JULY 2021 NEWS
Featured topic: coronavirus
On Science-Based Medicine,
Scott Gavura posted:
“Long COVID: alternative medicine sees a business opportunity.”
David Gorski posted:
“Joe Mercola: An antivaccine quack tycoon pivots effortlessly to profit from spreading COVID-19 misinformation.” “Joe Mercola is a physician whose nearly quarter-century of promoting quackery and antivaccine misinformation has garnered him a net worth north of $100 million.”
Jonathan Howard posted:
“COVID-19 is deadlier than the flu for children.” “A disease that killed 500 children the past year is much worse than a disease that killed one child. Writers who suggests otherwise are woefully misinformed.”
“Myocarditis and COVID-19: a tale of two articles.” “Whether myocarditis is serious or not depends on the symptoms it produces and the damages it does, not on its underlying cause. Those who write about COVID-19 and vaccines should try to be consistent and thorough.”
“’We’ll have herd immunity by April’: reflections on a failed prediction.” “Surgical oncologist Dr. Marty Makary predicted in February that we would have herd immunity to COVID-19 in April. In late July now, it is clear that we do not, but Dr. Makary continues to make dubious and outright incorrect statements about COVID-19 on national platforms to which he has access.”
“Cognitive illusions and how not to write about COVID-19 and children.” “Many people minimize the deaths and damage COVID-19 has wrought on children because it is ‘worse in adults.’ While it is true that more adults suffer due to the disease, that does not make the harms done to children vanish in a puff of smoke.”
Steven Novella posted:
“Fake homeopathy COVID scam.” A naturopath was arrested for selling homeopathic substitutes for vaccinations, as well as counterfeit vaccination cards. “You can’t water down the science-based standard of care in medicine, carve out exceptions, weaken regulations, and allow unscientific practitioners to spread dangerous misinformation, attack science-based institutions and undermine experts, and then complain when they do exactly that, just because we are in a pandemic. This should be a wake-up call. People often ask ‘what’s the harm’ of allowing what are essentially placebo treatments to thrive. This is the harm. Our science-based infrastructure has been devastated, and now we are literally dying from medical misinformation.”
On Respectful Insolence, “Orac” posted:
“Ivermectin is the new hydroxychloroquine, take 3: conspiracy theories and grift.”
“Ivermectin is the new hydroxychloroquine, take 4: fraud, incompetence, or both?” “Yesterday it was reported that the main study that has driven positive meta-analyses was either fraudulent or so incompetent as to be meaningless. Bottom line: Ivermectin almost certainly doesn’t work.”
“Celebrity ‘vegan cardiologist’ Dr. Joel Kahn has become an antivaccine COVID-19 crank.” “Dr. Joel Kahn is a well-regarded ‘integrative’ cardiologist. So why is he spreading COVID-19 and antivaccine disinformation on Twitter? Simple. ‘Integrative’ medicine can be a ‘gateway’ to antivaccine beliefs.”
“Is ‘mRNA vaccine inventor’ Robert Malone ‘being erased’ for his claims about COVID-19?” “It’s the oldest con in the world. Make grandiose claims. Fear monger about something (in this case, COVID-19 vaccines). Then claim ‘persecution’ or ‘censorship’ when those claims do what such claims always do and invite scrutiny and attempts to correct the misinformation in them.”
“The 'Nuremberg Code' gambit.” “Antivaxxers love to claim that vaccine mandates (especially COVID-19 vaccine mandates) violate the Nuremberg Code. As usual, they have no idea what they are talking about.”
“There is no bottom: antivaxxers harass cancer patients.”
“'America's Frontline Doctors' sue over deaths from COVID-19 vaccines. Hilarity ensues.”
“James Lyons-Weiler whines about his ‘vaxxed/unvaxxed’ study retraction.”
“Has the law finally caught up with autism bleach quack Kerri Rivera?”
Edzard Ernst posted:
“Prof Harald Walach is really unlucky.” An anti-mask paper was retracted.
Other topics
Best of the blogs, July – on Science-Based Medicine, Jann Bellamy:
Posted “Sen. Rubio's proposed tax shelters for quackery.” “Sen. Marco Rubio has again introduced a bill that would subsidize quackery by providing a tax-sheltered way to pay for homeopathy, herbs, and other pseudoscience.”
Wrote “Near-fatal blood infection following naturopathic IV vitamin infusion.” “IV vitamin infusions are a common naturopathic therapy used without adequate medical rationale and are not worth the risks.”
Harriet Hall:
Wrote “Mayim Bialik's Neuriva commercials make questionable claims.”
Posted “American Academy of Family Physicians supports integrative medicine.” “The AAFP’s embrace of integrative medicine is unfortunate, but not unexpected. I can no longer trust them or respect their judgment…I respect the right of patients to try anything they want to try, but I can hope they have access to accurate scientific information and can exercise true informed consent.”
Discussed Lumen, “a handheld device that you can supposedly use to ‘hack your metabolism’.” “The Lumen device gives users the illusion of control over their metabolism, but the science behind it is not convincing... Will users lose more weight or have more energy? Maybe, but controlled scientific studies would be needed to find out.”
Clay Jones:
Posted “A new study finds no benefit from chiropractic for infant colic, but they’ll keep doing it anyway.” “A new study attempted to answer the question of chiropractic’s potential benefit for infant colic. It was successful, but I don’t think it turned out the way the authors’ hoped. Sadly, I don’t think that this will change the mind of any chiropractor who treats babies.” The study is Holm et al. Chiropr Man Therap 29, 15 (2021) Paper.
Edzard Ernst:
Posted “Very bad news for homeopathy in Germany.” The Frankfort Higher Regional Court ruled that highly dilute homeopathic remedies may not print the name of the mother tincture on the label, since they don’t actually contain any of the original ingredients.
Wrote “Acupuncture for breast cancer care: a new systematic review.” “This review looks rigorous on the surface but has many weaknesses if one digs only a little deeper…Many of the included studies are small and lacked blinding. The results are confusing, contradictory and not clearly reported. Many trials fail to mention adverse effects and thus violate research ethics, etc., etc.”
Discussed “A trial of myofascial release for chronic low back pain.”
Posted an article by Hans-Werner Bertelsen discussing dental amalgam, especially exposure of pregnant women and dental workers.
Wrote “’Chinese medical treatment prolonged survival in small cell lung cancer patients’… true or false?” “In my view, this paper is an example for showing how the relentless promotion of dubious Traditional Chinese Medicine by Chinese officials might cost lives.”
Discussed a case of “One chiropractic treatment followed by two strokes.” “I suggest that chiropractors finally get their act together and create adequate post-marketing surveillance. Until they have done so, they have no moral right to complain that cases like the one above are not adequately documented.”
Wrote “Osteopathy: a bibliometric analysis (1966 – 2018) suggests that its impact is minimal.” “What the authors fail to state is that their analysis discloses osteopathy to be an area of utter unimportance. Less than 400 studies in 52 years is a dismal result. The fact that they were mostly published in journals of no impact makes it even worse.”
Posted “No evidence that spinal manipulations work for non-musculoskeletal conditions.”
Wrote “Spinal epidural hematoma after spinal manipulations: Report of three cases and a review of the literature.” “As pointed out earlier, the evidence that SMT might be effective is shaky for most indications. In view of the potential for harm, this can mean only one thing: The risk/benefit balance for SMT is not demonstrably positive. In turn, this leads to the conclusion that patients should think twice before having SMT and should inquire about other therapeutic options that have a more positive risk/benefit balance.”
Took an explanation of homeopathy from leading manufacturer Boiron and wrote his own version.
Discussed cupping for Olympic swimmers.
Wrote “Herbal remedies are good for you…except for the ones that injure your liver.” Cases of injury due to the Ayurvedic medicine Tinospora cordifolia were discussed.
July – Harriet Hall wrote “Illness, healing, and other terms that can be confusing” for Skeptical Inquirer (45(4):19-21).
July 4 – Stephen Barrett published “FDA orders 25 companies to stop issuing misleading 'FDA registration certificates'.” “The agency is concerned because the certificates falsely imply that the device has been evaluated, cleared, or approved as effective for its intended purposes. The FDA does not issue any type of device registration certificate, and registration with FDA does not denote approval or clearance of the establishment or its devices.”
July 22 – Harriet Hall discussed “Green-lipped mussels for arthritis” for Skeptical Inquirer.