JANUARY 2024 NEWS
Featured topic: coronavirus
On Science-Based Medicine,
David Gorski posted:
“2023: The year that the evidence-based medicine (EBM) paradigm was weaponized against vaccines and public health.” “Evidence-based medicine (EBM) has been a very useful paradigm for assessing evidence in medicine. However, like any other framework, it can be misused, particularly when fundamentalist EBM methodolatry leads to its inappropriate application to questions for which it is ill-suited, a misuse that has been weaponized against public health during the pandemic.”
“The Wellness Company: How antivaccine grift becomes plain old quackery.” “The Wellness Company, promoted by Dr. Peter McCullough, is the product of a trend in which antivax doctors have predictably become just quacks. At least in this case, there is an amusing quack fight at the heart of it all.”
“Why antivax arguments for COVID-19 vaccine "shedding" remind me of homeopathy.” “An antivaxxer by the ‘nym ‘A Midwestern Doctor’ makes an argument that COVID-19 vaccine ‘shedding’ is not impossible despite the basic science that concludes it is.” A followup post was: “Antivax quacks are continuing to make up fantastical biological mechanisms for COVID-19 vaccine shedding.” “Confabulation about fantastical scientific mechanisms continues, courtesy of ‘A Midwestern Doctor’.”
“’New school’ antivax goes old school as Byram Bridle asks if COVID-19 vaccines will drive an ‘epidemic’ of autism.”
Jonathan Howard posted:
“Dr. Lucy McBride: ‘As physicians, dispensing false hope is dangerous & unethical’.” “The many sheltered physicians like Dr. Lucy McBride who confidently said herd immunity was at hand and fear of COVID was pathological are the last people who should be sanctimoniously sermonizing about the importance of trust in medicine.”
“Why are Sensible Medicine doctors indifferent to the nonsense comments of Sensible Medicine commentators? As instructed, I consider the dualities of interest and motivation bias.” “Sensible Medicine doctors often utter the words ‘do an RCT’ [randomized controlled trial]. So why are their readers so ignorant about RCTs?”
Steven Novella posted:
“Hospital measures prevented COVID transmission.” “A new study finds that hospital measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 worked, and we probably should keep them…The political nonsense around masking also needs to end. Masks are not a political statement. They are an effective and essential measure of limiting the spread of respiratory viruses in a world increasingly plagued by them. And it’s only going to get worse.”
On Respectful Insolence, “Orac” posted:
“Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo parrots antivax information.” He “has called for a halt in the use of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines based on fear mongering about DNA ‘contamination’.”
“Did hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) really kill 17,000 COVID-19 patients?” “A recent study concludes that the rampant use of HCQ early in the pandemic could have resulted in 17,000 excess deaths. But did HCQ really do that? Possibly, but it’s complicated.” The paper is: Pradelle et al. Biomed Pharmacother. 2024 Jan 2;171:116055.
“Antivaxxers write about 'lessons learned' but know nothing.” “Antivaxxers just published another antivax review about ‘lessons learned’ claiming that COVID-19 vaccines cause more harm than good…When you boil it all down, what this article is turns out to be nothing more than a veritable Gish gallop through all the major COVID-19 antivaccine conspiracy theories published in a journal whose peer review process is so fast as to be unreliable, to put it kindly. It is an impressive Gish gallop, given its length and the sheer quantity of misinformation contained it in—Brandolini’s Law strikes again—but a Gish gallop nonetheless.”
Edzard Ernst posted:
“COVID vaccinations reduced death rates in Europe by 57%.”
November 14 – Turner and others published “Businesses marketing purported stem cell treatments and exosome therapies for COVID-19: An analysis of direct-to-consumer online advertising claims” (Stem Cell Reports. 2023 Nov 14;18(11):2010-2015 Paper). “We identified 38 businesses advertising purported stem cell interventions and exosome products for COVID-19. These companies operated or facilitated access to 60 clinics. More than 75% of these clinics were based in the United States and Mexico. Thirty-six of the businesses marketed their stem cell and exosome products as treatments for Long COVID, six advertised them as ‘immune boosters,’ five claimed to treat patients in the acute infection phase, and two claimed their products were preventive…the average listed cost for patients was $11,322. The promotion of these products is concerning because they have not been approved by national regulators and do not appear to be supported by convincing safety and efficacy data.”
Other topics
On Science-Based Medicine,
Mark Crislip:
Discussed boosting the immune system.
Scott Gavura:
Posted “2024 detox trends to watch (out) for.” “Popular ideas of detoxification and cleansing have no basis in reality. There’s no published evidence to suggest that detox treatments, kits or rituals have any effect on our body’s ability to eliminate waste products effectively. ‘Detox’ focuses attention on irrelevant issues, giving the impression that you can undo lifestyle decisions with quick fixes.”
Samuel Homola:
Wrote “Chiropractic subluxation theory: science or gobbledegook?” “Many chiropractors continue to claim that vertebral subluxations can affect organ function by interfering with nerve flow in spinal nerves, a view that is scientifically indefensible.”
Steven Novella:
Posted “Dual Sympathetic Reset for PTSD.” “Language used by responsible professions should reflect reality – this is an experimental treatment, and it should be treated that way. That means it should only be used with proper informed consent indicating its experimental nature, and ideally within the context of a clinical trial. What we are mostly seeing instead is the treatment being promoted as if its efficacy is established, based entirely on anecdotes.”
Wrote “Adulteration of herbal supplements continues.”
On Respectful Insolence, “Orac”:
Wrote “Parasites cause cancer? 1990s cancer quackery reappears in 2024.” “Conspiracy monger Stew Peters and Dr. Lee Merritt claim that all cancer is due to parasites. Everything old is new again, just stupider, and Hulda Clark’s cancer quackery has been resurrected, just with a different ‘parasite’.”
Posted “Slapped on the wrist for misrepresenting homeopathic nosodes as vaccines.” “Jeannette Breen, a certified nurse-midwife, sold homeopathic nosodes as routine childhood vaccinations and got a slap on the wrist for fraud.”
Edzard Ernst:
Posted “Sorry, but you are not competent to criticize: The culture of avoiding criticism in so-called alternative medicine (SCAM).”
Wrote “Another study confirms acupuncture to be a theatrical placebo.” The study dealt with diabetic peripheral neuropathy.
Discussed “The effectiveness of cupping therapy for low back pain.” “…cupping can, according to this review, be shown to have some short-lasting effect, provided the study is flawed and does not control for placebo effects. Surprised? No need! There is hardly a form of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) that does not have a similarly small effect of back pain, if tested in equally dodgy studies. This is particularly true for those treatments that can act as a theatrical placebo, e.g. acupuncture or chiropractic.”
Wrote “Germany will remove the option for health insurance companies to include homeopathic and anthroposophic services in their statutes.” “It is, of course, laudable to point out that homeopathic and anthroposophic remedies are not demonstrably effective. But clearly, this is only half of the truth. The full truth is that they are based on totally ridiculous assumptions, that, in other words, they fly in the face of science.”
Posted “Craniosacral therapy is ineffective nonsense.” A preprint by Amendolara and others was discussed. “The authors concluded that CST did not demonstrate broad significance in this meta-analysis, suggesting limited usefulness in patient care for a wide range of indications. To this, one should perhaps add that CST is one of those forms of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) that is utterly implausible; there is not conceivable mechanism by which CST might work other than a placebo effects.”
Wrote “A new concept that ‘can explain the basic “laws” of homeopathy’.”
Posted “Chiropractic spinal manipulations are safe!!!...Or aren’t they?”
Posted “Patients with shoulder pain who received manual therapy, electrotherapy, or acupuncture experienced equal or more pain and disability at 6 months compared to those who did not.”
Wrote “Measles are back – not least thanks to so-called alternative medicine (SCAM), I fear.” On Science-Based Medicine, Clay Jones posted “Another year, another measles outbreak.”
Posted “Dragons’ Den contestant gets offer from all six Dragons for an ear acupressure device.” “Here, I am afraid, we might have a major problem: THERE IS NO GOOD EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT ANY OF THESE CLAIMS!” Another post dealt with ear acupuncture (auriculotherapy).
Discussed “Effect of acupuncture vs sham acupuncture on patients with poststroke motor aphasia a randomized clinical trial.” “I was asked by the SCIENCE MEDIC CENTRE to provide a short comment. This is what I stated: ‘Superficially, this looks like a rigorous trial. We should remember, however, that several groups, including mine, have shown that very nearly all Chinese acupuncture studies report positive results. This suggests that the reliability of these trials is less than encouraging. Moreover, the authors state that real acupuncture induced ‘de chi,’ while sham acupuncture did not. This shows that the patients were not blinded and the outcomes might easily be due to a placebo response.’ Here, I’d like to add two further points: We have learnt that the vast majority of research coming out of China is fabricated. I think it is lamentable that a journal of high standing [JAMA Network Open] is not more critical and repeatedly falls for such suspect acupuncture studies.”
Wrote “Osteopathic manipulative treatment for pain and disability in patients with chronic low back pain… Another study of wishful thinking.” “To mention just some of the most obvious flaws: This study is far too small to allow conclusions about safety. The trial compared OMT with no therapy; it is likely that the observed outcomes have little to do with OMT but are due to a placebo response. The primary outcome measure showed no effect which essentially means that the study finding was that OMT is ineffective. My conclusion: a poor study conducted by wishful thinkers.”
On McGill Office for Science and Society:
Jonathan Jarry:
‘Wrote “Mindfulness meditation often fails the scientific test.” “Take-home message: Mindfulness meditation is a practice which teaches you to focus on the present moment and redirect your attention to it without judgement when you get distracted. When studied in randomized clinical trials for a variety of issues like anxiety, depression, and stress, mindfulness meditation often shows a small benefit over not doing anything, but that benefit commonly disappears when it is compared to doing something other than meditation. Mindfulness meditation appears to be safe for most people, although reports of complications like traumatic flashbacks and psychosis have led to calls for scientists to better report side effects in studies of this form of meditation.”
Posted “The science journals that will publish anything.” “Take-home message: A predatory journal looks like a genuine academic journal, but it will publish any paper with little to no peer review in exchange for the paper’s authors paying a fee. Paying to get a paper published is not, however, a sign that a journal is predatory, as this is common practice among legitimate open access journals, whose content is free to be read by anyone. Some of the signs that a journal is predatory is that its website caters more to authors than to readers, it often sends out invitation emails with flowery language, and its scope is much broader than would be expected, publishing papers on nuclear physics, geography and nursing, for example.”
Joe Schwarcz:
Christopher Labos:
Wrote “Vampire facials' body of evidence is anemic.” “The rationale behind vampire facials — or platelet-rich plasma injections — is that the plasma will stimulate healing and rejuvenation in the skin…Unsurprisingly, it’s not covered by medicare and you would have to pay for it out of pocket. But you probably shouldn’t. There’s little evidence it works.”
January – Robberechts and Poffé published “Defining ketone supplementation: the evolving evidence for postexercise ketone supplementation to improve recovery and adaptation to exercise” (Am J Physiol Cell Physiol. 2024 Jan 1;326(1):C143-C160 Abstract). “…most research has focused on the potential of ketone supplementation to improve athletic performance via ingestion of ketones immediately before or during exercise. However, subsequent studies generally observed no performance improvement, and particularly not under conditions that are relevant for most athletes. However, more and more studies are reporting beneficial effects when ketones are ingested after exercise. As such, the real potential of ketone supplementation may rather be in their ability to enhance postexercise recovery and training adaptations.”
January 1 – Christie Aschwanden wrote “How much vitamin D do you need to stay healthy?” [Print version: “The rise and fall of vitamin D. Scientific American, January, pp. 29-35] “Overhyped claims that the compound helps to fight diseases from cancer to depression aren’t borne out by recent research.” Joe Schwarcz also wrote about vitamin D. “After having digested all the information, I come to the conclusion that popping a 1000 IU pill a day, ‘just for insurance,’ is not a bad idea.”
January 5 – The FDA issued a warning about “certain tejocote root supplements substituted with toxic yellow oleander.” “Ingestion of yellow oleander can cause neurologic, gastrointestinal, and cardiovascular adverse health effects that may be severe, or even fatal. Symptoms may include nausea, vomiting, dizziness, diarrhea, abdominal pain, cardiac changes, dysrhythmia, and more.”
January 12 – Christopher Beam published “The meme king of longevity now wants to sell you olive oil.” “Bryan Johnson, a data-obsessed Silicon Valley centimillionaire, is promoting food and supplements that promise to help people live longer. Scientists say his program is highly questionable.”
January 18 – Marlene Cimons wrote “Multivitamins may slow memory loss in older adults.” “It is the third in a series of studies assessing the cognitive effects of a daily multivitamin on older adults. And a systematic review, or meta-analysis, of the three studies accompanying the most recent paper said their cumulative results were similar: The group taking a multivitamin was two years younger in memory function compared with the group taking a placebo.” The new study is: Vyas et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2023 Dec 21. Epub ahead of print Abstract. Megan Brooks, writing for Medscape, presented some more critical views. The meta-analysis is not really a meta-analysis, because it only reanalyzes the original group of patients. Whether the results are clinically meaningful is questionable. Christopher Labos noted that "at this point, the evidence does not support recommending multivitamins purely for brain health. There is also a cost and potential downside associated with their use."
January 18 – Frederik Joelving published “Paper trail.” “In the latest twist of the publishing arms race, firms churning out fake papers have taken to bribing journal editors.”
January 25 - A critique of a paper on distant reiki has been posted. "Publishing papers such as this, which uncritically promote the pseudoscience of reiki and the Science of Unitary Human Beings, detracts from the status of nursing as a science-based profession."
January 29 – Trisha Pasricha wrote “Should I be taking collagen supplements? Here’s what the science says.” “Brands claim collagen products can boost skin, nail and hair health. But there isn’t strong evidence behind these claims.”
January 31 – David Klepper published “Miracle cures: Online conspiracy theories are creating a new age of unproven medical treatments.” “Tesla Biohealing is part of a growth industry marketing unproven treatments to those who have grown distrustful of science and medicine. Experts say such claims are on the increase, thanks to the internet and skepticism about traditional health care.”
Addition to previous months
December 20 – The FDA posted “Using fat-dissolving injections that are not FDA-approved can be harmful.” “FDA has received reports about consumers who experienced adverse reactions such as permanent scars, serious infections, skin deformities, cysts, and deep, painful knots after receiving unapproved fat-dissolving injections.”