Geoffrey Kabat's new book teaches us how to think more clearly about scientific studies of environmental health risks.
Chiropractic Gynecologist Offers Dangerous Treatments and Misinformation
Over a year ago I wrote about escharotic treatments for cervical dysplasia. It is offered not by MD gynecologists but by chiropractors and naturopaths, along with inconsistent and unproven diet recommendations and supplements. A corrosive agent similar to “black salve” is applied repeatedly to the cervix; it works by destroying tissue. There are no controlled studies evaluating it for safety and effectiveness....
HPV Vaccine Safety and Acceptance
The public fight over the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is still raging. The debate partly reflects the underlying logic of health prevention measures, which is essentially a statistical game of risk vs benefit. Unfortunately thrown into the mix are ideological opponents to vaccines who are distorting the facts at every turn. Notice that I said this was a “public” fight, because it...
HPV Vaccine Compliance
There are few home-runs in medicine. Most of our choices have some sort of trade-off – drugs have side effects, interventions have risks, and many treatments have marginal benefits. Sometimes, however, medical science hits one out of the park and develops a treatment that is safe, effective, cost effective, and convenient. Any dispassionate view of the evidence can only lead to one...