JANUARY 2022 NEWS


Featured topic: coronavirus


On Science-Based Medicine,

Jann Bellamy posted:


David Gorski posted:

  • “Everything old is new again.” “Proponents of science-based medicine have been warning us for decades about the sort of misinformation that’s now swamping us. Why did no one listen?”

  • “Substack: Where quacks and antivaxxers all go now.” “With social media companies like Twitter and Facebook/Meta deplatforming those spreading misinformation, COVID-19 quacks, antivaxxers, and conspiracy theorists are flocking to Substack, where they can monetize their misinformation while Substack profits.”

  • “Why are physicians threatened by efforts to report doctors to their state medical boards for COVID-19 misinformation?” “It’s not ‘cancel culture’ to delicense physicians promoting dangerous misinformation about COVID-19. It’s quality control.”

  • “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 antivaccine. If that’s so, why are Brownstone-affiliated academics spreading antivaccine misinformation in Uganda?”

  • “‘Debate me, bro!’: Debate challenges by science deniers in the age of COVID-19.” “Challenges to ‘live debates’ from science deniers are challenges that scientists should, with only the rarest of exceptions, generally decline. Nothing good comes of them, as they are theater, not science. Their purpose is not even really to persuade anyone. Rather, it is to represent pseudoscience as being worthy of being on the same stage (or Zoom meeting) as science, quacks as worthy of having their beliefs presented as being of similar credibility to science-based medicine presented by real doctors, pseudoscientists as worthy of being considered equally with scientists, and conspiracy theorists as worthy of being considered equally with real experts in a field.”


Jonathan Howard posted:

  • “Was an article titled ‘Covid vaccines for children should not get emergency use authorization’ about vaccinating children?”

  • “Why I won’t call Dr. Paul Offit an anti-vaxxer.” “Future data will clarify the risks and benefits of a booster in young people. I am confident Dr. Offit will accept it and report it as fairly as possible. That’s what makes him completely different from contrarian doctors.”

  • “An open letter to ZDoggMD.” “I hope you’ll agree with me that the biggest advocate for vaccination on social media should have no trouble sharing all of the facts about COVID-19 and children on a very frequent basis.”

  • “Jay Bhattacharya: ‘If It’s True That The Novel Coronavirus Would Kill Millions Without Shelter-In-Place Orders and Quarantines, Then the Extraordinary Measures Being Carried Out in Cities and States Around the Country Are Surely Justified’.” “Dr. Bhattacharya doesn’t take the words of Dr. Bhattacharya seriously. So why should anybody else?


Eric Kramer posted:

  • “The tendentious libertarianism of the Great Barrington Declaration.” “Libertarian authors of the Great Barrington Declaration have branched out into criticisms of NIAID director Dr. Anthony Fauci. In keeping with their past activities, their criticisms are inaccurate and misleading.”


Steven Novella posted:

  • “COVID vaccines and cardiac effects – reality vs lies.” “COVID mRNA vaccines only result in rare, mild, and transitory myocarditis, but this doesn’t stop misinformation from spreading.”

  • “Super immunity vs. anti-vaxxers.” “Anti-vaxxers continue to spread demonstrable misinformation, while the evidence for the benefits of COVID vaccines grows.”


On Respectful Insolence, “Orac” posted:

  • “Steve Kirsch reveals “secret plan to end the vaccine madness.” “In reality, it’s not secret, but a conglomeration of antivaccine conspiracy theories, misinformation, and pseudoscience.”

  • “’Naturopathic oncologist’ Colleen Huber goes full COVID-19 quack.” “Given that naturopathy is quackery, it’s also no surprise that naturopaths would become major COVID-19 quacks as well.

  • “Brownstone Institute embraces its inner antivaxxer.” “The Brownstone Institute, a spinoff of AIER [American Institute for Economic Research] and the ‘spiritual child of the Great Barrington Declaration,’ is now embracing its inner antivaxxer by likening vaccine mandates to ‘othering,’ including slavery and Nazi persecution of Jews during the Holocaust.”

  • “Under the microscope: Antivaxxers find ‘impurities’ in COVID-19 vaccines.” “Antivaxxers are looking at COVID-19 vaccines under the microscope and finding ‘horrifying’ things. This is an old antivax and quack technique that has long produced hilariously ridiculous results.”

  • “Claiming the mantle of 'reasonableness' by attacking even worse cranks.” “Joe Mercola tried to seem ‘reasonable’ by contrasting himself to other quacks by ‘conceding’ that SARS-CoV-2 actually exists. Last night Dr. Vinay Prasad tried to do the same thing by ‘analyzing’ the appearances of conspiracy theorists on Joe Rogan’s show.”

  • “Defeat the Mandates: Green Our Vaccines reconstituted for COVID-19.” “A month ago, Dr. Robert Malone announced the ‘Defeat the Mandates’ rally on Joe Rogan’s podcast, to be held this Sunday. I sensed many echoes of Jenny McCarthy’s 2008 ‘Green Our Vaccines’ rally, although what’s different is even more disturbing than the antivaccine misinformation that’s the same.”

  • “Anne Frank: RFK Jr. now versus RFK Jr. in 2015.” “At the Defeat the Mandates rally on Sunday, RFK Jr. invoked Anne Frank in an antivaccine speech. Then he apologized…This is who RFK Jr. is. This is who he’s been at least since 2005, when he first announced himself to be an antivaccine conspiracy theorist. This is who he will likely always be, an antivaccine crank and conspiracy theorist who routinely misuses Holocaust analogies and only ‘apologizes’ for doing so when the heat gets too intense.”

  • “Why is there now such an affinity between antivaxxers and fascism?” “Increasingly, the antivaccine movement has become allied with fascism, including openly fascist groups like Proud Boys marching in their rallies.”


Edzard Ernst posted:


January 31 – “do Terra distributors deceptively promote products for COVID-19” was published by Truth in Advertising. “Throughout January, high-ranking distributors of essential oils MLM doTerra, who are also employed or retired health care providers, have been participating in Zoom calls that have attracted hundreds of attendees. If the title of the presentations is a bit vague – ‘Protocols for the Current Climate’ – the purpose of the calls is clear: to deceptively promote doTerra products for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19.”


Other topics

Best of the blogs, January – on Science-Based Medicine,

Scott Gavura:

  • Discussed “Detox: what ‘they’ don’t want you to know.” “Our kidneys and liver don’t need a detox treatment. If anyone suggests a detox or cleanse to you, remember that you’re hearing a marketing pitch for an imaginary condition.”


Harriet Hall:

  • Posted “Eat for Life: Joe Fuhrman’s Nutritarian diet.” “Joel Fuhrman thinks his Nutritarian diet will increase longevity and prevent or treat most chronic diseases. He claims it is based on science, but his evidence is far from convincing.”

  • Discussed “The Blu Room." According to promoters, “The Blu Room features 20-minute sessions of deep relaxation, music and vibrations inside a mirrored 11′ by 11′ octagon bathed in blue and UVB light.” “The Blu Room experience may be very impressive to naïve, gullible patients, but the testimonials are subjective and easily explained by placebo responses. No objective evidence is offered. The treatments are not cheap (around $60 each), and they now offer a Blu Pod for home use that costs thousands of dollars. Not recommended; there are many less expensive ways to get placebo effects.”

  • Reviewed a book on “Culture-bound psychosomatic syndromes.” Havana syndrome is discussed.

  • Wrote “Does acupuncture increase red and white blood cells and T-cells?” “The evidence is far from convincing.”


Steven Novella:


On Respectful Insolence, “Orac”:

  • Posted “R.I.P., Gayle DeLong.” “Gayle DeLong was an antivaxxer best known for blaming HPV vaccines for infertility and blaming her breast cancer on her children’s autism.”


Edzard Ernst:

  • Discussed “Cupping therapy for non-specific back pain.”

  • Wrote “10 SCAM [so-called alternative medicine] 'discoveries' that did not change the world.” “They are all quite diverse but have one important thing in common: they are false (i.e. there is no good evidence for them and they fly in the face of science). If they were true, they would have changed the world by revolutionizing science, physics, physiology, anatomy, pathology, therapeutics, etc.”

  • Discussed his new book, “Charles, the Alternative Prince.” “…his relentless efforts are not appreciated by everyone (another British understatement!). There are those who view his interventions as counter-productive distractions from the important and never-ending task to improve modern healthcare. There are those who warn that integrating treatments of dubious validity into our medical routine will render healthcare less efficient. There are those who claim that the Prince’s preoccupation with matters that he is not qualified to fully comprehend is a disservice to public health. And there are those who insist that the role of the heir to the throne does not include interfering with health politics…Relying on his intuition, he unwaveringly pursues and promotes his personal beliefs, regardless of the evidence.”

  • Presented a guest post by Richard Rasker, “The peculiar perks and privileges of homeopathy.” “As long as legal and official organizations ignore science and blindly follow homeopathy’s misleading explanations and information, homeopathy will keep its undeserved privileges.”

  • Discussed a review of tai chi for cognitive function. “That TC might improve cognitive function is obvious. If not, there would be no reason to do a review! But does it? This paper does not provide an answer. All it shows is that TC trials are of lousy quality and that the observed effects might well be due not to TC itself by to non-specific effects.”

  • Posted “Shiatsu effective in reducing agitation in mechanically ventilated patients?” “I do not get the impression that patients were successfully blinded. This means that the results might be entirely due to the effect of deblinding.”

  • Discussed “A new review of the ‘efficacy’ of homeopathic Arnica by Harald Walach & Co.” “This review has many remarkable (or should I say, suspect?) features…Considering all of these odd features, I think that the small effect size over and against placebo in preventing excessive hematoma and other sequelae of surgeries reported by the review authors is most likely due to a range of factors that have nothing whatsoever to do with homeopathy.”

  • Posted “The ‘WORST PAPER OF 2022’ COMPETITION. Entry No 2: the safety differences between Chinese medicine and Western medicine.” “comparing the safety of one intervention to one that is fundamentally different in terms of its nature and efficacy does simply make no sense. If one wanted to conduct such an investigation, it would only be meaningful, if one would consider the risk-benefit balance of both treatments. The fact that this is not done here discloses the above paper as an embarrassing attempt at promoting Traditional Chinese Medicine.”

  • Wrote “Vitamin D (and omega 3 fatty acid) supplements reduce the incidence of autoimmune disease.” “This is the best trial of dietary supplements that I have seen for a very long time. Yet, the authors caution: Because participants were older adults, the results might not generalize to autoimmune diseases that primarily have their onset in younger people.”


January – Harriet Hall wrote “The science (and pseudoscience) of aging” (Skeptical Inquirer 46(1):21-3). Among the topics discussed are Blue Zones, telomeres, rapamycin, and growth hormone releasers.


January – The Public Policy Committee of The American College of Clinical Pharmacology published “Regulation of Dietary Supplements and Nutraceutical Products in the United States: An Argument for Greater Oversight and Uniform Standards” (Grundmann et al. J Clin Pharmacol. 2022 Jan;62(1):14-16 Paper). “The limited oversight of dietary supplements and nutraceutical products has provided a landscape for marketing that often leads to misinformation and confusion for health care professionals, consumers, and patients when choosing such products. In addition to the risks of mislabeled, adulterated, and contaminated products, the labels do not contain adequate information on safe use especially in regard to drug interactions, dosing, and potential adverse effects.”


January 3 - Anand and Hosanagar wrote “The Addictive Potential and Challenges with Use of the ‘Herbal Supplement’ Kratom: A Case Report and Literature Review” Pain Med. 2022 Jan 3;23(1):4-9 Paper). “Kratom use has exploded over the last two decades. It is legal and easily accessible. Vendors continue to develop higher potencies and continue to mislead their customers that it is a safe ‘herbal supplement’ when evidence indicates that Kratom is addictive and dangerous. Due to its broad affinity to different receptors and complex pharmacokinetics, Kratom has a high prevalence of drug-drug interactions with other drugs, leading to adverse effects, including death.”


January 10 – Jamie Hale wrote “Don’t fall for New Year’s fitness and health myths.”


January 17 – Stephen Barrett published “A skeptical look at John Parks Trowbridge, M.D.” “John Parks Trowbridge has promoted unproven treatments and opposed government regulation throughout most of his medical career. I recommend avoiding him.” Trowbridge has recently been promoting COVID misinformation.


Addition to previous months

August – Bessell and others reviewed dietary supplements containing isolated organic compounds for weight loss (Int J Obes (Lond). 2021 Aug;45(8):1631-1643 Abstract). “While some dietary supplements containing isolated organic compounds warrant further investigation to determine efficacy and safety, there is currently insufficient evidence to recommend any of these dietary supplements for weight loss.”




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