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.
‘Realistic and durable’: EPA proposes loosening restrictions on some PFAS ‘forever chemicals.’
The Trump administration ... moved to partially roll back drinking water protections from toxic “forever chemicals.” The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ...
Is surrogacy modern-day slavery? What to know about Florida Republican effort to pass severe restrictions.
Attorney General James Uthmeier, inserting himself into what had been a standard surrogacy case, is arguing that surrogacy is unconstitutional. The case ...
‘Implausible’: Top climate scientists reject worst-case scenario—soaring temperatures and fast-rising sea levels
For more than a decade, as scientists tried to evaluate just how much the planet might warm by the end ...
Chiropractors may no longer be modern-day snake oil salesmen, but the benefits of their therapy are limited–at best
Roughly 11 percent of American adults saw a chiropractor in 2022, mainly for pain management. Chiropractic care is offered by ...
Sharp rise in number of parents refusing newborn vitamin K shots, putting babies at 81-fold higher risk of severe bleeding
In the hours after birth, newborns are typically given a shot of vitamin K, which they are naturally deficient of ...
Viewpoint: Doctors can fight health misinformation — if hospitals let them
Health misinformation is a public health problem. According to KFF, more than half of U.S. adults say they get health ...
Social media’s health advice red flags
Researchers ... looked at the social media profiles of 6,828 health and wellness influencers with at least 100,000 followers. Only ...
Viewpoint: No, sugar doesn’t ‘feed’ cancer — common cancer myths, debunked
From avoiding sugar completely to fearing microwaves and mammograms, cancer is surrounded by myths that continue to create panic and ...
Viewpoint—‘Technology is pulling us apart’: Environmental, political, and economic
It could be the relentless news agenda, but the news has been relentless throughout my 11 years as editor-in-chief of ...
West-originated vaccine disinformation sparks murders of health care workers across Africa
Late last year, rumors spread through the villages of Tshopo, a northeastern Congolese province covered in tropical forests, that a ...
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 ...
