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Bad science Bioethics Clinical trials Medicine Politics Popular culture Pseudoscience

Drs. Vladimir Zelenko and Stephen Smith: Abandoning evidence-based medicine to promote unproven drugs for COVID-19

Drs. Vladimir Zelenko and Stephen Smith have been claiming that hydroxychloroquine is a miracle drug based on anecdotes. Their shoddy, poorly reported case series are not evidence of efficacy.

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Antivaccine nonsense Popular culture Pseudoscience

No, the flu vaccine does not increase your chance of getting coronavirus by 36% due to viral interference

An antivaccine meme claiming that, because of viral interference, the flu vaccine increases the risk of coronavirus by 36%. It’s a lie based on a cherry-picked result of a negative study and confusing benign coronavirus with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

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Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Religion

An embarrassing paean to reiki in The Atlantic

For some inexplicable reason, The Atlantic published an embarrassing paean to the mystical magical woo that is reiki.

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

COVID-19 pandemic: A golden opportunity for quackery

COVID-19 is upon us. Unfortunately, quacks view the coronavirus pandemic not as a threat, but as an opportunity.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

Vaccines didn’t cause the obesity epidemic, RFK Jr.’s lies not withstanding

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. published an article claiming that vaccines and glyphosate are responsible for the obesity epidemic. Too bad he cited the work of longtime antivaccine cranks.