JUNE 2021 NEWS
Featured topic: coronavirus
On Science-Based Medicine,
Jann Bellamy posted:
“Legislatures and litigation: anti-vaxxers continue attacks on COVID mitigation.”
David Gorski posted:
“’COVID-19 vaccines are going to sterilize our womenfolk,’ Take 2.” “Antivaxxers have long claimed that vaccines, particularly HPV vaccines, can damage the ovaries and cause female infertility. That claim has been resurrected for COVID-19 vaccines…The bottom line is that there is no evidence that the lipid nanoparticles in the Pfizer vaccine (or any of the COVID-19 vaccines) accumulate at significant quantities in the ovaries, much less cause female infertility.”
“'Depopulation' by COVID-19 vaccines?” “COVID-19 and antivaccine conspiracy theorists like Joe Mercola, Michael Yeadon, and Peter McCullough are spreading the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 vaccines are intended as a tool for ‘global depopulation.’ This is nothing more than an old antivaccine conspiracy theory repurposed for the pandemic.”
“Ivermectin is the new hydroxychloroquine, take 2.” “I’d be happy to change my mind if compelling scientific evidence for ivermectin were published. It’s just that neither of these reviews qualify, nor do any of the clinical trials I’ve seen thus far. That’s why I agree that ivermectin shouldn’t be used to treat COVID-19 outside of the context of a well-designed clinical trial with a strong scientific rationale.” (See also Respectful Insolence item below). His post on Respectful Insolence provides additional information.
Jonathan Howard posted:
“Are COVID-19 hospitalizations for children inflated?” “Millions of children have contracted COVID-19. Millions more remain vulnerable. Discussions on COVID-19 and children should acknowledge the totality of how it affects them. No one benefits when the risks are sensationalized or completely glossed over.”
“What exactly did the virus do to all these people? Reflections on Ted Nugent, Mel Q, Kelly Brogan, and John Ioannidis.” “The notion that many people are dying with SARS-CoV-2 not from SARS-CoV-2 has hindered our ability to contain to the virus. Whether the source is QAnon influencers or a highly credentialed scientists, we must push back on narratives that are used to minimize the danger of COVID-19.”
“COVID-19 and balancing the risks: The vaccine or the virus.” “Given recent reports of myocarditis after vaccination with mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines in young people, we think it’s a good time to reexamine the risk/benefit ratio of these vaccines in this population.” “Orac” also addressed the subject on Respectful Insolence. “The evolving bottom line appears to be that there does seem to be a small but real increased risk of myocarditis from the mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines, but the risk-benefit profile still favors vaccination.”
On Respectful Insolence, “Orac” posted:
“Holocaust misappropriation by antivaxxers: A form of Holocaust denial.”
“Del Bigtree could have died because he refused transfusion from donors vaccinated against COVID-19.”
“CGGCGG: The latest new-old wrinkle in the COVID-19 ‘lab leak’ conspiracy theory.” “Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal published an editorial claiming that the sequence CGGCGG in SARS-CoV-2 means that the coronavirus must be engineered. It’s utter nonsense.”
“Juneteenth and Naomi Wolf: antivaxxers co-opt another symbol to portray themselves as ‘oppressed’.”
“’If you’re pro-science, then you should be anti-vaccine’?” “Antivaxxers love to claim the mantle of science and that they are more pro-science than vaccine advocates. They aren’t, although it is often true that they appear to ‘know’ more about vaccines. The problem is motivated reasoning based on cherry picked evidence.”
Edzard Ernst:
Posted twice concerning a paper by Harald Walach concerning the relative risks and benefits of COVID-19 vaccines. The first post provided critical comments on the study. The second post notes that the paper was retracted by the journal, and gives the explanation for the retraction from the editorial board.
June 4 – Jarry wrote “The upside-down doctor” for McGill Office for Science and Society. “Dr. Joe Mercola is an osteopathic physician who sells supplements and wellness products and his net worth is $100 million. He uses low-quality scientific studies to justify the many supplements he sells while denouncing high-quality studies that disagree with him because their funders are allegedly corrupt. The book he co-wrote about COVID-19 is full of unproven and disproven treatments and preventative measures while arguing that the pandemic itself is being used by people in power to permanently strip the rest of us of money and resources.”
Other topics
Best of the blogs, June – on Science-Based Medicine,
Jann Bellamy:
Wrote “H.R. 2654 forces Medicare to treat chiropractors and MDs as equals.” “Chiropractors are deceptively trying to sell H.R. 2654 as expanded Medicare coverage for musculoskeletal conditions. The bill actually mandates that Medicare treat chiropractors and medical doctors as equals, covering anything a chiropractors are authorized to do under their expansive state scope of practice laws.”
Apoorva Chandra:
Reviewed a trial of yoga for diabetes. “Back in December, 2020, Chief Scientist for the WHO Dr. Soumya Swaminathan tweeted about a study that suggested yoga helped improve various blood markers in people with diabetes. However, a major flaw prevents the study from being rigorous enough to believe its conclusions.”
Scott Gavura:
Discussed the newly approved drug for Alzheimer’s in “No evidence, no problem: A closer look at the aducanumab approval.” “With aducanumab, the FDA has approved a drug that failed its Phase 3 clinical trials, and its own advisory committee recommended against approval. And the basis of approval was a surrogate endpoint that has not been shown to correlate with any clinically meaningful outcome for patients. With this approval, it may have done serious damage to its own reputation as a regulator.”
Posted “The risks associated with alternative medicine.” “In a new paper, the types and severity of harms from different types of alternative medicine are described.” The paper is: Garrett et al. Health Soc Care Community. 2021 May 26. Epub ahead of print. Paper.
David Gorski:
Wrote “NCCIH Strategic Plan 2021–2025: Meet the new plan, same as the old plan…?’ “The new plan is the same as old plans, and then some. It’s smarter in that it hides the quackery, something the last plan did, but in a cleverer way. Sadly, NCCIH [National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health] appears to be back and poised to be as quacky as ever.”
Harriet Hall:
Reviewed “The Natural Medicine Handbook.” “Larimore provides an invaluable summary of evidence from Natural Medicines and ConsumerLab that would not otherwise be accessible without a subscription. I applaud that. He provides a lot of valid science-based information, and I agree with much of what he says. But I am torn when it comes to his recommendations. He promises to only recommend products that are both safe and effective, but then he recommends products that have not been proven safe and effective. They are supported by some evidence, but not the kind of high-quality evidence that most rigorously science-based observers would like to see…Larimore has done an excellent job of pointing out all the reasons why we can’t trust supplements, but he seems to disregard those reasons in many cases, and it’s not clear to me why he makes the recommendations he does.”
Braden MacBeth:
Posted “Bad documentary review: The Great Culling.” “The Great Culling is a mess of an anti-fluoridation documentary trying to scare you into…something.”
Steven Novella:
Wrote “Integrative neurology – more bait and switch.” “Integrative medicine is a marketing concept still rife with pseudoscience.”
Edzard Ernst:
Posted “Integrative medicine does not reduce adverse effects in cancer patients.”
Wrote “Acupuncture for acute low back pain: a new systematic review.” “I do appreciate the authors’ call for caution in interpreting the findings. Yet, I feel that much more caution than the authors advise is needed here: Most studies are from China, and we have often seen that these trials cannot be trusted. Only 2 RCTs are sham-controlled which means that most studies failed to control for placebo effects. Most studies do not mention adverse effects, confirming the unethically low standards of these investigations. I am afraid that this new review does not inspire me with confidence that acupuncture is an effective therapy for acute LBP.”
Posted “Ayurvedic herbs for hyperlipidemia?” Ernst did not find the evidence convincing.
Discussed a study of tai chi for weight loss. He noted, “it is not just the Tai chi intervention but both types of exercise that yield significantly positive effects on the primary outcome measure. So, why did the authors not conclude exercise is an effective approach to reduce WC in adults with central obesity aged 50 years or older?”
Wrote about “Qigong for women with breast cancer: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis.” “No, this review does not show that Qigong is beneficial for improving quality of life and relieving depression and anxiety! Why? Most primary studies were of very poor quality. Most were from China, and we know (and have often discussed) that such trials are most unreliable. No trial even attempted to control for placebo effects.”
Had a post by Norbert Aust and Viktor Weisshäupl entitled “A thorough analysis of Prof M. Frass' recent homeopathy trial casts serious doubts on its reliability.” The study supposedly found that “homeopathy improves the quality of life and survival of cancer patients.” “In conclusion, it seems likely that the substantial modifications of crucial study parameters that occurred after the study had been started and results had become available biased the results in favor of homeopathy. Therefore, this study does not meet strict scientific standards that were established to exclude any confounding factors or biases. If our analysis is correct, the results of this study are invalid, and the authors’ conclusions are not justified. Retraction of this study seems to be appropriate.”
Wrote “The unfamous 'Atox Bio Computer' and the infamous Prof. Michael Frass.” Homeopathy researcher Frass (see above) once promoted a quack device that is now being marketed to protect against electromagnetic radiation.
Posted “The situation of homeopathy in France: an update.”
June – Denham wrote “Dietary supplements in the USA: problematic trends” (Public Health Nutr. 2021 Jun;24(9):2771-2775 Paper). “Contaminants included anabolic steroids, erectile dysfunction medications, weight-loss drugs, workout stimulants and mind-altering substances. As the article points out, raw powders obtained in bulk quantities facilitate the practice of ‘home brewing’ and the introduction of prescription drugs into dietary supplements.”
June – The Pew Charitable Trusts published “Harms linked to unapproved stem cell interventions highlight need for greater FDA enforcement.”
Additions to previous months
December, 2020 – Wexler and others reviewed “website claims of neurofeedback providers” (J Cogn Enhanc. 2020 Dec;4(4):379-388 Paper). “We found that nearly all websites (97.0%) contained claims about at least one clinical indication, most commonly anxiety, ADHD/ADD, and depression; however, only 36.0% of providers had either a medical degree (MD) or a doctoral-level degree in psychology... In sum, there is a considerable divergence between the scientific literature on neurofeedback and the marketing of neurofeedback services to the general public, raising concerns regarding the misrepresentation of services and misleading advertising claims.” Many providers also offered other services and products that are of questionable validity.
April, 2021 – A review by Simsek and others (Clin Nutr ESPEN. 2021 Apr;42:1-14 Abstract) concluded that “Vitamin supplementation does not improve clinical cardiovascular outcomes in general population.”