Science Controversies
‘The New Apartheid’? Conspiracist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr’s latest anti-vaccine film spins real history of medical racism to scare Black Americans into rejecting COVID shots
[The film “Medical Racism: The New Apartheid”] is the latest effort by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the founder of Children's ...
Here’s why mixing and matching shots is likely superior than using just one brand
Vaccinating people with both the Oxford–AstraZeneca and Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines produces a potent immune response against the virus SARS-CoV-2, researchers ...
While much of the world moves towards mandatory vaccine passports, the US rejects them. Here is a less intrusive alternative that could enhance public safety: CDC vaccination cards
Rather than waste any more time squabbling over passports, which aren’t going to be created at a national level, let’s ...
Viewpoint: Reassessing the reassessments of COVID’s origins — The Wuhan lab leak theory is still the less likely scenario but we may never know for sure
How did the pandemic start? From the early days, experts have considered two possibilities. Either the virus somehow escaped from ...
Who bungled their nation’s COVID response the most? 5 world leaders in the running, and why
COVID-19 is notoriously hard to control, and political leaders are only part of the calculus when it comes to pandemic ...
Infographic: Asians are the most likely ethnic group to get vaccinated — but Hispanic and Black Americans lag behind
To date, vaccination rates among Black and Hispanic people have lagged behind those of White people, largely due to access ...
Should I wear a mask? More than one year into the pandemic, science provides updated advice
The evidence is clear that masks cut down on COVID-19 deaths, but nearly a year and a half into the ...
Viewpoint: Soon-to-be-required bioengineered food label is ‘in the worst traditions of government meddling’
A very bad regulation is coming. Here's the short of it. In 2016 Congress passed the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure ...
After a fertility clinic freezer filled with 3,500 frozen eggs and embryos malfunctioned, many families lost their only chance at having kids. A jury just awarded them $15 million in damages
[In March 2018, a] tank storing frozen human embryos and eggs at Pacific Fertility Center in San Francisco had failed, ...
7 people contract malaria every second. We are finally on the verge of engineering a vaccine to stymie one of the world’s most relentless killers
In a study published in The Lancet on [May 5th] an international team has shared promising new data on a ...
‘Holy sh–, it works’: How an out-of-the-box UK COVID recovery trial evaluating a common drug has saved a million lives
[Epidemiologist Peter Horby’s] summary was pithy. “Holy shit, it works.” On June 16 [2020], after verifying the data, the Recovery ...
Top China virologist who conducts risky experiments in Wuhan with bat coronaviruses rejects lab leak theory
Shi Zhengli, a top Chinese virologist, is once again at the center of clashing narratives about her research on coronaviruses ...
Vitamin D supplements do not reduce COVID risk, genetic study of people of European ancestry suggests
[A] new genetic study suggests that giving people extra vitamin D may not protect against coronavirus infection or COVID-19. In ...
COVID side-effect: Many of us are more interested in brand names of companies that make our medications. Here’s why that could be a good development
In a new survey, my company, M Booth Health, found that a seismic shift has already begun. People are changing ...
The pandemic has roiled international surrogacy. What’s an ethical path going forward?
[T]he pandemic has created new challenges to engaging in international surrogacy ethically due to changes in how healthcare is administered, ...
Video: China boasted about its bat cave virus research — before denying its existence. Here’s the government’s propaganda short issued in December, weeks before the outbreak became public
In [a video released by the Chinese government,] researchers scale [a] cavern wall, their headlamps ghostly blue. “If our skin ...
‘It does not violate the Nuremberg Code’: Judge throws out suit by Houston medical workers protesting mandated COVID vaccines
A federal judge tossed out a lawsuit from more than 100 hospital employees who sued Houston Methodist over its policy ...
Viewpoint: Why loosening rules on human embryo use in stem cell research was a good move
Most scientists want clear boundaries delineating which experiments [on human embryos] are acceptable, both legally and to society. And the ...
A cure for COVID? Scientists now think it’s possible, and it may come soon
Doctors have some medications they can use to treat the effects of COVID-19, but developing a drug that targets the ...
‘They can put a key on their forehead. It sticks’: Ohio GOP embraces crackpot doctor’s view that COVID vaccines magnetize people and interface with 5G towers
[Cleveland-based doctor Sherri Tennpenny, an] anti-vaccination advocate known for spreading unfounded claims falsely told legislators that [COVID shots] could leave ...
Wait and see: Many parents remain cautious about getting their teens COVID vaccinated
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on [May 12] recommended the use of Pfizer/BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine in 12- ...
‘This was the first time nobody voted for approval of a drug’: Neurologist on FDA panel that negatively evaluated controversial Alzheimer’s drug aducanumab resigns after agency pushes through approval
Neurologist Joel Perlmutter of Washington University in St. Louis, a member of the FDA’s expert panel for nervous system therapies, ...
A pill for breast cancer? There’s one for early-stage patients with aggressive cases — and it works
A drug sold by AstraZeneca and Merck & Co. reduced the recurrence of breast cancer in women with an early ...
At least 80% COVID vaccine coverage is needed to significantly lower risk of ‘imported’ coronavirus variants, WHO says
COVID-19 vaccination coverage of at least 80% is needed to significantly lower the risk that “imported” coronavirus cases like those ...
Russia approves first animal COVID vaccine to protect vulnerable species and thwart viral mutations
While many scientists say the virus causing covid-19 initially jumped from bats to humans, perhaps through another intermediary, infections have ...
COVID is outsmarting our immune systems — and it’s rendering essential monoclonal antibody treatments less effective
The use of monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of COVID gained national and international attention last October, when President Trump ...
From smelly roadside nuisance to key biofuel crop? How gene editing could transform stinkweed into an essential canola alternative
Botanists, businessmen, farmers and federal lawmakers, they all gathered to peer at the waist-high plant usually considered a pest and ...
