Category: Science and the Media

ABIM Logo

The ABIM vs. medical misinformation: Better late than never?

Last week, the New England Journal of Medicine published an editorial by the President of ABIM discussing how the board certification can be taken away from diplomates who spread medical misinformation. Is this too little, too late?

/ May 23, 2022

Columbia University finally cuts ties with America’s Quack Dr. Oz

Decades after Dr. Oz pioneered "integrating" quackery into medicine and after many years of promoting diet scams and quackery on a nationally syndicated daily television show, Columbia University appears finally to have had enough and has quietly downgraded his status. What took so long?

/ May 2, 2022
Dr Andrew Wakefield

Why is anyone surprised that there are so many antivax physicians?

A new survey suggests that a disturbingly high percentage of physicians are either vaccine hesitant or actually antivaccine. Those of us who have been writing about the antivaccine movement know that this is not new, but it seems new to our colleagues who weren't paying attention before the pandemic and assured themselves that the problem was just Andrew Wakefield. The question is:...

/ April 18, 2022

They Have Names

Reality is not "fear-based messaging", and fewer children will die moving forward if their parents know a bit more about what the virus can do and how the vaccine can keep children safe.

/ March 5, 2022

Medical Misinformation Falsely Links a Serious Infection to Leftover Chinese Food

A young man contracted a dangerous infection that was newsworthy, because it could have been prevented by a safe vaccine, but it had absolutely nothing to do with leftover Chinese food despite what is being promoted by a viral YouTube video and several news articles.

/ March 4, 2022

Dr. Vinay Prasad: “Public Health’s (Mis)Truth Problem”

Dr. Vinay Prasad continues to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt about the government response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

/ February 27, 2022
Kim Kardashian

John Ioannidis uses the Kardashian Index to attack critics of the Great Barrington Declaration

This isn't a title that I ever thought I'd use or a post that I ever thought I'd write, but John Ioannidis has really done it. He's incompetently used the Kardashian index to attack John Snow Memorandum signatories and argue that the Great Barrington Declaration signatories, who argue for a "natural herd immunity" approach to the COVID-19 pandemic, are the underdogs who...

/ February 14, 2022
Oz challenges Fauci to debate

“Debate me, bro!”: Debate challenges by science deniers in the age of COVID-19

Quacks, science deniers, and conspiracy theorists love to challenge doctors, scientists, and science communicators to "live public debates" over the science they deny. I just say no, and you should say no too if you are in a position to receive such a challenge.

/ January 31, 2022
Brownstone Institute

The “spiritual child of the Great Barrington Declaration” promotes antivaccine misinformation

The signatories of the Great Barrington Declaration and its "spiritual child" the Brownstone Institute, swear up and down that they are not anttivaccine. If that's so, why are Brownstone-affiliated academics spreading antivaccine misinformation in Uganda?

/ January 24, 2022

The Misinformation Dilemma

Is there a workable solution to the social media dilemma?

/ January 19, 2022