All posts by David Gorski

Dr. Gorski's full information can be found here, along with information for patients. David H. Gorski, MD, PhD, FACS is a surgical oncologist at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute specializing in breast cancer surgery, where he also serves as the American College of Surgeons Committee on Cancer Liaison Physician as well as an Associate Professor of Surgery and member of the faculty of the Graduate Program in Cancer Biology at Wayne State University. If you are a potential patient and found this page through a Google search, please check out Dr. Gorski's biographical information, disclaimers regarding his writings, and notice to patients here.

Autism Awareness Month

Autism prevalence increases to 1 in 38, and antivaxxers blame vaccines without using the word “vaccine”

The CDC updated its estimates for the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders. Predictably, antivaxxers blame the increasing prevalence of ASDs reported, particularly in Black children, on "environmental factors," which is antivax code for, "Vaccines are to blame."

/ March 27, 2023
Ivermectin horse paste

Ivermectin is now fast becoming the new MMS

A recent VICE story described a Telegram channel devoted to promoting veterinary ivermectin to treat autism. It has echoes of autism quackery going back at least to the use of MMS (a kind of bleach) to "cure" autism by eliminating "parasites."

/ March 20, 2023
Cochrane Collaborative

The Cochrane mask fiasco: How the evidence-based medicine paradigm can produce misleading results

Last week, the Cochrane Collaborative was forced to walk back the conclusions of a review by Tom Jefferson et al that had been spun in the media as proving that "masks don't work." Tom Jefferson himself has been problematic about vaccines for a long time, but the rot goes deeper. What is it about the evidence-based medicine paradigm that results in misleading...

/ March 13, 2023

Ivermectin booster Dr. Tess Lawrie goes all-in for homeopathy for COVID and long COVID

Tess Lawrie has been promoting ivermectin for COVID-19 for two and a half years. Of late, she has becoming more of a general multipurpose quack, promoting ivermectin to treat cancer. Now she's promoting homeopathy for COVID and long COVID while a Research Fellow at St. Mary's University Twickenham. What does this tell us about medicine?

/ March 6, 2023
Andrew Wakefield.

Andrew Wakefield after 25 years: Paving the way for COVID-19 quacks and antivaxxers

It was 25 years ago yesterday that Andrew Wakefield launched the modern iteration of the antivaccine movement.In doing so, he laid down a template that antivax quacks today still follow.

/ February 27, 2023
The Great Barrington Trio

Brownstone Institute admits that the Great Barrington Declaration was wrong (without actually admitting it was wrong)

The Brownstone Institute's Gabrielle Bauer claims vindication for the Great Barrington Declaration, the October 2020 document that advocated a "natural herd immunity" pandemic strategy, with an ill-defined "focused protection" strategy to protect those most at risk of death. In the fine print, however, Bauer tacitly admits that its core assumption was badly mistaken, minimizing it as not getting all the "details" right.

/ February 20, 2023
Babies

Vaccines and infant mortality rates: A false relationship promoted by the antivaxxers…again, 12 years later

Since COVID-19, in the antivax world everything old is new again. Even hoary chestnuts of bad science used 12 years ago to falsely claim that vaccines kill babies. That's right, Gary S. Goldman and Neil Z. Miller are back to defend their 2011 "study," and RFK Jr. is flogging it as slam-dunk "evidence" that vaccines kill babies.

/ February 13, 2023
Virulent

Virulent: The Vaccine War – Q&A with Drs. Steven Novella & David Gorski

Dr. Gorski and Dr. Novella join director/editor/producer Tjardus Greidanus, whose documentary Virulent: The Vaccine War examines the rise of the antivaccine movement before and after the pandemic.

/ February 9, 2023
Deaths from COVID-19

COVID-19 is a leading cause of death among children, but that doesn’t stop some of my colleagues from arguing against vaccinating them

Contrary to what the "COVID-19 isn't a threat to children" contingent says, COVID-19 is a leading cause of death among children. Yet "not antivax" doctors continue, either unknowingly or knowingly, recycle old antivax tropes to argue against vaccinating children against this disease.

/ February 6, 2023

Tess Lawrie: Ivermectin isn’t just for COVID-19 but cures cancer too!

In a turn that should surprise exactly no one, the BIRD Group's Tess Lawrie effortlessly pivots from promoting ivermectin as a cure for COVID-19 to promoting it as a cure for cancer. It's another example of how single-issue quacks almost inevitably embrace more diverse quackery.

/ January 23, 2023