Evidence-based medicine (EBM) has been a very useful paradigm for assessing evidence in medicine. However, like any other framework, it can be misused, particularly when fundamentalist EBM methodolatry leads to its inappropriate application to questions for which it is ill-suited, a misuse that has been weaponized against public health during the pandemic.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo has called for a halt in the use of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines based on fear mongering about DNA “contamination.” Truly, under Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida has become a public health hellscape.
Conspiracy monger Stew Peters and Dr. Lee Merritt claim that all cancer is due to parasites. Everything old is new again, just stupider, and Hulda Clark’s cancer quackery has been resurrected, just with a different “parasite.”
Crank, quack, and antivaxxer Mike Adams is unhappy with current AI systems. So he’s developing his own “natural health” large language model-based AI chatbot for 2024. Hilarity will ensue, for sure, but is he at the vanguard of a dangerous trend?
Earlier this month, CNN host Kasie Hunt interviewed antivax presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Although she did better than most journalists confronting him for his past antivax statements in that she played a clip of one of his antivax statements, she clearly hadn’t anticipated his response, which should have been very predictable given that he’s been using it for at least 15 years. I guess it’s time for another primer.
