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Bad science Clinical trials Medicine Politics Popular culture Pseudoscience

Hydroxychloroquine and COVID-19: Science-based medicine has no chance against Donald Trump, Peter Navarro, and Dr. Oz

President Trump’s COVID-19 advisors include Dr. Oz, Rudy Giuliani, and Peter Navarro, the latter an economist who thinks he can science better than Anthony Fauci. Can science- and evidence-based medicine prevail with respect to hydroxychloroquine and coronavirus?

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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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Bad science Clinical trials Medicine Politics Popular culture Skepticism/critical thinking

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

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

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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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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

The latest antivaccine conspiracy theory: The novel coronavirus behind the Wuhan outbreak is due to a failed SARS vaccine

Yesterday, antivaxxers were saying that the flu vaccine caused the Wuhan 2019-nCoV outbreak because of viral interference. Now the outbreak is due to a failed SARS coronavirus vaccine. Can they get their conspiracy theories straight?