APRIL 2020 NEWS

Featured topic: coronavirus pseudoscience

On Science-Based Medicine, Jann Bellamy wrote “Naturopaths exploit COVID-19 with unproven treatments and self-promotion.” Included in the discussion is intravenous vitamin C.

David Gorski posted:

  • “COVID-19 conspiracy theories: Vaccines and 5G (along with Bill Gates) are responsible!”

  • “COVID-19 pandemic deniers and the antivaccine movement: An unholy alliance.” “I fear that this alliance between COVID-19 cranks with the antivaccine movement, with its cross-fertilization of rhetoric and tactics, particularly when fueled by funding and support from various political groups pushing to ‘reopen America,’ has the potential to make the pandemic so much worse than it had to be.”

  • “Hydroxychloroquine and the price of abandoning of science- and evidence-based medicine.”

Harriet Hall wrote about “TCM [traditional Chinese medicine] for COVID-19.” “Despite the many claims, there is no real evidence that traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is effective for prevention or treatment of COVID-19.”

Steven Novella posted:

On Respectful Insolence, “Orac” posted:

  • “Drs. Vladimir Zelenko and Stephen Smith: Abandoning evidence-based medicine to promote unproven drugs for COVID-19.”

  • “Hydroxychloroquine and COVID-19: Science-based medicine has no chance against Donald Trump, Peter Navarro, and Dr. Oz.”

  • “Antivaxxer Levi Quackenboss vs. reality on COVID-19.”

  • “Stephanie Seneff: Blaming glyphosate in biofuels and e-cigs for COVID-19.”

  • “Dr. Didier Raoult: Bad science on COVID-19 and bullying critics.” “…the evidence base for using hydroxychloroquine comes mostly from Raoult’s group, and the three studies from his group are horrible studies.”

  • “Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil's COVID-19 denial: Oprah has a lot to answer for.”

  • “Nobel laureate Luc Montagnier embraces the conspiracy theory that SARS-CoV-2 was made in a Wuhan lab.”

  • “President Trump and ‘just asking questions’ about disinfectants and UV light to treat COVID-19.”

  • “Healight: A highly implausible treatment for COVID-19.” “Just because physicians and an academic medical center are supporting a dubious device doesn’t make it any less ridiculous, and, make no mistake, Healight is risibly dubious.”

  • “Drs. Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi: Promoting dangerously bogus pseudo-epidemiology about COVID-19.” “…they’re fake experts, armchair epidemiologists who don’t even know enough to know what they don’t know.”

Edzard Ernst posted:

  • “Cuba supplies homeopathic medicine for Covid-19.” “…Cuba seems to have a long history of making irresponsible claims for their homeopathic products.”

  • “Can Chinese medicine be used for prevention of corona virus disease?” “…it is irresponsible in the current situation to misguide consumers, patients, scientists and decision-makers into believing that TCM offers an answer to the pandemic.”

  • “Is evidence for the utility of natural products, practices and practitioners being unfairly dismissed in the current pandemic?” “…national governments and their advisors struggle to make sense of the rapidly changing situation. In all the confusion, they are, however, very clear about one thing: traditional, complementary and integrative practices have no real value for human beings relative to COVID-19…Testing implausible options only because some quacks feel neglected would be the last thing the world needs in the present situation…The Indian Ministry of AYUSH has indeed been promoting all sorts of quackery for the corona-virus. This behaviour is likely to cause many fatalities in India.”

  • “Trump seems to think that UV might be the answer to the corona-pandemic – could he mean "ultraviolet blood irradiation"?

  • “How can I stimulate my immune system? A systematic review of clinical trials.”

  • A three-part series by Christian Lehmann: “Didier Raoult and the hydroxychloroquine controversy”; “A census of untruths about chloroquine”; “HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE: This is NOT a Hollywood blockbuster.”

April 17 – An FDA News release was entitled “Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: Federal judge enters temporary injunction against Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, preventing sale of Chlorine Dioxide Products Equivalent to Industrial Bleach to Treat COVID-19.” The church distributes “Miracle Mineral Solution. The defendants claim that the bleach solution can treat COVID-19 and numerous other diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer’s, and HIV/AIDS.

Other topics

Best of the blogs, April – on Science-Based Medicine, Harriet Hall:

  • Discussed “Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE).” “…the rationale and the alleged mechanisms don’t make any sense from a medical or scientific viewpoint. The language they use reeks of energy medicine beliefs and New Age fantasies. The tremors induced by the exercises are simply a natural response to muscle fatigue; they are an annoying side effect of strenuous exercise and they have no documented benefits…TRE is not based on science. People may enjoy the experience and may report subjective improvements, but there is no evidence that it has any objective clinical benefits.”

  • Wrote about Chaga tea. “Chaga tea is made from a mushroom that rots birch trees. Health benefits are claimed on the basis of folk medicine, but there isn’t a shred of scientific evidence.”

Braden MacBeth:

  • Provided a critique of the documentary “Tampon: Our Closest Enemy,” which “is a just another in a long-line of documentaries that are meant to make for 45 minutes of compelling television rather than informing viewers. The reality is that tampons are safe, and they are safety tested.”

Steven Novella:

  • Wrote “The psychology of vaccine denial.” “…the bottom line is that anti-vaccine attitudes are complex and multifarious, and that no one strategy seems to work well or at all. In the short term, antivaxxers simply need to be exposed and marginalized. Their attitudes are literally dangerous, even before there was a worldwide pandemic.”

David Weinberg:

  • Discussed statistical methods in “The p-hackers toolkit.” “P-hacking is a mis-use of statistical metric known as a p-value.”

On Edzard Ernst, Ernst:

  • Wrote “If you have a health problem, the last person you should consult is a chiropractor.” Concerning a review on the chiropractic identity, “if I understand these findings correctly, they confirm that chiropractors like to see themselves as physicians who are able to treat most conditions that present themselves in primary care. At the same time, their majority considers that vertebral subluxation is an important practice consideration. This clearly suggests they are likely to treat most conditions by adjusting spinal subluxations.”

  • Published “Homeopathy and reflexology do not work for asthma: results from a new trial.”

  • Posted “13 characteristics of bogus so-called alternative medicines (SCAMS).”

April – Crawford and others published “A Public Health Issue: Dietary Supplements Promoted for Brain Health and Cognitive Performance” (J Altern Complement Med. 2020 Apr;26(4):265-72 Paper). Of 12 products selected for study, “Eight (67%) had at least one ingredient listed on the Supplement Facts label not detected through analysis. Compounds not reported on the label were detected in 10 (83%) products. Scientific-sounding claims made are not supported by science and red flags are presented…There are dietary supplements targeting brain health being marketed to consumers that should be considered adulterated and misbranded.”

April – A review by Dai, Chen, and Wang (J Nerv Ment Dis. 2020 Apr;208(4):269-76 Abstract) concluded that “Saffron could be considered as an alternative to synthetic antidepressants in the treatment of mild to moderate depression. However, multicenter trials with larger sample size, longer treatment duration, and different ethnic groups are required to verify our results.”

April – Hack and others published “Complementary and alternative medicine and musculoskeletal pain in the first year of adjuvant aromatase inhibitor treatment in early breast cancer patients” (Breast. 2020 Apr;50:11-8 Paper). They found that “CAM use does not prevent or improve the development of AIMSS [Aromatase-induced musculoskeletal syndrome]. Pain intensity was generally greater in the CAM group.” “Orac” discussed the study on Respectful Insolence. “At the very least, this study shows no signal suggesting that ‘integrative oncology’ methods might be effective in alleviating letrozole-induced musculoskeletal symptoms.”

April 11 – Michael Schulson published “With Legislation Looming, Chiropractors Get Political on Vaccines.” “In the past several years, as more states have considered tightening their vaccination policies, chiropractors have quietly emerged as sources of fundraising and support for the movements fighting to defend religious exemptions…Members of these coalitions often brought together three distinct camps. There were the libertarians who dislike any state-mandated activity, regardless of their personal feelings about vaccination. There were people who dislike vaccines themselves. And there were advocates of what is often called medical freedom.”

April 16 – “FTC Halts Bogus Claims about ‘Miracle’ Supplement for Older Adults” Press release. “…the defendants’ marketing pieces claimed that Isoprex: 1) relieves pain, including muscle pain, joint pain, headaches, and arthritis; 2) reduces inflammation and swelling, including joint inflammation and knee swelling; 3) rebuilds joints and repairs damaged joint cartilage; 4) is 100% effective at relieving inflammation and swelling; and 5) provides pain relief comparable or better than OTC drugs. The complaint also alleges that the defendants falsely claimed to have tests and studies to back up their product claims. The FTC also alleges the defendants failed to disclose that the endorsers appearing in their Isoprex ads either were compensated for their testimonials, or actually were company employees and their relatives.”

April 22 – Stephen Barrett posted “Why bioresonance hair testing is preposterous” on Quackwatch. “Several companies claim that bioresonance hair tests can detect nutritional deficiencies; overexposure to heavy metals; and food and environmental intolerances and that the test results will provide a roadmap to better health.”

April 23 – A Press release announced “FDA Warns Companies Illegally Selling CBD Products to Treat Medical Conditions, Opioid Addiction.” “The FDA has not approved any CBD products other than one prescription human drug product to treat rare, severe forms of epilepsy.” Jann Bellamy discussed the warnings on Science-Based Medicine. “…although FDA maintains its position that the use of CBD in food and dietary supplements is illegal, FDA enforcement has been relatively minimal. Given the agency’s current, and understandable, consumption by the COVID-19 pandemic, except for the most egregious violations, I imagine CBD marketers have little to fear.”

April 26 – A Story on CBS News was entitled “Tales from the annals of medical quackery.”

Addition to previous months

May 23, 2019 – Zhang wrote “Why anti-vax doctors are ordering 23andMe tests.” Based on a 2008 study suggesting a link between one variant of the MTHFR gene and adverse reactions to vaccines, anti-vaccination parents are requesting the tests in order to justify medical exemptions to vaccination. However, the authors of the 2008 paper note that their findings were most likely due to chance and needed to be replicated, and there has been no further work supporting the link. Variants in the MTHFR gene are common and generally have no effect, but they are frequently used by naturopaths and functional medicine physicians as the basis for diagnosis and treatment.