RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE

"A statement of fact cannot be insolent." The miscellaneous ramblings of a surgeon/scientist on medicine, quackery, science, and pseudoscience (and anything else that interests him).

The FDA’s emergency use authorization of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19: Dangerous politics, not science

Post author By Orac
Post date April 1, 2020
80 Comments on The FDA’s emergency use authorization of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19: Dangerous politics, not science

Levi Quackenboss, COVID-19 with spike protein, and hydroxychloroquine

Yesterday, the FDA issued emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroqine and chloroquine to treat COVID-19. Politics, not science, is why.

Tags chloroquine, coronavirus, COVID-19, Donald Trump, fda, Food and Drug Administration, hydroxychloroquine, SARS-CoV-2

Antivaccine nonsense Popular culture Pseudoscience

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

Post author By Orac
Post date March 31, 2020
75 Comments on No, the flu vaccine does not increase your chance of getting coronavirus by 3675 due to viral interference

Antivax claims that the flu vaccine increases risk of coronavirus infection

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.

Tags antivaccine, Benjamin Krause, coronavirus, COVID-19, influenza, Matt Couch, SARS-CoV-2, Serge Gregoire, vaccine, viral interference, virus, virus interference

Medicine

A brief blog hiatus as a grant deadline strikes again!

Post author By Orac
Post date March 20, 2020
149 Comments on A brief blog hiatus as a grant deadline strikes again!

Regular readers will have noted that Orac has not posted anything new in nearly a week. There’s an explanation, and it’s a grant deadline. Orac will return.