Science Controversies
How American COVID misinformation energized the global anti-vaccine conspiracy movement
The coronavirus crisis is energizing America’s anti-vaccine movement and expanding its reach. Even as countries and companies race to develop a safe ...
Brain fog: COVID’s lingering threat
It’s becoming known as Covid brain fog: troubling cognitive symptoms that can include memory loss, confusion, difficulty focusing, dizziness and ...
Viewpoint: Track and trace – Why China has entered a post-COVID period while US and many other countries remain mired in crisis
On [October 19, China] posted positive economic growth for the second quarter in a row, underlining how speedily the world's ...
Video: Viewpoint: The US wrote the global playbook on the coronavirus and then ignored it
A year ago, the United States was regarded as the country best prepared for a pandemic. Our government had spent ...
Plant-based meats can be labeled ‘burgers’ in Europe, encouraging consumers to eat fewer animal products
Veggie burger enthusiasts can rejoice after the European Parliament on [October 23] rejected a measure to ban use of the ...
Lessons from the 1918 Spanish flu: How does a pandemic end?
[I]n order for a pandemic to end, the disease in question has to reach a point at which it is ...
How much will vaccines help knowing COVID reinfection is possible?
[V]accines mimic a natural immune response, to the effect of developing long-term and in some cases lifelong immunity to reinfection ...
Brave Old World: Decriminalization of psychedelics for health and fun may be coming to a ballot near you
[T]here’s a seemingly small issue — only on the ballot in Oregon and the District of Columbia — that’s a sleeper, it seems to ...
Stem cell therapy for autism? The darker side of ‘quackademic medicine’
As bad as the embrace of naturopathy, traditional Chinese medicine, and even reiki and homeopathy by some institutions that would ...
Want to travel abroad? Airports and airlines prepping preflight COVID tests to circumvent 14-day quarantines
Airports and airlines are rushing to offer preflight Covid-19 testing to help passengers avoid 14-day quarantines imposed by certain states ...
Viewpoint: Great Barrington Declaration on herd immunity falsely suggests a scientific divide over if we can achieve it and how
[The Great Barrington Declaration] suggests that scientists fall into two camps: those who are pro-lockdown and those who think we ...
As independent scientists’ do-it-yourself-COVID-vaccines proliferate, bioethicists counter with warnings
"It's actually simpler than most recipes in home cookbooks," said Preston Estep, chief scientist and co-founder of a DIY [COVID ...
Viewpoint: Rush to develop COVID vaccine highlights failure of Europe’s GM crop regulations
In a recent article of mine published in the journal, Global Food Security, I highlight the EU’s reluctance to move ...
1 in 7 COVID patients have genetic flaws that dramatically increase their vulnerability
[S]cientists baffled by [COVID-19’s] ferocity have wondered whether the body’s vanguard virus fighter, a molecular messenger called type I interferon, ...
US and South Korea reported first COVID cases on the same day. They managed the pandemic; US didn’t. Here’s why
South Korea halted virus transmission better than any other wealthy country during the pandemic’s early months. It was about twice as effective ...
Science paradox: How the response to the pandemic has been infected by bias, overconfidence and politics
[W]hen people started falling ill last winter with a respiratory illness, some scientists guessed that a novel coronavirus was responsible ...
EU agriculture ministers back pro-organic Farm 2 Fork plan, but support gene editing to boost sustainable food production
The EU should make use of innovative breeding technologies to boost sustainability of food production, agriculture ministers agreed on [October ...
‘We cannot just be testing grounds’: COVID prompts African scientists to call for homegrown vaccines
African scientists say that the COVID-19 pandemic should be a wake-up call that prompts the continent to produce more of ...
America’s sordid history of forced sterilization
On September 14, advocacy groups filed a complaint that accused the Irwin County Detention Center, which houses immigrants for federal Immigration and ...
Despite activist opposition, Ghana’s scientists seek government approval for GM insect-resistant cowpea
The Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) has announced it will in November officially request approval from the National Biosafety Authority ...
How COVID causes delirium
[A]bout half of [COVID] patients report neurological symptoms, including headaches, confusion and delirium, suggesting the virus may also attack the ...
Validating full safety of vaccines might take months but effectiveness judgements likely soon
The global campaign to identify effective vaccines against COVID-19 has entered the final stage of testing for regulatory approval—Phase III ...
Gene-edited crops approved by USDA jumps from 7 to 70 between 2019 and 2020
Signaling progress for a new kind of crop engineering, the biotech crop trait firm Cibus says it will move forward ...
5 recommendations on cutting through the COVID social media ‘infodemic’
Here are five recommendations based on our research about medical misinformation at the Shorenstein Center: … Debunking every rumor, every ...
Slideshow: Canine COVID detectors soon may be coming to an airport or business near you
There are various ongoing efforts to train sniffer dogs to detect covid-19, the disease caused by coronavirus. If dogs prove to be reliable in detecting ...
Conflicting studies on effectiveness of Trump’s favorite drug – remdesivir – in battling COVID? Let’s disentangle this controversy
[One New England Journal of Medicine study tells] us that remdesivir works in the fight against COVID-19. A few days later, ...
Are vaccines now in development safe? The companies making them uniformly won’t release data
It’s standard for drug companies to withhold details of clinical trials until after they are completed, tenaciously guarding their intellectual ...
