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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Dr. David Brownstein strikes again peddling quackery for COVID-19

Dr. David Brownstein is a “holistic” physician who practices in Orac’s neck of the woods. Unfortunately, he just wrote a book promoting an unproven protocol involving vitamins, nebulized hydrogen peroxide and iodine, and intravenous ozone to treat COVID-19. There is no evidence that his protocol works, other than a very poor quality case series.

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Clinical trials Medicine Science Skepticism/critical thinking

A blast from the early pandemic past: Healight to treat COVID-19

In April, I wrote about Healight, a device intended to treat COVID-19 by shining UV light directly into the lungs of patients on a ventilator. Its creators have finally published a clinical study. Unfortunately, it is…underwhelming.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Politics Religion Skepticism/critical thinking

Harmful messages from authority about the J&J COVID-19 vaccine

A week ago, the FDA approved the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use. Unfortunately, messaging by political and religious authorities has ranged from mixed to downright unhelpful.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

Is Dr. Hooman Noorchashm’s #ScreenB4Vaccine being used by RFK Jr. to spread fear of COVID-19 vaccines?

Dr. Hooman Noorchashm has raised a concern about vaccinating people who’ve had COVID-19 before. Unfortunately, he is allowing antivaxxers to co-opt his concern to spread fear of COVID-19 vaccines. [Note: There is an addendum to this post. Please read it.]

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

Even in a deadly pandemic, germ theory denial persists

As hard as it is to believe, in the middle of a global pandemic that’s claimed so many lives and so thoroughly disrupted society, there are people who still deny germ theory. How can this be?