Medical Misinformation
Viewpoint: Eugenics revival — From anti-immigration ‘Great Replacement Theory’ to Silicon Valley libertarian ‘pro-natalism’, ‘racial science’ is gaining a stronghold in the US
Eugenics is widely regarded as a debunked pseudoscience—developed and promoted mostly in Nazi Germany—that fell off the political radar ...
Viewpoint: ‘Baby Olivia’ scandal — Republican legislators lie to kids about fetal development in anti-abortion propaganda video
“Meet Baby Olivia,” a three-minute video produced by the anti-abortion group Live Action, is the foundation of the latest bill that ...
Viewpoint: Seen headlines saying intermittent fasting diets can boost heart disease risks or even kill you? Here’s why you should be skeptical
Science as a process where studies help to make us a little less wrong, and a little more certain about ...
Building an ‘uncancellable, parallel society of the future’? Far-right and anti-vaxxers meet to create a ‘freedom economy’ that ‘leaves woke corporations behind’
A spectrum of conspiracist and religious communities gathered in Las Vegas in March to discuss building an "uncancellable" future together ...
Yet another anti-vax doctor claims vaccines ‘shed’. Where did this myth originate?
It’s been too short a time since I last wrote about the antivaccine myth of “shedding,” particularly in the context of ...
Weight gain, infertility, depression and anxiety: Online misinformation abounds about birth control — prompting women to forgo contraception
Search for “birth control” on TikTok or Instagram and a cascade of misleading videos vilifying hormonal contraception appear: Young women blaming their weight gain on ...
GLP podcast: GE crops have lived up to the hype; Growing ‘mini’ organs from stem cells; How do we solve right-wing vaccine hesitancy?
Genetically engineered crops are nearly three decades olds at this point. What impacts have they had on agriculture over those ...
Do COVID victims suffer permanent memory loss? Conclusion of a 100,000-patient study is under scrutiny
In a recent study, researchers conclude that those who tested positive for Covid-19 reported worse memory than those who tested ...
Tales from the front lines in the ‘vaccine wars’: Review of Peter Hotez’s Book, ‘The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science’
“If I don’t write this or stand up for vaccines, then who will?” That is what motivates the activism of ...
Is the conman being conned? Claiming he’s been reincarnated as the ‘new Jesus’, Joseph Mercola upends company on the advice of Bahlon, the ‘psychic’s psychic’
An “exposé” of Joe Mercola published on Natural Products Insider, a website devoted to the supplements industry [covered] a story ...
Why is the Mayo Clinic promoting pseudoscience — ‘energy healing’ Reiki?
The Mayo Clinic is a prestigious medical institution with a deserved international reputation. It also promotes rank pseudoscience ...
Viewpoint: Consensus as truth? How ‘science misinformation police’ control policy narratives
There are many problems with the notion of consensus-as-truth and the (self)appointment of misinformation police to regulate discourse ...
Viewpoint: Journal Pediatrics reneges on its commitment to print response to botched article claiming GMOs are harmful to children. Here’s what they censored
A lot has been said about the journal Pediatrics December 2023 Clinical Report on "Using GMOs on Children". The poor scholarship ...
In midst of measles outbreak, Florida Surgeon General defies standard medical practice and allows parents to send unvaccinated kids to school
A record number of parents filed for exemptions from school vaccine requirements on religious or philosophical grounds across the US ...
Genetic justice: Polygenic scores and ethnic differences
Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) are powerful tools. They gauge how likely you are to have a given trait based only ...
Russia’s shadowy disinformation war against the United States and its allies — Here are some of its key targets
Russia’s decades-old propaganda machine seeks to damage the health and prosperity of the country's adversaries. Ukraine and the United States ...
Are our genes the template for life? The reality is a lot more complicated
Biology is often presented to the public is oversimplified and out of date. Scientists must set the record straight, argues ...
Viewpoint: Acupuncture pseudoscience — Debunking Washington Post’s tiresome promotion of ‘legalized quackery’
Acupuncturists claim to treat many conditions, but they especially like to claim that they can treat chronic pain, for a ...
Viewpoint: ‘I’m not anti vaccine, I’m pro-vaccine safety’ — Debunking Robert F. Kennedy’s lies about vaccine beliefs
CNN host Kasie Hunt interviewed antivax presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Although she did better than most journalists confronting ...
Podcast: Wheat causes health issues? Do you have celiac disease, an allergy or…? Hysteria and misinformation about wheat-based products grows
Gluten has gained attention in pop culture because it is implicated in specific medical conditions, specifically celiac disease and gluten ...
Viewpoint: Big Tech-Federal government conspiracy or sound science? A government agency just canceled its $30 million dollar study designed to tell us whether cell phones can cause cancer
Since the introduction of cell phones en masse in the 1990s, a small but vociferous faction of health advocates has ...
Race, gender and science: Should positionality statement ‘identity biographies’ be mandatory on science research papers?
In Defense of Universalism in Science In a November article in Science magazine, journalist Rachael Zamzow informs us that many ...
Pathological science: How can we know whether today’s ‘junk science’ will remain ridiculous or someday be vindicated?
Today, there is simply too much known in far too many diverse fields for any person to hold it all ...
Trust in scientists nosedives post pandemic with deeper slide among Republicans
A new Pew Research Center survey finds the share of Americans who say science has had a mostly positive effect ...
Viewpoint: Florida’s Surgeon General is a menace to public health
Florida has many things to recommend, but the state’s top public health official isn’t one of them. Surgeon General Joseph ...
Playing God: Catholic ethical experts caution against ‘superhuman’ genetic future
CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats: Ethicists fixate on this innovation creating “superhumans.” ...
‘Crime of insincerity’: What happens when researchers publish scientific results they don’t believe in?
Scientific publication can be a constraining, flattening, and maddening process—but that’s not necessarily a bad thing ...
