Featured topic: coronavirus
On Science-Based Medicine,
Jann Bellamy posted:
“State legislatures consider bills prohibiting COVID-19 vaccination mandates and other public health measures.” “Given the inevitability of future pandemics and other health emergencies, I worry about how states will manage without the public health tools eliminated by this year’s proposed legislation.”
Scott Gavura posted:
“Vitamin D shows no efficacy against moderate to severe COVID-19 infections.” The paper described is: Murai et al. JAMA. 2021 Feb 17:e2026848. “…there is good evidence that many people have vitamin D deficiency, and supplementation may in fact be appropriate. But there is no strong evidence to suggest that supplementation will help protect you from severe COVID-19 infections.” An editorial in the journal discusses the paper: “…taken together with existing randomized clinical trials of vitamin D administration in hospitalized patients with respiratory infection and critical illness, the results reported by Murai et al do not support routine administration of vitamin D in hospitalized patients with moderate to severe COVID-19.”
David Gorski posted:
“A ‘not antivaccine’ antivax pediatrician [Dr. Liz Mumper] asks how we will know a COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective.” “So what do we call a person and organization that proclaim themselves ‘not antivaccine’ but basically creates impossible standards that have to be met before they will agree that a vaccine is safe and effective?”
“Antivaxxers misrepresent a study to falsely claim that COVID-19 vaccines cause cancer.” “There is no good evidence that mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines cause cancer or even have a plausible mechanism by which they could cause cancer. Mike Adams’ minion S.D. Wells is, quite simply, spreading disinformation.”
“The Brownstein protocol is not a proven treatment for COVID-19.” “Dr. David Brownstein is a ‘holistic’ physician…he just wrote a book promoting an unproven protocol involving vitamins, nebulized hydrogen peroxide and iodine, and intravenous ozone to treat COVID-19. There is no evidence that his protocol works, other than a very poor quality case series.”
“What the heck happened to John Ioannidis?” “John Ioannidis is one of the most published and influential scientists in the world, someone whose skewering of bad medical research we at SBM have frequently lauded over the years. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Since then, Prof. Ioannidis has been publishing dubious studies that minimize the dangers of the coronavirus…”
Steven Novella posted:
“COVID vaccines probably prevent spread.” “We now have solid but preliminary evidence that the first two vaccines released in the US not only prevent disease, they also significantly prevent spread.”
“Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine safety.” “The experts are all in agreement here – the reported events are likely background events not related to the vaccine, and in any case the benefits of getting vaccinated still vastly outweigh any potential risks.”
“The origins of SARS-CoV-2.” “The joint WHO-China investigation report concludes that a lab origin for COVID-19 is ‘extremely unlikely’ but doubts remain.”
On Respectful Insolence, “Orac” posted:
“COVID-19 vaccination, lymph nodes, and mammography guidelines.” “Reports of enlarged lymph nodes under the arm after COVID-19 vaccination have led doctors to tweak mammography guidelines. Antivaxxers, unsurprisingly, have tried to weaponize this observation to spread fear and confusion about these vaccines.”
“Harmful messages from authority about the J&J COVID-19 vaccine.” Actions of Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and mixed messages from the Roman Catholic Church were discussed.
“Poor, poor, pitiful Prof. Gøtzsche: Antivaxxers and COVID-19 cranks are quoting him in support of their pseudoscience.” “Luc Montagnier is indeed an excellent cautionary example that Prof. Gøtzsche should heed before it’s too late and he, too, has gone so far beyond being a harsh but not entirely unreasonable critic of pharma into the realm of conspiracy theorist and pseudoscience promoter that it is too late for him to come back.”
“A blast from the early pandemic past: Healight to treat COVID-19.” “Adding to that the implausibility of the principles behind the device, I can only conclude that this study is what I like to refer to as underwhelming. It is not compelling evidence, over a year into the pandemic, that a breakthrough has been made in treating critically ill COVID-19 patients on a ventilator.”
“Geert Vanden Bossche is to COVID-19 vaccines as Andrew Wakefield is to MMR.” “Geert Vanden Bossche is a scientist who published an open letter warning of global catastrophe due to deadly variants of COVID-19 selected for by mass vaccination. His argument sounds a lot like an argument Andrew Wakefield once made for MMR. There’s even grift likely involved!” Alex Kasprak also discussed Vanden Bossche for Snopes. “Anti-vaccine activists are promoting a veterinarian's claim that the only way to prevent a future COVID-19 vaccination-related calamity is through a product he claims to have invented.”
“ICAN’s deceptive legalistic war on state departments of health over COVID-19 vaccination messaging.” “Antivaccine propagandist Del Bigtree’s ICAN is waging a legalistic war on state health departments’ efforts to promote COVID-19 vaccination based on attacking them for ‘false advertising.’ This is largely an unforced error on the part of health departments, which now need to be very cautious over their wording promoting these vaccines.”
Edzard Ernst posted:
“HOMEOPATHY – ‘It is not just irresponsible, it’s downright dangerous’.” “It has been reported that the Middlesex University is cutting its ties with the UK’s biggest provider of homeopathy training after it peddled vaccine misinformation and encouraged the use of homeopathic potions made with phlegm to protect against and treat Covid-19.”
“Chinese herbal medicine for COVID-19? The evidence remains unconvincing.” “One of the principles to remember here is this: RUBBISH IN, RUBBISH OUT. If you meta-analyze primary data that are rubbish, your findings can only be rubbish as well. All one needs to know about the primary data entered into the present analysis is that there were no rigorous RCTs… not one! That means the evidence is, as the authors rightly but modestly conclude of LOW CERTAINTY.”
January 6 – Fiore wrote “What's Behind the Ivermectin-for-COVID Buzz?” for MedPage Today.
March 9 – Felton provided an updated article for Consumer Reports, “Beware Dietary Supplements Marketed Online.
Overwhelmed regulators can't stop all schemers selling fake COVID-19 cures and other questionable products.”
Other topics
Best of the blogs, March – on Science-Based Medicine,
Jann Bellamy posted:
“Legislative alchemy: state licensing of ‘the profession of reflexology’.” “Following the playbook of other practitioners of pseudoscience, reflexologists aim to become state-licensed health care professionals, a status they’ve already achieved in four states. With bills pending in New York and Nebraska, they move closer to their goal of legitimizing their quackery in all 50 states…Like their fellow practitioners of pseudoscience, reflexologists have created an infrastructure to serve as a foundation for their legitimization: schools, a professional association, certification boards. Conveniently, the states can blindly incorporate the ‘standards’ for reflexology education, training, and practice concocted by these organizations into state law, thereby entrusting the reflexologists themselves to determine their qualifications (such as they are) and scope of practice.” Noting that articles about reflexology from medical sources do not point out its absurdity, she wrote: “If the esteemed physicians at the Mayo Clinic, WebMD, and the venerable National Institutes of Health are willing to toss basic anatomy and physiology out the window, is it any wonder that mere state legislators would be willing to legitimize reflexologists by making them licensed health care professionals?”
Kenneth Foster and Chung-Kwang Chou posted:
Did microwaves harm US employees at its embassy in Havana?” “A recent review of unexplained symptoms in employees of the US Embassy in Havana pointed to microwaves. Was it mass psychogenic illness instead? Or something entirely different?”
Harriet Hall posted:
“Energy Medicine pain relief patches are laughable quackery.” “There’s no acceptable scientific evidence that these patches work to relieve pain. The advertising features pseudoscientific energy medicine gibberish. Good for a laugh, but not to be believed.”
“Rightful for Pain: Deceptive Advertising and a Dangerous Ingredient.” “Rightful is a mixture of herbal ingredients alleged to relieve pain, improve sleep, and ‘restore your body to its optimal state’.” There is no evidence of effectiveness, and one of the ingredients, ashwagandha, has been linked to many adverse effects (see also March 8 item below).
“Who is Amy B. Scher?” “Amy B. Scher is a proponent of energy medicine and things like astrology and homeopathy. She claims to be a ‘science geek,’ but how could anyone who understands science think that tapping on the breastbone will fix the thymus?”
“Access Consciousness: a new version of phrenology?” “Access Consciousness claims to have located 32 points on the head that store thoughts, emotions, and memories.”
Clay Jones posted:
“Nonsense for elephants: the Houston Zoo promotes kinesiology tape.” There is no evidence in support of kinesiology taping in humans; with the thick skin and strong muscles of elephants, it is even more preposterous.
“Ear acupuncture for Procedural Pain in Neonates: More Randomized Controlled Nonsense.” “A recently published multicenter randomized and placebo controlled study attempted to answer the question of whether or not magnetic acupuncture beads stuck on premature baby ears reduced pain during a common screening exam. They don’t. And they might have made things worse for these babies…though it is almost certainly safe, it is a waste of time and resources. And the introduction of this kind of pseudoscience into medicine helps to further erode the already crumbling bulkhead separating science-based medicine from prescientific belief.”
Steven Novella posted:
“A worthless acupuncture study in cancer patients.” “Studies like this one are, in my opinion, unethical. Acupuncture is a disproven hypothesis that should be rejected. But if there are those who still cling to this mythology and wish to study it, the only ethically appropriate studies are ones that ask if acupuncture works and are properly designed to answer that question. This study is not.” Edzard Ernst also criticized the paper. “The study does not control for placebo effects and therefore its results are consistent with acupuncture itself having no effect at all.”
On Respectful Insolence, “Orac”:
Discussed “The 'Disinformation Dozen' vs. public health.” “A new report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate shows that nearly two thirds of antivaccine disinformation on social media comes from 12 sources, dubbed the ‘disinformation dozen’.”
Edzard Ernst:
Asked, “Do US osteopaths still use manipulation?” He also reported on a new paper showing that “The effects of osteopathic manipulation on back pain are of questionable relevance.”
Posted “Acupuncture for migraine prevention? Two new systematic reviews yield encouraging evidence.” “Unquestionably, these are interesting findings. How reliable are they? Acupuncture trials are in several ways notoriously tricky, and many of the primary studies were of poor quality. This means the results are not as reliable as one would hope. Yet, it seems to me that migraine prevention is one of the indications where the evidence for acupuncture is strongest. A second question might be practicability. How realistic is it for a patient to receive regular acupuncture sessions for migraine prevention? And finally, we might ask how cost-effective acupuncture is for that purpose and how its cost-effectiveness compares to other options.”
Discussed a paper on “The effects of reiki on heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, and stress levels.” He had several questions concerning the study, including: “Why did the reviewers of this paper let it pass? Why does any journal publish such rubbish?”
Posted “This is what happens when pseudoscience is called out in academia,” by Les Rose. Critics have been trying to get a journal to retract a pseudoscientific paper on energy medicine.
Discussed “Homeopathic Treatment of Women with Chronic Diseases: a new ‘pragmatic’ trial.” Because of the placebo effect, the results “are entirely predictable and totally unrelated to homeopathy.”
March – Boynton reviewed the movie Deej for Skeptical Inquirer (2021 Mar/Apr:45(2):60-1). “The film was marketed as a Peabody Award–winning, Emmy-nominated film on autism, adoption, and inclusion that was excellent for the virtual classroom.” Unfortunately, it “is an uncritical promotion of a discredited technique called facilitated communication (FC).” (See also Feb. 18 item below.)
March 8 – The Medical Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics (2021 Mar 8;63(1619):39-40) reviewed ashwagandha, “an herb extracted from the roots of an evergreen shrub (Withania somnifera) found in India that has been used as a ‘tonic’ for centuries.” It concluded that “There is no convincing evidence that ashwagandha supplements are effective or safe for any indication; patients should be advised not to take them.”
March 25 – Stem cell expert Paul Knoepfler wrote “Fact-checking stem cell face cream: less than face value.” His summary: “Stem cells have generated a lot of buzz, only some of it legitimate. Stem cell cream makers claim that these extremely expensive products will make you look younger, potentially based on impacting your stem cells. Other products claim to have stem cells or extracts in them. My research as discussed in this article suggests that there is little-to-no strong data to support these claims. It is likely that these creams do not do anything helpful beyond ingredients in face creams in general that do not make stem cell-related claims. It is also possible the creams could have risks so you should consult your doctor.”
Additions to previous months
November 2020 – Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey indicated that “Regular intake of glucosamine/chondroitin is associated with lower all-cause and CVD [cardiovascular disease] mortality” (King et al. J Am Board Fam Med. 2020 Nov-Dec;33(6):842-847 Paper).
February 2 – Roberts published “Read this before you buy a genetic testing kit” for Consumer Reports. “In the end, DTC genetic tests can provide certain insights, but it’s important to be aware of their limitations. And keep in mind that your genetics are only one element of your overall well-being: Your environment, healthcare access, and behavior are also important…”
February 4 and 24 – Consumer Reports published a pair of articles: “An illegal dietary supplement named tianeptine is being sold to Americans, and the FDA knows it”; “The FDA waited 9 months to warn the public on tianeptine, a supplement ‘worse than heroin’.”
February 17 – A global summit was held concerning “the efficacy and effectiveness of spinal manipulative therapy for the prevention and treatment of non-musculoskeletal disorders” (Côté et al. Chiropr Man Therap 29, 8 (2021) Paper). The method is used by chiropractors and others. “We found no evidence of an effect of SMT for the management of non-musculoskeletal disorders including infantile colic, childhood asthma, hypertension, primary dysmenorrhea, and migraine. This finding challenges the validity of the theory that treating spinal dysfunctions with SMT has a physiological effect on organs and their function.”
February 18 – A new website is devoted to facilitated communication, “a thoroughly discredited but persistent technique.” Contributors to the site are Katharine Beals, Janyce Boynton, Steve Sobel, and Stuart Vyse.
February 19 – A News release was entitled “FDA Warns 10 Companies for Illegally Selling Dietary Supplements Claiming to Treat Depression and Other Mental Health Disorders.”