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AUGUST, 2026

Featured topic: Trump executive order on vaccines

Steven Novella (Science-Based Medicine): “Trump's frontal assault on vaccines.”
“Orac” (Respectful Insolence): “'Gold Standard Science' on vaccines? More like gold-plated nonsense.”
Consumer Health Digest: “President Trump's executive order and comments on childhood vaccination are lambasted.” Links to statements by seven medical organizations are given.
New York Times: “Trump signs executive order calling for fewer childhood vaccines.”
New York Times: “Fact-checking the Trump administration’s claims about vaccines.”
Ars Technica: “Trump signs bonkers order that cuts vaccines, promotes ones that don’t exist.”
Ars Technica: “Trump wants Big Pharm to split MMR vaccine; Big Pharma thinks it’s idiotic.”
CNN: “Fact check: Trump makes numerous false and misleading claims about vaccines and autism.”
American Council on Science and Health: “Weaponizing "Gold Standard" science to undermine childhood vaccines.”
ABC News: “GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy on Trump’s vaccine executive order: ‘This is just a stupid thing to do’.”
Politico: “’The MMR vaccine is not a lethal vaccine,’ Mehmet Oz says.”

Other topics

On Science-Based Medicine,

Jann Bellamy:

“The Council on Chiropractic Education reaffirms the subluxation, backs off primary care (sort of).”

Scott Gavura:

“New cautions about vitamin B6 and peripheral neuropathy.” “The potential for high doses of vitamin B6 to cause neurotoxicity is well established: typically at doses of 250 mg/day and higher. What is newer, and considerably less clear, is the suggestion that neuropathy may occur at much lower doses, including around 10 mg/day.”

David Gorski:

“Montana’s new 'right to try': Opening the door to profit from unproven drugs.” “While other jurisdictions with similar laws limit access to drugs to people with terminal illness, in Montana access is theoretically available to anyone who gives informed consent and can pay.”
“Cancer quackery: Under MAHA, everything old is new again.” “A viral Instagram post claims that cancer is not a disease, but rather a defense mechanism against ‘toxins’.”

Steven Novella:

“AI and pseudoscience.” Using homeopathy as an example, Novella discussed how the prompts given to a chatbot affect the answers given.

On Respectful Insolence, “Orac”:

“Oprah tries (unsuccessfully) to distance herself from Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil.” “Oprah spent 25 years promoting all manner of pseudoscience, conspiracy theories, and quackery on her show, becoming incredibly wealthy, famous, and influential in the process. Whether it was Satanic panic, New Age mysticism like The Secret (even when it led to a breast cancer patient foregoing effective treatment), antivax propaganda from Jenny McCarthy, or the various quackery featured on her show, she promoted it all cheerfully and shamelessly.”

Edzard Ernst:

“Is it wrong to research implausible treatments? The example of autologous blood therapy.” “If intramuscular blood truly strengthened the immune system or cured chronic conditions, populations prone to frequent bruising would demonstrate superior immunity, lower rates of autoimmune diseases, and better general health. I know of no epidemiological or clinical evidence supports this. Ultimately, the body makes no distinction between blood entering muscle tissue via a needle or a physical blow. In both cases, it recognizes a local haematoma that must be cleared away. I find this interesting and relevant. It seems to confirm that ABT is a most implausible therapy.”
“88% of retracted papermill articles originate in China.” “On this blog I have often been critical about the reliability of Chinese research.”
“Fundamental dishonesty: The practice of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM).” Examples from acupuncture, chiropractic, naturopathy, and homeopathy were discussed. “Fundamental dishonesty in SCAM does not need to take the form of outright lies. It is usually much more subtle consisting of presenting speculation as fact, anecdotes as evidence, tradition as validation, and implausible theories as medical knowledge. It flourishes through omission rather than fabrication.”
“Herbal treatment for 'male climacteric syndrome'?” “Considering that MCS is an imagined condition, it stands to reason that sooner or later all sorts of alternative treatments will be promoted as its cure. The authors of this study did therefore very well to demonstrate that for an imagined disease an imagined treatment is not better than placebo.”
“The growing scandal of research into Traditional Chinese Medicine.” “This analysis confirms what I have been regularly complaining about: the often dismal methodological quality of trials of Traditional Chinese Medicine and specifically CHM [Chinese herbal medicine]. Such studies tend to produce false positive results. This means we are being continuously being misled by them. If we add to this knowledge the fact that the vast majority of research from China contains data that is fabricated, we must ask ourselves whether it is worth our while to even consider these papers.”
“Acupuncture for cancer-related fatigue?” “I have discussed the A+B vs B design ad nauseam on this blog. Suffice to say, it is popular mainly because it cannot generate a negative finding. Even assuming that A is a placebo, the result of such a trial will always be positive unless A is also significantly harmful. So, yet again, I feel I need to re-phrase the conclusions of a study; I suggest something like this: As the design of this study did not allow us to control for placebo effects, we cannot tell whether acupuncture per se or a placebo effect significantly reduced CRF in BCS with effect sizes exceeding minimal clinically important differences for both CFQ14/11 and FSS.”
“Sequential bilateral pneumothorax following acupuncture.” “Hundreds of cases are on record where acupuncture has caused pneumothorax…As always, we need to ask critically: does the treatment outweigh its risks? Pneumothorax is serious and not that rare…The benefits of acupuncture are highly disputed? So, what is the risk/benefit balance? I fail to see that it is solidly positive.”
“My ‘open letter’ to the BBC about misreporting on acupuncture.”
“Reiki for chronic knee pain?” “I feel that the utter implausibility of Reiki needs much stronger evidence to even tempt me thinking of it as an effective intervention. I also happen to think (even know) that patients who suffer from KOA (or any other pain or symptom) require a causal diagnosis and subsequently a causal therapy rather that Reiki or any other form of implausible paranormal healing.”
“Yet another case of vertebral artery dissection following cervical manipulation by a chiropractor.”
“Tiny needles, major benefits: acupuncture in child health.” “What attracted me to reading this paper, was its title…It clearly announces results relating to the BENEFITS of acupuncture. Yet, the paper offers nothing in that regard. What it does show, however, is that acupuncture and TCM [traditional Chinese medicine] are subjects of propaganda and export revenue for China. Because of this, Chinese authors working in this field would never dream of questioning the beliefs of their peers. On the contrary, they do ‘research’ with the aim of confirming the assumption that TCM is effective for everything. And if the data do not happen to support this notion, they simply invent. What seems particularly depressing in all this is the fact that more and more reputable journals are willing to publish such rubbish.”
“Ginseng for cognitive function in elderly adults with mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, or dementia.” “The paper suggests that panax ginseng is effective in improving cognitive function. Should we now all rush to the next healthfood store and buy some panax ginseng supplements? I don’t think so: The effect size was small and not clinically relevant. Mild cognitive impairment is not dementia; lumping them together might generate unreliable results. The methodological quality of the primary studies was often poor. Several studies were industry-sponsored. Poor quality and conflicts of interest lead to a false-positive overall findings. Thus it is possible – I’d say likely – that Panax ginseng has no effect at all and the marginally positive effect was due to bias in the primary studies.”
“The use of high-velocity, low-amplitude techniques in paediatric osteopathic care.” “The question, whether and how often osteopaths use HVLA for treating children is relevant. So, does this paper answer it? No! Why not? Because surveys with a response rate of 11% can never provide a meaningful answer to anything…So, what does this paper actually tell us? It might tell us that some osteopaths are concerned about the harm that can be done when using HVLA. It furthermore might tell us that osteopaths are not very cooperative when it comes to assessing HVLA use. Finally, it implies that researchers of osteopathy have little idea what constitutes publishable research.”
“The 'Lightning Process' – a new trial is starting.” “LP is a commercial programme developed by Phil Parker based on ideas from osteopathy, life coaching and neuro-linguistic programming.” The new trial will test the Lightning Process for long COVID. “By investigating a proprietary, fee-based intervention without incorporating objective biological markers, the trial risks lending academic legitimacy to bogus quackery. In other words, it is debatable whether a study of a treatment as implausible as LP is needed at all. However, if a trial were to be conducted, it would seem to be essential that it is rigorous with as little room for bias as possible. To be blunt: the new study is not going to advance our knowledge one iota.”
“Didier Raoult is in the news again.” “He famously published irreproducible findings claiming that hydroxychloroquine worked for Covid… A new analysis reported ‘substantial’ ethical and legal concerns in 853 (!) articles from the Marseille institute IHU Méditerranée Infection (IHU‑Mi), far more than previously flagged. The institute’s founder, Didier Raoult, is listed as a co‑author on 758 of those papers.”
“Are conflicts of interest in manual therapy trials for low back pain transparent?” “This is an interesting piece of research. It suggests that trialists in the area of manual therapy for LBP often fail to fully declare their COIs. While this is concerning, the true situation might be far worse. I have often pointed out that, in my experience, the strongest COI in the realm of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) is ideological. SCAM researchers are regularly driven by a belief in the therapy they are investigating. This results in their determination to show that it is as effective as they believe it to be. Consequently, bias creeps into their research without them even realising it. The outcome is predictable: false positive studies that may look rigorous but are not worth the paper they are published on.”
“Transcendental Meditation (TM): plenty of positive evidence … false-positive, most likely!” “So, we have hundreds of sponsored TM studies that suggest TM works, and relatively few independent trials that cast doubt on that notion. How can this be? Here are a few possible explanations: In sponsored research, null or negative results are typically shelved rather than submitted for publication (the ‘file-drawer effect). TM-affiliated studies heavily rely on passive control groups (e.g., waiting lists) and pre-selected participants who are already favorably disposed toward the practice. When active controls (like general relaxation, light exercise, or health education) and randomized non-pre-selected groups are used, TM’s distinct positive effects often disappear. A significant portion of positive, sponsored TM research is published in internal or TM-friendly niche journals where peer review is conducted by researchers affiliated with the movement, avoiding rigorous independent scrutiny.”
“Therapeutic touch for labor pain? No, thanks!” “This must be one of the weirdest conclusions I read for a long time! The fact that ‘no statistically significant difference was found between therapeutic touch and distraction’ clearly shows that the advantage of verum over routine care must be due to placebo and other non-specific effects. In other words, the trial does not show the effectiveness of therapeutic touch but its ineffectiveness.”
“The remarkable resilience of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM).” “Conventional medicine, for all its shortcomings, is characterised by an inherent willingness to abandon ineffective or unsafe practices when evidence demands it. Homeopathy and SCAM in general, by contrast, have shown a remarkable resilience in preserving their beliefs irrespective of the data. This divergence stems from fundamentally different epistemologies: one rooted in self-correction, the other in belief systems insulated from such activity.”
“Recommendations for history taking, examination and clinical management of infants in chiropractic practice.” “…The recommendations failed, in my view, to mention the most essential requirement for medical history taking, red flag screening, general and musculoskeletal examination, referral, and clinical management considerations for infants. It is this one: Unless you can prove to be competent by having studied medicine and subsequently specialised in paediatrics – which, as a chiropractor, you clearly cannot – do not do anything with the infant and refer the child to someone who is fully competent to deal with it.”

On McGill Office for Science and Society, Jonathan Jarry:

“The wild theory that Alzheimer's is a plumbing issue.” “A new surgery was devised in China to treat Alzheimer’s disease. It is based on the unproven theory that improving drainage of brain fluids through the neck will clear up the proteins that accumulate in the brain of Alzheimer’s patients. Skepticism is warranted, as the studies have been small, lack control groups, and the reported improvements appear too good to be true.”
“The BioCharger is a wellness talisman.” “The BioCharger is a wellness gadget built around a Tesla coil, and it is claimed to emit light, frequencies, harmonics, electromagnetic energy, and voltage to help your body heal itself. There are no readily available studies of the potential health benefits of this machine, which is not an approved medical device but a ‘health optimization platform,’ a meaningless phrase. It is based on the false notion that disease is caused by altered voltage in our cells and that so-called good frequencies can bring us back to health.”

August 10 – Stuart Vyse (Skeptical Inquirer): “California endorses dangerous autism pseudoscience.” “The techniques are commonly known as facilitated communication, rapid prompting method, and spelling to communicate, and they are associated with numerous false claims of sexual abuse and at least one high-profile case of real sexual abuse of a man with cerebral palsy. These techniques are not supported by scientific evidence and—for obvious reasons—are opposed by the American Psychological Association, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and dozens of other professional and advocacy organizations worldwide.”

August 20 – Kevin Folta and Mujahid Hussain (Skeptical Inquirer): “Structured water: Distilling the science from the non-potable claims.” “There have long been people selling products with claims that exceed the fundamental laws of the physical universe to solve a manufactured problem. In this case, we have claims about a hypothetical state of matter that the physical chemists missed and that nobody can detect; yet there’s an expensive machine you can buy to generate it. The cost of credulity can reach into the thousands.”

August 25 – ProPublica: “Children in a faith-healing sect keep dying. The state lets it happen.” “Almost every year since 2015, Idaho children in a faith-healing sect have died of treatable conditions such as pneumonia and bacterial infections that turned to sepsis.”

August 25 – Lara Salahi (Association of Health Care Journalists): “Can nonverbal people accurately communicate through technology? Here’s what the science says.” “In June, the National Autism Center and May Institute issued a position statement concluding that S2C [Spelling to Communicate], RPM [Rapid Prompting Method] and Facilitated Communication lack established empirical evidence demonstrating that the methods reliably produce independently generated communication.”

August 27 – Nick Tiller (Skeptical Inquirer): “From GLP-1s to BPC-157: Inside the peptide boom.” “Experimental peptides therefore occupy a strange kind of gray market: they have legitimate uses as lab reagents, yet versions of those same substances are widely promoted and sold for human use even though they lack safety, efficacy, and quality.”

August 28 – Paul Knoepfler (The Niche): “Key FDA victory on stem cell clinics: permanent injunction against Cell Surgical Network, et al.” “I felt all along that the product, called stromal vascular fraction or SVF, should be classified as a drug. In my view, the production of SVF from adipose tissue harvested by a mini-liposuction-like procedure and digested with enzyme changed the inherent nature of the cells.”

August 29 – Celebrities are raving about full-body scans. Doctors urge caution.” “Healthy bodies commonly contain lumps, scars and masses that are not harmful. A scan might detect something that prompts a patient to undergo more testing or procedures, only to find out that it was benign — a noncancerous cyst or lump, for example…False positives can lead to biopsies, extensive monitoring and, possibly, unnecessary surgeries…”

Addition to previous month

July 30 – Daniel Gilbert and others (CBS News): “Judge sentences peptide vendor to nearly 6 years in prison for ‘an incredible trail of harm’." “Matthew Kawa, who ran Paradigm Peptides, pleaded guilty last year to selling unapproved drugs and illegally importing them from abroad.” The drugs were advertised as made in the US. Some were adulterated with testosterone.

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