OCTOBER 2022 NEWS
Featured topic: coronavirus
On Science-Based Medicine,
David Gorski posted:
The state of Florida spreads antivaccine disinformation disguised as an epidemiological ‘study’.” “Florida State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo released a non-peer-reviewed ‘study’ that recommends against males aged 18 to 39 receiving mRNA COVID-19 vaccines based on bad epidemiology and science…It’s a hell of a thing when an actual state public health apparatus publishes something that’s not just wrong, but intentionally misleading and dangerous, such as this study with anonymous authors. It has succeeded in its purpose, to serve as what seems to lay people like scientific justification for antivaccine messaging.”
“’I know you are but what am I?’ Dr. Aseem Malhotra rails against COVID-19 ‘misinformation’.” “He’s accusing conventional medical authorities, big pharma, and social media companies of spreading medical misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines by using the very techniques of misinformation that he claims to decry, such as cherry-picked studies and conspiracy theories, to do it.”
“The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doesn’t prevent transmission: Antivax disinformation goes viral again.” “…antivaxxers are ignoring everything we’ve learned over the last two years to make the claim that vaccines ‘don’t prevent transmission’.”
“The war on the science-based regulation of medicine accelerates.” “…the forces arrayed against science-based policy have been emboldened by the pandemic and an stronger alliance with political groups that are against government regulation in general.” An article by Anna Merlan was discussed.
“The making of COVID-19 'contrarian' doctors.” “How do doctors become quacks and antivaxxers?”
Jonathan Howard posted:
“Does the mass infection of unvaccinated young people follow the ‘basic principles of public health’?” “A pictorial refutation to a central claim of the Great Barrington Declaration.”
“Audience capture: when COVID influencers follow their followers.”
On Respectful Insolence, “Orac” posted:
“Antivax weaponization of v-safe: Like VAERS on steroids.” “Misrepresentation of VAERS reports has been a longstanding antivaccine propaganda technique. Now Del Bigtree has gotten his hands on V-Safe, the system created to track adverse events after COVID-19 vaccination. The results are, predictably, disinformation.”
“Mike Adams rants about provaccine messaging by the CDC as though it were a BAD thing.” “Right wing cranks at Judicial Watch used a FOIA request to find a CDC plan to promote COVID-19 vaccination with provaccine messaging. Hilarity ensued when Mike Adams found out.”
“America’s Quack [Mehmet Oz], Dr. Joseph Lapado, and the failure of medical academia.” “While it is true that there have been sporadic complaints in academic sources about Dr. Oz and disinformation peddlers like him, overall medical academia - and academia in general - has tolerated misinformation and disinformation in the name of ‘academic freedom’.”
“Tucker Carlson lies about the ACIP.” “The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is meeting today. Last night Tucker Carlson lied about it as mandating COVID-19 vaccines for children before they can go to school.”
“The COVID-19 'vaccine holocaust' accelerates in antivax messaging.” “The antivax lie that vaccines are killing lots of people long predates COVID-19, but now the idea of the ‘vaccine holocaust’ has reached the ridiculously implausible proportions of 20 million dead and 2 billion injured.”
October 7 – Jonathan Jarry wrote “Granola and guns: the rise of conspirituality.” “Take-home message: Conspirituality is a hybrid system of beliefs in which followers believe in grand conspiracies involving governments, corporations, and the media, and that salvation will manifest itself in the form of a spiritual awakening. Conspirituality influencers include Dr. Christiane Northrup, Aubrey Marcus, Mikki Willis, and JP Sears. Conspirituality is associated with science denial on certain topics, notably the COVID-19 pandemic and the COVID-19 vaccines.”
October 13 – Science published an Editorial by H. Holden Thorp entitled “Remember, do no harm?” He discussed misinformation from Dr. Joseph Lapado (see David Gorski item above). “It’s easy to blame the politicians, right-wing cable TV hosts, and podcast hucksters for spreading misinformation. But is it defensible to blame these folks without also acknowledging that unchallenged members of the scientific community are making it possible for them to sow this doubt? Until the scientific community deals with misinformation from within, it cannot expect to deal with it from without.”
October 21 – A paper by Naggie and others (JAMA. 2022 Oct 25;328(16):1595-1603) found that “Among outpatients with mild to moderate COVID-19, treatment with ivermectin, compared with placebo, did not significantly improve time to recovery. These findings do not support the use of ivermectin in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19.”
Other topics
Best of the blogs, October – on Science-Based Medicine,
Scott Gavura:
Reported that “An Appeals Court will permit CFI [Center for Inquiry] to challenge Walmart and CVS for selling homeopathy alongside conventional medicine.”
Asked “Does 'therapeutic ultrasound' actually work?” “Despite popularity, little evidence to show effectiveness. The rationale for ultrasound therapy is based on the (plausible, but unproven) idea that vibrating injured tissue is better than not vibrating it. Given it has been in use for decades, and given possibly thousands (or tens of thousands) of patients receive ultrasound treatments every day, it seems reasonable to expect that it would be well studied and its use would informed by good evidence. Surprisingly and disappointingly, there is a lack of good information to show the benefits of ultrasound, and consequently its role in the treatment of musculoskeletal injuries remains unclear.”
Harriet Hall:
Discussed “Joov and other red light therapies.” “Conclusion: Red light therapy may work, but the evidence is insufficient. Testimonials may be enough to convince some people, but if you’re looking for treatments supported by scientific studies, you will find the evidence for red light therapy lacking.”
Wrote “Neuroplasticity nonsense is full of red flags.” “Conclusion: Adora Winquist’s vision of neuroplasticity is not reliable. You may call it fantasy, imagination, or wishful thinking. Whatever it is, it has nothing to do with evidence or science and can’t be trusted.”
Posted “The Bobath Concept for cerebral palsy and stroke rehabilitation.” The approach is also known as also known as Neurodevelopmental Treatment (NDT). “The Bobath approach seemed promising, offering practical, individualized, multidisciplinary interventions to improve function in cerebral palsy and stroke rehabilitation. But the evidence from scientific studies has not validated its superiority over other treatments. More high-quality research is needed.”
Wrote “The Plant Paradox: Steven Gundry’s war on lectins.” “The book The Plant Paradox is not science-based medicine…Lectins are not our enemies, and the foods Gundry prohibits are part of a science-based healthy diet. Avoiding them might lead to inadequate nutrition.”
Clay Jones:
Posted “A popular home remedy causes severe burns in pediatric patients,” discussing the topical use of garlic to treat skin ailments.
On Respectful Insolence, “Orac”:
Wrote “Dr. Charlie Teo is back in the news.” “I wrote about neurosurgeon Dr. Charlie Teo and his supposedly near-miraculous resections of ‘inoperable’ brain tumors. He’s back, and it turns out that I was likely way too easy on him a decade ago.”
Edzard Ernst:
Posted “Acupuncture for the prevention of headache? How to fool (almost) everyone with an RCT [randomized clinical trial].” “Assuming that all the findings are correctly reported, the study does not at all show that the treatment was effective. It merely demonstrates that those patients who knew that were receiving TA [true acupuncture] told the researcher that they improved more than those who knew they has sham acupuncture…The authors claim they achieved deqi at every treatment. That is 20 treatments in 110 patients or 2 200 deqis!...Deqi cannot reliably be elicited on every single occasion. I, therefore, feel that perhaps the authors of this trial were a bit more than generous when writing up their study, and I am reminded of the recent report claiming that more than 80% of clinical trial data from China are fabricated.”
Wrote “Cranial osteopathy revisited.” “As the college states ‘often patients are quite unaware that anything is happening.’ Is it because nothing is happening? According to the evidence, the answer is YES.”
Discussed a review on energy healing for cancer (Hauptmann et al. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol. 2022 Sep 27 Paper). The authors concluded that “studies with high study quality could not find any difference between bioenergy therapies and active…and passive control groups…Only studies with a low study quality were able to show significant effects.”
Posted “'Arguments' used to defend so-called alternative medicine.” “…the ‘arguments’ used in defense of SCAM are not truly arguments; they are fallacies, misunderstandings, and sometimes even outright lies.”
Wrote “Acupuncture improves the cognitive performance of college students…Oh, really?”
Posted “Yoga for older adults?” “Is it surprising that doing yoga exercises is better than doing nothing at all? No! Is it relevant to demonstrate this fact in an RCT [randomized controlled trial]? No! If anyone wants to test the value of yoga exercises, they must compare them to conventional exercises. And why don’t they do this? Could it be because they know they would be unlikely to show that yoga is superior?”
Discussed “Liver injury associated with turmeric – a case-series.” “Turmeric has been used in food for millennia and is thus generally considered to be safe…One must therefore ask whether the liver injuries were truly caused by turmeric itself or by contaminants. My conclusion is that turmeric is unquestionably an interesting plant with considerable potential as a medicine. At present, there is much hype surrounding it. Yet, hype is almost always contra-productive. If we want to know the true value of turmeric, we need to solve the bioavailability problem and do much more research into its safety and efficacy for defined conditions.”
Posted “Michael Frass' research into homeopathy for cancer: ‘numerous breaches of scientific integrity’,” by Norbert Aust and Viktor Weisshäupl. A study of cancer patients published in Oncologist was discussed. The Austrian Agency for Scientific Integrity “corroborated our findings: The results are not based on sound research but on modified or falsified data.”
Discussed detox diets. “Currently, there is no good clinical evidence for the effectiveness of DDs and some evidence to suggest they might do harm. Many of the DD are liquid-based, low-calorie, and nutrient-poor…DDs may also induce stress, raise cortisol levels, and increase appetite, resulting in binge eating and weight gain. As no convincing positive evidence exists for DDs and detox products, their use needs to be discouraged by health professionals.”
October 3 – Colby Itkowitz and Lenny Bernstein published “As TV doctor, Mehmet Oz provided platform for questionable products and views.” In another story (Oct. 6), Sarah Gantz wrote “What science says about the 'fat burners' and other gimmicks Oz promoted on his TV show.”
October 14 – Jonathan Jarry wrote “Osteopathy needs science to lend a hand.” “Osteopathy has been around for nearly a century and a half. It’s a shame it has been so poorly studied…Take-home message:
Osteopathy is based on the belief that illness comes from the impaired movement of muscles, bones, and their connecting structures, and that an osteopath can restore proper movement using their hands
Offshoots of osteopathy include visceral osteopathy and craniosacral osteopathy, which make extraordinary claims that are not backed up by good evidence
There is an absence of good quality evidence to support the use of osteopathy to address musculoskeletal issues
Osteopathy has been reformed in the United States, with osteopathic physicians receiving training comparable to medical doctors and few of them regularly using osteopathic manual manipulations”
Edzard Ernst discussed Jarry’s article. He noted, “All this comes after it has been shown that worldwide research into osteopathy is scarce and has hardly any impact at all. The question we should therefore ask is this: why do we need osteopaths? PS: Osteopaths in the US have studied medicine, rarely practice manual treatments, and are almost indistinguishable from MDs. Everywhere else, osteopaths are practitioners of so-called alternative medicine.”
October 20 – Christian Moro and Charlotte Phelps discussed urine therapies. “The bottom line is there are no scientifically supported benefits for urine therapies.”
Additions to previous months
September 6 – Paul Knoepfler wrote “Review of cord banker Viacord: dubious autism claims & other concerns.” “There is in fact no good evidence that cord blood can help autism…Overall, in my view Viacord isn’t providing a consistently positive experience for customers and they may be raising false hope. More broadly, I’m a strong supporter of public cord blood banks. I believe for the typical consumer that private banks are almost certainly a waste of money.”
September 15 – Hatfield and others reviewed “Dietary supplements and bleeding” (Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2022 Sep 15;35(6):802-807 Paper). “We found that garlic and hawthorn supplementation is strongly associated with surgical bleeding independent of anticoagulants. Cordyceps sinensis, echinacea, and aloe vera are loosely associated with surgical bleeding independent of anticoagulants. In patients on anticoagulants, ginkgo biloba, chondroitin-glucosamine, melatonin, turmeric, bilberry, chamomile, fenugreek, milk thistle, and peppermint are associated with bleeding risk. No evidence was found for bleeding with these supplements independent of anticoagulants. Fish oil, ginseng, and saw palmetto are not associated with bleeding. Evidence for overall bleeding risk associated with St. John’s wort, ginger, ginkgo biloba, or cranberry supplementation is conflicting.”