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Medicine Politics Popular culture Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

The WHO walks back its statement that asymptomatic COVID-19 transmission is “very rare”

Yesterday, the World Health Organization walked back its statement that asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19 is “very rare.” This was after COVID-19 deniers had had a field day using that statement to attack social distancing, contact tracing, and mask wearing. It was a science communication disaster.

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Clinical trials Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

The latest COVID-19 quackery: Intravenous bleach

Just when I thought I’d seen it all, I discover that there are quacks in Ecuador treating COVID-19 with bleach—intravenous bleach.

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Medicine Popular culture Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Is medical error really the third most common cause of death in the US?

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.

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Cancer Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

The “Cancer Truther” movement

Denial of the benefits of chemotherapy is very prevalent in “natural health” movements. This denial is based on fear mongering, pseudoscience, and conspiracy theories and thus shares many similarities with the antivaccine movement. How can the “chemo truth” spread by “cancer truthers”?

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience

Blaming the flu vaccine for the COVID-19 outbreak: The latest antivaccine misinformation

Antivaccine activists are blaming the coronavirus outbreak in China on—what else?—the flu vaccine, because of course they are. All they have to do is to deceptively invoke “virus interference.” So science-y!