JUNE 2020 NEWS

Featured topic: coronavirus pseudoscience

On Science-Based Medicine, Jann Bellamy:

  • Wrote “FTC warns naturopaths, acupuncturists, physicians, and chiropractors about false and misleading COVID-19 claims.” “Since March, the FTC has issued almost 250 warning letters to companies and individuals making unsubstantiated claims for COVID-19 treatments... as welcome as these warning letters are, it is unfortunate that the FTC does not regularly cast a wider net and target practitioners whose claims are not backed by ‘competent and reliable scientific evidence’.”

David Gorski posted:

  • “J.B. Handley's unthinking person’s guide to the COVID-19 pandemic.” “J.B. Handley was the founder of the antivaccine group Generation Rescue. Unfortunately, in the era of COVID-19 he’s started peddling pseudoscience related to the pandemic.”

  • “Antivaccine leader Del Bigtree on COVID-19: ‘Let’s catch this cold!’ Why antivaxxers and coronavirus conspiracy theorists are often one in the same.”

  • “Misinformation and disinformation about facemasks and COVID-19.”

Steven Novella:

On Respectful Insolence, “Orac” posted:

  • “The Surgisphere debacle,” concerning the retracted study of hydroxychloroquine. “Whether the authors who collaborated with Surgisphere and Dr. Desai were dupes or complicit, they’ve done enormous damage to public health through their negligence and Surgisphere’s likely fraud. Already the hydroxychloroquine cultists are rejoicing and using the retraction to cast doubt on all negative studies of the drug.”

  • “Did the WHO just say that asymptomatic people with COVID-19 don’t transmit the coronavirus?” “…it’s irresponsible to make a statement as seemingly definitive as this if the data used to make the statement aren’t published, particularly when the WHO admits that the answer hasn’t truly been answered yet.”

  • “The WHO walks back its statement that asymptomatic COVID-19 transmission is ‘very rare’.”

  • “The Brogan-Ji brain trust says ‘Wake up, sheeple!’ over COVID-19.” “Kelly Brogan and fellow conspiracy theorists Sayer Ji and Ali Zeck liken submission to public health measures for COVID-19 to childhood trauma and the Stockholm syndrome.”

  • “Dexamethasone and hydrochloroquine [sic]: A tale of two drugs for COVID-19.”

  • “Antivaxxers Amy Becker and Mark Blaxill deceptively use COVID-19 death statistics to claim that vaccines cause SIDS.”

Edzard Ernst posted:

  • “Corona-virus: The Indian trials of homeopathy.” “…in this and several other countries, homeopathy has become more a belief system than a medicine. And because it is about belief, the believers will avert any truly meaningful and rigorous test of homeopathy’s efficacy.”

  • “Siddha doctors have joined those claiming to have found a cure for COVID-19.” Siddha is one of the recognized systems of healthcare in India. “Of course, we all wish that an effective treatment against COVID-19 will be found soon. However, what the NIS [National Institute of Siddha] calls THOROUGH RESEARCH looks like a flimsy bit of pseudo-research. And their assertion that their herbal mixture turns positive into negative patients within three days is a claim that sounds far too good to be true.”

  • ‘“Another Remarkable Demonstration of Homeopathy’s Effectiveness in Covid-19: ONLY 19 Deaths out of 35 million in Kerala, India’.”

  • “Paying the price for questioning Traditional Chinese Medicine – Beware!,” by guest blogger Loretta Marron. “Beijing insists that TCM has been playing a crucial role in COVID-19 prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. Claims continue to be made for ‘effective TCM recipes.’ However, no randomised clinical trial has been published in any reputable journal. TCM needs proper scrutiny, but criticising it could land you years in prison.”

April – July – Frank Visser published a series of essays entitled "The Corona Conspiracies." Topics include David Icke, oxygen, 5G, Andrew Kaufman, exosomes, and Stefan Lanka.

May 30 – Adrienne Dunn wrote “Fact check: Wearing a face mask will not cause hypoxia, hypoxemia or hypercapnia.”

June 3 – On Quackwatch, Stephen Barrett posted “Ty Bollinger unmasked.” “Ty Bollinger, who operates TheTruthAboutCancer Web and Facebook page, advises people not to wear face masks to protect against COVID-19…Bollinger concerns me because his advice about masks can kill people and a lot of people seem to pay attention to him. In March 2020, the Facebook page was reported to have more than 1.1 million followers. In addition to criticizing masks, he is spreading false information to discourage use of a COVID-19 vaccine when one is developed.”

June 14 – Mehra and others wrote “A homeopathic defence against COVID-19 is no defence at all.”

Other topics

Best of the blogs, June – on Science-Based Medicine, Scott Gavura:

Harriet Hall:

  • Reviewed What Really Makes You Ill?: Why Everything You Thought You Knew About Disease Is Wrong, by Dawn Lester and David Parker. “This book is wrong, wrong, wrong! They don’t seem to understand science, how it works, and why it is so important. They rely on opinions rather than on evidence. If you don’t think ‘some random scientist reportedly said’ is evidence, if you value science, this book is not for you.”

  • Wrote “Should we avoid dairy out of fear of cancer?” “The observational studies looking for a correlation between cancer and consumption of dairy foods are far from definitive, and their conclusions are often conflicting. While there is legitimate concern about IGF-1, the evidence has not shown that fear of cancer is a good reason to avoid consuming dairy products.”

  • Asked: “Does a new formulation of turmeric [UPGRAID] offer the best bioavailability and efficacy?” “…they never specify what clinically significant health benefits to expect, and they don’t provide any evidence that it is superior to other turmeric products or that it is actually effective for anything.”

  • Discussed Dr. Seeds' Chill Pills, a product containing dihydrohonokiol-B from magnolia bark, and alleged to relieve stress and anxiety. “Chill Pills are not supported by scientific evidence. If you are suffering from stress and anxiety, they might produce placebo effects, but you would probably be better off consulting a science-based health care professional.”

Clay Jones:

  • Posted “Lotus Birth to blame for death of Australian newborn.” In lotus birth, the baby is left attached to the placenta for several days, presenting risk of infection.

Braden MacBeth:

  • Reviewed EMF*D, by Joe Mercola. “It’s not enough to sell people ineffective, unproven treatments for health conditions they do have. Mercola has to take it a step further and try to convince people whatever random aches and pains people might feel on a regular basis are attributable to the roll-out of 5G cellular networks, or Wi-Fi in order to sell them junk.

On Respectful Insolence, “Orac”:

  • Posted “Beijing proposes criminalizing ‘slandering’ or ‘libeling’ TCM” [traditional Chinese medicine]. “Although the proposed regulation is a local one applying to Beijing, it’s not hard to imagine its wider adoption.”

Edzard Ernst:

  • Wrote “The 'Lightning Process': implausible, unproven, hyped and expensive.” “The Lightning Process (LP) is a commercial programme developed by Phil Parker based on ideas from osteopathy, life coaching and neuro-linguistic programming…So, what do we call a therapy for which numerous, far-reaching claims are being made, which is based on implausible assumptions, which is unproven, and for which people have to pay dearly? The last time I looked, it was called quackery.”

  • Discussed a new review of ozone therapy for osteoarthritis. “The authors write that they cannot arrive at a verdict about efficacy because of the poor quality of the primary studies. I think the conclusion is very clear and should have been expressed bluntly. THE AVAILABLE DATA FAIL TO SHOW EFFICACY; THE THERAPY IS THUS UNPROVEN AND SHOULD THEREFORE NOT BE USED.”

  • Posted a declaration on homeopathy by German medical students. “I congratulate the students for their courage and wisdom to publish it. They are the future of German medicine, a future where homeopathy’s place is exclusively in the history books as a bizarre episode of anti-science.”

  • Wrote “The largest German homeopathic manufacturer (DHU) just admitted that homeopathic remedies have no effect.”

  • Guest blogger Loretta Marron posted “World Health Organization and Beijing – an unhealthy partnership?” Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) “is commercially driven. Criticism of remedies is often blocked on the Internet in China, and critics have been jailed. The majority of TCM’s are not tested for efficacy in randomized clinical trials…TCM’s are not safe…TCM is not medicine. It’s little more than a philosophy or a set of traditional beliefs, about various concoctions and interventions and their alleged effect on health and diseases. To stop misleading the world with what Mao himself saw as nonsense, and to mitigate future pandemics, WHO can and should remove all mention of TCM other than to state that it is unproven and could be dangerous.”

  • In a three-part series, updated his 2008 reviews of acupuncture and related methods with results from 54 Cochrane reviews Part 1 Part 2 Part 3. “…the totality of the evidence from these 54 Cochrane reviews does send an important message: there is hardly a single condition for which acupuncture is clearly, convincingly and indisputably effective. What I find most regrettable, however, is that the Cochrane Collaboration allowed the often biased review authors to obscure this crucial message so thoroughly.”

  • Was unconvinced by a study supporting the use of acupuncture for irritable bowel syndrome. “I find it regrettable that supposedly decent journals publish such papers without even the slightest attempt of a critical discussion of its findings.”

  • Wrote “An interview with a charlatan – chiropractors boosting the immune system.” “...do these chiropractors really believe this nonsense, or do they merely promote it because it is good for business?”

  • Discussed a study of osteopathy for Parkinson’s disease patients suffering from Pisa syndrome. “The fact the authors report outcome data, indicates to me that this is, in fact, not a pilot study, but a hopelessly underpowered clinical trial. This means that the findings could be due merely to chance alone.”

  • Posted “The effect of lavender on sleep quality.” “It is not at all implausible that lavender has hypnotic effects. There are now quite a few reasonably sound trials that suggest it works.”

June – Maunder and others published “Effectiveness of Herbal Medicines for Weight Loss: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials” (Diabetes Obes Metab. 2020;22(6):891-903 Abstract). “There is currently insufficient evidence to recommend any of the herbal medicines for weight loss included in the present review.”

June – A review by Safari et al. (Complement Ther Med. 2020 Jun;51:102414 Abstract) concluded that “The present study suggests that although barberry supplementation significantly improves insulin levels; however, other glycemic indices might not be affected. However, more high-quality RCTs with longer duration are needed to further clarify the effects of barberry on blood glucose control, especially among patients with diabetes.”

June – Asbaghi and others reviewed “The effect of green coffee extract supplementation on anthropometric measures in adults” (Complement Ther Med. 2020;51:102424 Abstract). They concluded, “We found that GCE supplementation had a beneficial effect on body weight, BMI [body mass index] and WC [waist circumference]. It provides a cost-effective and safe alternative for the treatment of obesity. Additional well-designed studies are required to further confirm our findings.”

June 1 – The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is “sending refund checks totaling almost $149,000 to consumers who bought ReJuvenation ‘anti-aging’ pill.” The product was “deceptively marketed as a cure-all for a range of age-related ailments including cell damage, heart attack damage, brain damage, and deafness.”

June 16 – A News release was entitled “FDA Warns Four Manufacturers of Unapproved Injectable Drugs Labeled as Homeopathic.” “The FDA is particularly concerned about unapproved injectable drug products labeled as homeopathic because they are injected directly into the body, often directly into the bloodstream and bypass some of the body's key natural defenses against toxins, toxic ingredients and dangerous organisms that can cause serious and life-threatening harm.” Steven Novella discussed the action on Science-Based Medicine. “The products in question contain mercury, lead, strychnine, and deadly nightshade. Diluting horrible toxins to negligible levels is standard homeopathic practice, so that in itself is not new. But the FDA found that these substances were present in wildly variable doses in tested product, and in some cases in potentially toxic doses... The only sustainable solution is not to think that you can regulate pseudoscience, but instead to ban it. The FDA should not seek to make homeopathy safe. Pseudoscience is inherently unsafe.” Edzard Ernst also discussed the warnings: “...it is time that homeopaths understand what proofs of safety and efficacy amount to, that they stop confusing the public, and that they stop marketing illegal products.”

June 25 – The FTC took action against a low-level light therapy devise Press release. Marketers of Willow Curve “will have to stop making alleged deceptive claims that the device treats chronic, severe pain and associated inflammation.” Jann Bellamy discussed the events on Science-Based Medicine.

June 26 – Stephen Barrett published “A skeptical look at Deborah E. Banker, M.D.” on Quackwatch. Banker died in 2007, but her unconventional approaches to a variety of eye problems are still being promoted. “...for most people, following her advice would be a waste of time, money, or both. But for those with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), it could prove dangerous...The earlier that treatment is started, the better the outcome will be, which means that delaying treatment by pursuing ineffective methods—in some cases, even for a few days—can have serious consequences.”

June 28 – Jonathan LaPook wrote “Do probiotics actually do anything?” for 60 Minutes.

Additions to previous months

April, 2019 – Vellekkatt and Menon published a meta-analysis of vitamin D supplementation for major depression (J Postgrad Med. 2019;65(2):74-80 Paper). They found that “Vitamin D supplementation favorably impacted depression ratings in major depression with a moderate effect size. These findings must be considered tentative owing to the limited number of trials available and inherent methodological bias noted in few of them.”

December, 2019 – Crichton and others reviewed efficacy of ginger for chemotherapy patients (J Acad Nutr Diet. 2019;119(12):2055-68 Abstract). “Ginger supplementation might benefit chemotherapy-induced vomiting as well as fatigue. Due to clinical heterogeneity, this systematic review update found no association between ginger and chemotherapy-induced nausea and other chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting-related outcomes.”

January 3, 2020 – Ding and others reviewed effects of green coffee bean extract on lipid profiles (Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2020;30(1):1-10 Paper). “The evidence from available studies suggests that the GCBE supplementation leads to significant reductions in total cholesterol, HDL-C, and LDL-C levels, and has modest, but, non-significant effects on triglycerides levels.” [see also June item above]

March – Piracetam is a prescription drug for cognitive impairment and dementia in Europe, but is not approved in the United States. Cohen, Zakharevich, and Gerona (JAMA Intern Med. 2019;180(3):458-59 Abstract) purchased samples of cognitive enhancement supplements containing piracetam online, and found some contained recommended levels that were dangerously high. “Our findings demonstrate that even after the FDA rejected an application to market piracetam as a new supplement ingredient, the drug was nevertheless introduced into the marketplace. Despite FDA warning letters, the products remain on the market.”

March – Phytotherapy Research published reviews of effects of three spices on body weight and lipid profiles. Yazdanpanah and others (Phytother Res. 2020;34(3):448-463 Abstract) found that “Cinnamon supplementation significantly reduces body weight, BMI [body mass index], and WHR [waist-hip ratio]. Future high‐quality long‐term RCTs are recommended to confirm these results.” Baziar and Parohan (Phytother Res. 2020;34(3):464-474 Abstract) noted that “Curcumin [found in turmeric] supplementation significantly reduced BMI... and WC [waist circumference]... However, no significant effects of curcumin supplementation on body weight were found. These results suggest that curcumin supplementation might have a positive effect on visceral fat and abdominal obesity that have been associated with NAFLD [nonalcoholic fatty liver disease].” Shekarchizadeh-Esfahani et al. (Phytother Res. 2020;34(3):475-485 Abstract) concluded that “cardamom supplementation did not significantly change the concentrations of total cholesterol..., low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol..., or high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol...However, a significant reduction was observed in serum triglyceride...but for confirming the results, more studies exclusively on dyslipidemia patients and considering the intake of lipid lowering agents as exclusion criteria are necessary.”

April 1 – An essay by Donald Marcus was entitled “Alternative therapies in academic medical centers compromise evidence-based patient care” (J Clin Invest. 2020;130(4):1549-51 Paper). “Integrative medicine centers undermine evidence-based medical practice and education. They promote unsound and potentially hazardous therapies and provide flawed curricula to health care students and graduate physicians in training...Offering therapies that are not supported by evidence-based standards is a failure to adhere to professional tenets. It deceives patients and prevents them from making informed decisions about treatment options. Academic medical centers should be a source of sound advice for the public, instead of promoting unproven health practices.”

May – Edzard Ernst wrote “Fallacies of esoteric medicine” (Wien Klin Wochenschr. 2020;132(9-10):224-7 Paper). “Esoteric medicine” is another term for alternative, complementary, or integrative medicine, etc. “The above and many other fallacies are regularly used in EM as tools with one common purpose: to mislead the public such that even the most extravagant absurdities of EM might appear more plausible. Collectively they help foster and perpetuate a culture of unreason that is essential for EM to thrive.”

May – Cukaci and others published “Against all odds – the persistent popularity of homeopathy” (Wien Klin Wochenschr. 2020;132(9-10):232-42 Paper). The article presents many scientific arguments against the validity of homeopathy.

May 27 – Ryan Felton wrote “FDA’s supplement warning system has deadly limitations” for Consumer Reports. The article discusses CAERS (the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Adverse Event Reporting System), “a collection of complaints about dietary supplements and other products submitted by consumers, healthcare practitioners, and manufacturers.”