Daily Human Digest
Every day, the staff of the Genetic Literacy Project scours the Web for stories on a range of human genetics issues, including gene editing, regulations and bioethics, gene therapy, epigenetics, personal genomics, evolution, ancestry and artificial intelligence. We publish excerpts of those stories and encourage our readers to visit the original publications for the complete stories.
Brain remains influenced by false information about health, reveals cognitive science
Research shows that false health information continues to influence people’s choices even after official corrections. The mechanism involves how the ...
Newest hantavirus conspiracy: Online disinformation turns outbreak into latest ivermectin grift
Conspiracy theorists, wellness influencers, and grifters have already started promoting wild claims about the hantavirus outbreak that began aboard the MV Hondius, a cruise ship on ...
Viewpoint — Alternative medicine and the placebo effect: Selling a reassuring illusion of health
For many people who can afford it, it is not their doctor, but an acupuncturist or massage therapist who will ...
Viewpoint: ‘Crisis of public trust’: Autism support community shocked RFK continues to peddle false claims about the danger of vaccines
Misinformation from top health officials in the Trump administration has created a “crisis of public trust” – and Congress should ...
Defying death: The immortality movement goes mainstream
Michael Peel ... [I]n this series, we’re exploring the origins of the longevity movement and how it’s migrating from the ...
Viewpoint: Anti-vax fake ‘turbo cancer’ claims threaten cancer treatment breakthroughs
Since the early 2000s, there have been over 120 promising clinical trials testing the use of mRNA vaccines to treat multiple cancer ...
Viewpoint — Digital gods and human extinction: Will we be the first species ever to design our own descendants?
[Sam] Altman said...in a 2016 interview with The New Yorker. “We need to level up humans,” he declares, “because our descendants will ...
How criminals are using AI to target social media users and steal their money and confidential data
When ChatGPT was released to the public in late 2022, it opened people’s eyes to how easily generative AI could ...
As U.S. officials spread medical misinformation, scientists fact check online
[Asma] Khalil is part of a growing movement of physician-scientists leveraging their resources and expertise to push back against what ...
Facebook swamped by hundreds of thousands of scam ads for illegal or dangerous medical products
Two months ago, a sponsored post for a supplement popped up on Facebook with a miraculous claim: “The doctors have ...
Viewpoint: Can this California pediatrician and Congressional hopeful quell anti-vaccine extremists?
Dr. Richard Pan is no stranger to blood. As a pediatrician, he was trained for its inevitability. But unlike your average medical ...
How big health brands are funding online medical misinformation
A study published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open, which is published by the American Medical Association, found that health care-related ...
Longevity: Is cellular rejuvenation even possible?
Many scientists now believe that mastering cellular rejuvenation may be the key to transforming how long and how well we ...
Millions take omega-3 fish oil for brain health. New research suggests it may do the opposite.
While omega-3 fatty acid supplementation is widely used for cognitive protection, its efficacy remains controversial, and its impact on core ...
Viewpoint: ‘Measles is a canary in the healthcare coal mine’: Challenging RFK, Jr.’s scare campaign
The rise of measles may also be a harbinger of something even worse, public officials say. “Measles is basically a ...
After slashing global health aid by $19 Billion, Trump moves to tap $2.1 billion more—to cover shutdown costs
The Trump administration plans to redirect $2 billion in funding intended for global health programs to cover the cost of ...
Viewers of right-wing news sites are double as likely to view MMR vaccines suspiciously
Where Americans get their news may play a significant role in shaping their attitudes toward the measles, mumps, and rubella ...
‘He seems fine’: Marty Makary out as FDA commissioner
Marty Makary resigned from his position as commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on [May 12, 2026], ...
Viewpoint— ‘Muscular governance’: How authoritarianism is surging corporate-linked energy misinformation
The world’s slide into authoritarian practices is accelerating the climate crisis. At its core, the authoritarian goal is typically to ...
Pro-vaccine “hero” vs. an anti-vax “villain”: ‘Bad Vaxx’ video stirs MAHA backlash
A video game billed as a “‘vaccine’ against disinformation” is drawing criticism for the “inoculation” strategies it employs — and ...
Hantavirus outbreak research: Trump administration shut down study last year on rodent-to-human transmission
In 2025 the Trump administration eliminated funding for a group that had been running a pilot project aimed at studying the type ...
“Evidence for puberty suppression and gender affirming hormones limited’: British doctors group questions early transitions but also opposes blocker ban
The BMA’s long awaited critique of the Cass review has largely vindicated the findings of the original landmark review into ...
Anti-vax activists falsely blame COVID vaccines for the rising U.S. cancer rate among younger people.
Websites and high-profile anti-vaccine activists are seizing on recently released U.S. government statistics showing a rise in cancers among young ...
Overmedicalization? RFK Jr.’s antidepressant crackdown raises conflict questions over his fee stake in Wisner Baum, the tort firm built on suing drug makers
Environmental lawyer and volunteer riverkeeper RFK Jr continues to make waves in his current job as head of the US ...
Viewpoint: Surge of climate misinformation traced to right wing and anti-wind activists
According to a report presented by UK-based think tank CASM Technology and WindEurope, a large ecosystem of actors, such as ...
Viewpoint: Internal White House documents detail administration’s strategy to undermine climate science
The second Trump administration is taking its hostility to climate science to new levels. In addition to its rhetoric dismissing ...
Vaccine shootout at the CDC
When President Trump named a new leadership team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention two weeks ago, public ...
