Science-Based Medicine

Denis Rancourt and “no virus”: COVID-19 symptoms were due psychological stress from the pandemic response! (Mo, 18 Mär 2024)
It's hard to believe that in the 21st century there are still those who deny that viruses exist. However, virus denial and antivax go together and always have. Denis Rancourt, while far from the first or more vociferous virus denier, is an excellent example. The post Denis Rancourt and “no virus”: COVID-19 symptoms were due psychological stress from the pandemic response! first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, April 2021: “The Central Problem Right Now I Think Is The Fear That People Still Feel About COVID.” (Sun, 17 Mar 2024)
Doctors portrayed those who tried to avoid the virus as pathetic, disordered weaklings, afflicted by irrational panic, fear, and anxiety. It only makes sense if you remember one thing, they wanted you infected. The post Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, April 2021: “The Central Problem Right Now I Think Is The Fear That People Still Feel About COVID.” first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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Skeptics in the Pub. Cholera. Chapter 12a (Sat, 16 Mar 2024)
I slept like a rock, no dreams that I could remember, and upon awakening, the ball of anxiety that had been my constant companion was gone. I tried to get it back by thinking of all the unpleasant things that might happen in the next few days. Nothing. I felt good. Acceptance is the final stage of dying, so I must, at […] The post Skeptics in the Pub. Cholera. Chapter 12a first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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Some Good, But Preliminary Real World Data on Those Baby RSV Shots (Fri, 15 Mar 2024)
The first post-rollout data for the RSV antibody shot looks pretty good, but far too many little ones missed out. The post Some Good, But Preliminary Real World Data on Those Baby RSV Shots first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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Parasite Cleanse (Wed, 13 Mar 2024)
Tik Tok is a cesspool of wellness pseudoscience and misinformation. All of social media has the potential to spread misinformation without any filter, but for some reason Tik Tok has become the preferred platform for the most outrageous claims and nonsense. A recent trend on Tik Tok (and within the wellness community generally) is the parasite cleanse. The idea is that many […] The post Parasite Cleanse first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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Dr. Martin Kulldorff, Who Posted Pictures of Guillotines and Promised Herd Immunity Would Arrive 3-6 Months After Lockdowns Ended, Fired for “Clinging to the Truth”. (Tue, 12 Mar 2024)
"Science cannot survive in a society that does not value truth and strive to discover it." The post Dr. Martin Kulldorff, Who Posted Pictures of Guillotines and Promised Herd Immunity Would Arrive 3-6 Months After Lockdowns Ended, Fired for “Clinging to the Truth”. first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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Prions. Why did it have to be prions? (Again.) (Mon, 11 Mar 2024)
Prions. Why did it have to be prions? (Again.) The antivax trope that vaccines cause prion disease is an old one, and antivaxxers are trying desperately to resurrect it to apply to COVID-19 vaccines. The post Prions. Why did it have to be prions? (Again.) first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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Skeptics in the Pub. Cholera. 11b (Sat, 09 Mar 2024)
I hopped the trolley to Kenton to spend the afternoon helping Susan with the quarantine. After I got off the trolley, I purchased thirty of the Extra Editions and handed them out to the families of the Cholera victims. Mostly because I wanted people to know about the seawater treatment, I figured that word about the pump water would spread quickly, and […] The post Skeptics in the Pub. Cholera. 11b first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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Pro-Infection Doctors Didn’t Honestly Question Whether Mitigation Measures Slowed COVID. They Sought To Undermine Them Precisely Because They Slowed COVID. (Fri, 08 Mar 2024)
Pro-infection doctors wanted them infected, and in this upside-down mirror world, the only policies that "helped" or "worked" were those that spread COVID. The post Pro-Infection Doctors Didn’t Honestly Question Whether Mitigation Measures Slowed COVID. They Sought To Undermine Them Precisely Because They Slowed COVID. first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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Hypervaccination (Wed, 06 Mar 2024)
What would happen if you were vaccinated 217 times against COVID? Let's find out. The post Hypervaccination first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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Fenbendazole is fast becoming the laetrile of the 2020s (Mon, 04 Mar 2024)
Antivaxxers who "repurposed" deworming drugs like ivermectin and fenbendazole are peddling cancer "miracle cure" testimonials that remind me of laetrile and Stanislaw Burzynski. Truly, everything old is new again. The post Fenbendazole is fast becoming the laetrile of the 2020s first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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Doctors Who Performatively Fetishized RCTs Aren’t Out to Advance Medical Research, But Rather to Sow Doubt & Mistrust (Sun, 03 Mar 2024)
Actually running an RCT is a lot harder than merely calling for one. Those who recognized this obvious fact are not against RCTs. The post Doctors Who Performatively Fetishized RCTs Aren’t Out to Advance Medical Research, But Rather to Sow Doubt & Mistrust first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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Skeptics in Pub. Cholera. Chapter 11a (Sat, 02 Mar 2024)
The morning started too early. For some reason, I snapped awake just before sunrise and could not fall back to sleep. Probably that ball of guilt in the pit of my stomach. I suspected it is a minor example of what a condemned man feels on the morning of his execution. I lay in bed and stared thoughtlessly at the ceiling waiting […] The post Skeptics in Pub. Cholera. Chapter 11a first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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More Evidence that Ignoring Safe Sleep Advice Puts Babies at Risk of Unexpected Death (Fri, 01 Mar 2024)
A new study of thousands of cases confirms that sharing a sleep surface with a caregiver significantly increases the risk of unexpected death in infancy. The post More Evidence that Ignoring Safe Sleep Advice Puts Babies at Risk of Unexpected Death first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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Quality differences of supplements vs. drugs (Thu, 29 Feb 2024)
When it comes to drugs or dietary supplements, accuracy should be a given. What’s on the label should accurately describe what’s in the bottle. No exceptions. When it comes to ensuring the products we buy are of high quality, we’re all effectively reliant on regulation to protect us. As a pharmacist, I can’t personally verify that each tablet in your prescription contains […] The post Quality differences of supplements vs. drugs first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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What Is Somatic Therapy? (Wed, 28 Feb 2024)
Is modern medicine descending into pseudoscience, or is scientific medicine still going strong? Unfortunately, I think both of these things can happen at the same time. On the one hand, scientific research in medicine is progressing nicely. We are seeing the results of scientific breakthroughs made decades ago, with monoclonal antibody therapies, new therapeutic targets, the beginning of real genetic therapy, brain-machine […] The post What Is Somatic Therapy? first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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How antivaxxers weaponize vaccine safety studies to falsely portray vaccines as dangerous (Mon, 26 Feb 2024)
Antivaxxers have weaponized a huge multinational vaccine safety study of 99 million patient records that found rare adverse events and concluded that the risks of COVID-19 vaccines outweigh the benefits. How? A combination of the Nirvana fallacy and spin. The post How antivaxxers weaponize vaccine safety studies to falsely portray vaccines as dangerous first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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Skeptics in the Pub. Cholera. Chapter 10b (Sat, 24 Feb 2024)
A young woman was waiting at the pump. She introduced herself as Amy Blogg, an Illustrator for the River Weekly. She quickly let us know that she had been briefed by Mrs. Howitt. I demonstrated the workings of the microscope on a blade of grass and an ant. It was met with the usual expressions of amazement by first-timer users. If I […] The post Skeptics in the Pub. Cholera. Chapter 10b first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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The Great Barrington Declaration Wasn’t a Plan For Public Health Officials. It Was a List of Absurd Demands of Them. (Fri, 23 Feb 2024)
The authors of the GBD advised and influenced many politicians at the highest level. They claim to have delineated many practical policies to protect the vulnerable, and they said it would’ve been possible, certainly. So an obvious question emerges. Why didn’t they protect the vulnerable? The post The Great Barrington Declaration Wasn’t a Plan For Public Health Officials. It Was a List of Absurd Demands of Them. first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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Pesticide in Oat Products – Should You Worry? (Wed, 21 Feb 2024)
You know the rule about headlines - if there is a question in a headline the answer is almost always "no". This article is no exception. The post Pesticide in Oat Products – Should You Worry? first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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More Unneeded Adjectives (Tue, 20 Feb 2024)
This is going to be a mostly reference free blog entry. Mostly a rambling opinion about my biases and opinions about science. And you know what they say about opinions. I seem to fret an inordinate amount about adjectives. So often they do not belong in front of the nouns found here at the blog. I remain a touch annoyed at the […] The post More Unneeded Adjectives first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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False balance in an NBC news story on whole body MRI scans (Mon, 19 Feb 2024)
Over the weekend, NBC News aired a story on whole body MRI scans. Although it did include the usual cautions about false positives and the harm they cause, the caution was diluted by the story's focus a rare case of a woman who had a brain tumor detected. Overall, it was false balance that reminded me of vaccine/autism stories 20 years ago. The post False balance in an NBC news story on whole body MRI scans first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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Science Based Satire: Sure, COVID Is Killing 1,500 Americans Per Week, But I Saw a Stranger Wearing a Mask…OUTSIDE! (Sun, 18 Feb 2024)
We shouldn't "give a shit" about COVID. Instead, we should care deeply about strangers who still "give a shit" about COVID. They need to be publicly mocked and shamed over and over again. The post Science Based Satire: Sure, COVID Is Killing 1,500 Americans Per Week, But I Saw a Stranger Wearing a Mask…OUTSIDE! first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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Skeptics in the Pub: Cholera. Chapter 10a (Sat, 17 Feb 2024)
When I woke up the next morning, I went for my usual tea and scone. Then I caught the trolley to work. When it reached the far side of the Steel Bridge, I hopped off. I took the steps down to the lower level and took the narrow walking path back across the river. I saw no one get off the trolley […] The post Skeptics in the Pub: Cholera. Chapter 10a first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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Music for Reducing Pain in Newborns (Fri, 16 Feb 2024)
Newborns are exposed to painful procedures for good reason every day. Treating pain is important in this population, and music might play a role. At least it definitely won't hurt. The post Music for Reducing Pain in Newborns first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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Adios Aduhelm (Thu, 15 Feb 2024)
The controversial and never-proven-effective drug to treat Alzheimer's disease, aducanumab (Aduhelm) has been discontinued. The post Adios Aduhelm first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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Mayo Clinic Promotes Reiki (Wed, 14 Feb 2024)
The Mayo Clinic is a prestigious medical institution with a deserved international reputation. It also promotes rank pseudoscience. It does this, apparently, for all the reasons we have explored here at SBM over the years. I have seen first hand how one or a few true believers can promote so-called alternative medicine at their institutions, meeting little resistance from colleagues and administrators […] The post Mayo Clinic Promotes Reiki first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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Yet more evidence that we physicians need to clean up our act (Mon, 12 Feb 2024)
A recent study found that physicians and scientists who are perceived as "experts" are prevalent within the antivax community and more influential because of their status as physicians and scientists. Why do physicians continue to tolerate antivax quacks within our ranks? The post Yet more evidence that we physicians need to clean up our act first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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Skeptics in the Pub. Cholera. Chapter 9b (Sat, 10 Feb 2024)
“You are here early,” he said. “Yeah. I’m trying to decide what to do about this pump and the seawater cure. So far, my attempts are falling flat.” I told him about the couple pumping water and my lack of success in stopping them from taking the water home. “No surprise,” said Bonham. “Water is supposed to be as safe as mothers” […] The post Skeptics in the Pub. Cholera. Chapter 9b first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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Dr. Kelly Brogan Wakes Up to the “Ball Earth Hoax”. What Does This Reveal About Prominent Professors From Prominent Medical Schools? (Fri, 09 Feb 2024)
What did I mean when I said Dr. Kelly Brogan "won the pandemic"? The post Dr. Kelly Brogan Wakes Up to the “Ball Earth Hoax”. What Does This Reveal About Prominent Professors From Prominent Medical Schools? first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.
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