Results for: Ioannidis

NY puberty blocker article

What the New York Times gets wrong about puberty blockers for transgender youth

The New York Times recently published an article expressing grave concern about the use of puberty blockers to treat gender dysphoria in transgender adolescents. Unfortunately, the reporting ignored evidence and important context to weave a narrative portraying puberty blockers as far more risky than they actually are.

, / December 4, 2022

The Aseem Malhotra lecture isn’t what you think it is

In November 2022, Dr. Aseem Malhotra gave a lecture that was more about advancing a narrative than explaining the science.

/ December 3, 2022
The Cow-Pock

What does “antivaccine” really mean since the pandemic hit?

We frequently use terms like “antivaccine,” “antivax,” and “antivaxxers.” Critics think it’s a “gotcha” to ask how we define “antivax” or to accuse us of reflexively label "questioning" of vaccines as "antivax." It's not. There are gray areas, but not so gray that the word is never appropriate. Has anything changed since I first tried to define "antivaccine" in 2010? The answer:...

/ November 28, 2022

Was New York’s Spring 2020 COVID Wave an Illusion?

Asking for "evidence" that New York City got hit hard by COVID makes as much sense as asking for "evidence" that New York City exists in the first place.

/ November 18, 2022
Snake Oil apostates

The appeal of being a medical “apostate”

There has long been a huge appeal in medicine that derives from being an "apostate". Since COVID-19 hit, apostasy has become like a drug among too many doctors, and social media has amplified the popularity of "medical apostates" beyond anything I've seen previously.

/ November 7, 2022
Ducks quack

The making of COVID-19 “contrarian” doctors

In 2009, I tried to answer the question: How do doctors become quacks and antivaxxers? A Twitter encounter suggested to me that an update to that post is massively overdue.

/ October 24, 2022
Malhotra as Pee Wee Herman

“I know you are, but what am I?” Dr. Aseem Malhotra rails against COVID-19 “misinformation”

Projection is a common defense mechanism used by those spreading health misinformation and disinformation. Last week Dr. Aseem Malhotra published part 2 of a plan to cure "the pandemic of misinformation on COVID-19 mRNA vaccines through real evidence-based medicine". Unsurprisingly, it was chock full of antivaccine misinformation. It's a real "I know you are, but what am I?" exercise in disinformation.

/ October 3, 2022

Minimizing COVID Via Pseudo-Profound Bullshit

Some COVID-minimizers use "seemingly impressive assertions that are presented as true and meaningful but are actually vacuous" to fool people into thinking they are receiving profound, secret knowledge. It's actually just bullshit.

/ September 23, 2022

Dr. Vinay Prasad echoes a common antivax trope that portrays concern about a deadly disease as irrational fear

Before the pandemic, antivaxxers likened concern about childhood diseases to mental illness. In the age of COVID-19, Dr. Vinay Prasad accuses medicine of "legitimizing" irrational anxiety and says we should treat COVID like the flu—with one telling omission. In a recent paid Substack, he doubles down and accuses physicians and scientists of anxiety disorders that "interfere with people's lives".

/ September 19, 2022
SARS-CoV-2

Peer review fail: Vaccine publishes antivax propaganda disguised as “reanalyses” of Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial data

In order portray COVID-19 vaccines as dangerous, Peter Doshi has now managed to get poorly designed and performed "reanalyses" of the clinical trial data used by the FDA to grant emergency use approval of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines published in two reputable journals, The BMJ and Vaccine? What happened?

/ September 5, 2022