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.
Viewpoint: A plastic surgeon on why banning gender-transition surgery without further research is wrong and harmful
In [February, 2026], [The American Society of Plastic Surgeons] ASPS, a society for which I previously served on the Board ...
Cancer health facts are particularly susceptible to online misinformation
For someone who has just received a cancer diagnosis, the internet can become both a source of comfort and confusion ...
Snake-oil cures throughout history
From drinking excessive quantities of salt water during the Ebola outbreak to consuming horse urine and cow dung during the ...
Using AI for health questions? Here are 4 tips for the most accurate answers.
If you want to start, or continue using, a chatbot for your health questions, take these expert-recommended steps as you ...
Viewpoint: In abortion-restricting Florida, misinformation abounds when Republican congresswoman faces an ectopic pregnancy
In a recent interview with Tara Palmeri, Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., was unexpectedly asked about the life-threatening ectopic pregnancy she experienced ...
AI being mobilized to target misinformation about vaccines–on AI
Artificial intelligence doesn’t have a great reputation for veracity. Social media abounds with AI-generated concoctions, from cute images of fake ...
Belief in unproven dietary regimes, vitamins, and crank therapies is putting patients’ health in danger and increasing the risk of getting cancer
Social media misinformation about the use of dietary supplements such as turmeric, St John’s wort and magnesium is now so ...
X rolls out direct messages to users who interact with misinformation
X is no longer hoping you’ll stumble across a fact-check on your own. The platform’s Community Notes system now actively ...
Viewpoint: 21 worthless wellness trends inspired by RFK, Jr.’s ill-informed MAHA followers that can harm or even kill you.
Somewhere along the way, "wellness" went from drinking water and getting enough sleep to taking medical advice from a "looksmaxxing ...
Deeply-flawed ivermectin study revives scientifically unsupported miracle cancer drug myth
Though researchers have been studying the animal deworming drug ivermectin for decades, there is no evidence that it's a safe ...
Do cold plunges and contrast therapy work?
Images of people jumping from icy plunge baths after a period in saunas or hot tubs are heating up social ...
2,300 endangered species: Controversial de-extinction company Colossal Biosciences joins U.S. effort to preserve their DNA
The Trump administration and a company that is promising to bring long-gone animals back from extinction announced a partnership on ...
Kennedy-founded Children’s Health Defense doubles down on support for Idaho mother charged by a grand jury with murdering her twins last year after claiming vaccines killed them
An Idaho mother who said her 18-month-old twins died last year after receiving three vaccines has been charged with murder ...
Signal or noise? Study links GLP-1 drugs to slowing the aging process
A theory that GLP-1 medications like Ozempic or Zepbound might help people live longer has been bandied about by biohackers ...
What happens when a pro-life congresswoman needs an abortion?
Tara Palmeri sits down with Republican Congresswoman Kat Cammack of Florida for a wide-ranging and unusually candid conversation. ... In ...
Kennedy blocks preventive health care panel that reviews treatments for HIV, diabetes, and cancer from meeting — for fourth time
For the fourth time, the Trump administration has prevented an important public health panel from meeting as planned. The panel, ...
Viewpoint: Oxygen chambers? Pulsed electromagnetic field therapy? The only thing biohacking improves is the bottom line of preventative medicine hucksters
... [A]longside valuable services such as physiotherapy, dietitian support and exercise programs, increasingly trendy interventions pop up: IV vitamin infusions, ...
700,000-person study reaffirms that getting a flu and Covid shot on the same day is safe
Getting the flu vaccine and COVID shot on the same day doesn't increase the risk of adverse reactions, according to ...
AI is making even its founders uneasy: ‘We find evidence of introspection, joy, satisfaction, fear, grief and unease.’
Anthropic, Google and Meta have over the past year hired computer scientists, neuroscientists and philosophers to study concepts like the ...
Technical milestone or designer baby obsession: Latest gene-editing advance reignites a familiar ethical debate
Scientists at Columbia University have used a precise gene-editing tool, base editing, to make changes in three disease-linked genes in ...
Misnamed ‘medical freedom’ movement stalls in Florida as Republicans fail to advance legislation ending school vaccine mandates
Every state, along with Washington, D.C., requires children to obtain certain vaccinations before they can attend school or childcare. These ...
Is Ebola a hoax created by fake humanitarians to steal African land and resources? Disinformation sweeps through the Congo.Â
As Ebola virus disease sweeps through the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the surrounding region, healthcare workers aren’t ...
Viewpoint: Weaponizing misinformation
There are moments in global debates when a concept becomes so technical, institutional, and wrapped in the language of risk ...
‘Trust, access, and equity’: After billions of doses worldwide, yet another review of COVID vaccine confirms its safety and effectiveness
A comprehensive review of the billions of COVID-19 vaccine doses made with mRNA technology shows that these vaccines are safe ...
Independent news review site launches free credibility and fact-vetted aggregation chatbot
NewsGuard AI is the only chatbot specializing in providing reliable responses to prompts about topics in the news. The large ...
PEW study: The sick state of American health information
Most Americans say it’s important to be healthy, but fewer think they are doing a good job at managing their ...
From infrared sauna blankets to collagen gummies, here’s the top 10 social-media-promoted wellness shams
The wellness industry has become a multi-billion-dollar business built around one simple promise: feeling better. Better sleep. Better skin. Better ...
