A story claiming that the WHO just said that asymptomatic COVID-19 patients don’t transmit coronavirus. Spoilers: It didn’t. However, the WHO’s message added unnecessary confusion and led COVID-19 deniers to say masks and social distancing are not necessary.
Last night, President Trump remarked about somehow getting disinfectants or light “inside” the body could kill coronavirus. Hilarity ensued, but his inadvertent promotion of COVID-19 quackery is deadly serious.
The claim that medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the US has always rested on very shaky evidence; yet it has become common wisdom that is cited as though everyone accepts it. But if estimates of 250,000 to 400,000 deaths due to medical error are way too high, what is the real number? A recently published study suggests that it’s almost certainly a lot lower.
There is a defect in thinking that is arguably at the heart of much of science denial, dichotomous thinking. We all do it to some extent, but science deniers do it in spades.
Tetyana Obukhanych has a PhD in immunology but has somehow become antivaccine. This week, she tried to refute two recent studies on immune amnesia induced by measles virus infection. Let’s just say that it did not go well.
