Tag: John Ioannidis

The making of COVID-19 “contrarian” doctors
In 2009, I tried to answer the question: How do doctors become quacks and antivaxxers? A Twitter encounter suggested to me that an update to that post is massively overdue.

Is it “Natural and Healthy” When Children Get Sick With COVID?
The notion that society and children benefit when they contract vaccine-preventable diseases used to be relegated to the fringes of the anti-vaccine movement. It is now embraced by doctors at prestigious universities.

Debating How to Debate Instead of Actually Debating
Every moment spent debating who can say what to whom and how and where they should say it, is time not spent talking about doctors who repeatedly underestimated the virus and successfully campaigned to ensure tens of millions of children and young adults contracted it before they were vaccinated.

Intubations and Accusations Part 2
A famous economist once said, "When the facts change, I change my mind". Others take the opposite approach and attempt to alter the facts to preserve their beliefs. Read their work with this in mind.

John Ioannidis and the Carl Sagan effect in science communication about COVID-19
We have been critical about John Ioannidis over a number of his statements about the COVID-19 pandemic. Now he's done it again, producing a poor-quality paper whose unwritten assumptions suggest that the Carl Sagan effect, in which scientists are penalized professionally by their peers for becoming popular science communicators, still holds considerable sway in science and medicine.

Contrarian Doctors: The Pandemic is Over, Again
I can’t help but wonder if one of the reasons the pandemic isn’t over yet, is because contrarian doctors repeatedly said it was.

Intubations and Accusations: Doctors were “just going crazy, and intubating people who did not have to be intubated”
It's problematic when a paragon of evidence-based medicine claims vaccines spread disease and amplifies internet rumors that doctors killed COVID-19 patients through premature intubations.

“What Exactly Did the Virus do to All These People?” Reflections on Ted Nugent, Mel Q, Kelly Brogan, and John Ioannidis
The notion that many people are dying with SARS-CoV-2 not from SARS-CoV-2 has hindered our ability to contain to the virus. Whether the source is QAnon influencers or a highly credentialed scientists, we must push back on narratives that are used to minimize the danger of COVID-19.