Category: Public Health

Tennessee hamstrings medical board fight against COVID misinformation and unproven treatments

A new Tennessee law hampers the state medical board's efforts to rein in COVID misinformation and will make disciplining physicians prescribing unproven COVID treatments impossible until the board goes through cumbersome rule-making procedures, an effort that could outlast the pandemic.

/ December 16, 2021

Omicron

Omicron is the latest variant of concern. It's too early to know what this means, but there is reason for concern.

/ December 1, 2021
How RFK Jr. sees the members of ACIP and VRBPAC

Are the FDA’s VRBPAC and the CDC’s ACIP hopelessly compromised by conflicts of interest over COVID-19 vaccines?

The FDA's VRBPAC and the CDC's ACIP are the two main committees that approve vaccines to be sold in the US and issue recommendations regarding who should receive them and when. In the wake of the recent recommendation that children 5-11 receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is now portraying committee members as thralls of big pharma. But are...

/ November 29, 2021

The “Natural Immunity is Real Act”: Real or an act?

Republican legislators have proposed a law requiring federal agencies to acknowledge, accept, truthfully present and incorporate "consideration of natural immunity" in their COVID regulations. It's just political theatrics based on a flawed understanding of infection-induced "natural" immunity.

/ November 18, 2021

Third Dose Prevents Infection

The evidence is in. Booster shots work.

/ November 3, 2021
Ivermectin repurposing

Ivermectin is the new hydroxychloroquine, take 6: Incompetence and fraud everywhere!

Ivermectin is the new hydroxychloroquine, a drug repurposed for COVID-19 that almost certainly doesn't work but is still being touted as a "miracle cure" by quacks, grifters, and political ideologues. Are the data supporting it all fraud?

/ October 11, 2021

 Dr. Joseph Ladapo of “America’s Frontline Doctors” is now in charge of public health in Florida

Dr. Joseph Ladapo, a member of the fringe medical group "American's Frontline Doctors" and signer of the widely criticized Great Barrington Declaration, is Florida's new Surgeon General, appointed because he agrees with the dubious COVID-19 policies of Gov. DeSantis and, like the Governor, allows ideology to trump science.

/ September 23, 2021

Chipping Away at Vaccine Hesitancy

How to persuade the remaining unvaccinated.

/ September 22, 2021

Variants of Interest

The World Health Organization and medical experts are keeping an eye on new variants as the pandemic simmers on.

/ September 8, 2021

School mask mandate wars: Politics (Florida) v. Science (North Carolina)

Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, dictated a state-wide ban on school mask mandates based on misinformation and pure politics, while North Carolina officials took a bipartisan approach to masking based on science.

/ August 26, 2021