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Clinical trials Medicine Science

Pulse oximetry: Racial disparities pop up in unpredictable places

Evidence increasingly suggests that pulse oximetry overestimates the blood oxygenation in Black patients. It’s a problem that’s been discussed a long time that took a pandemic to bring to public consciousness. How can SBM decrease or eliminate such healthcare disparities?

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine

Novavax and “moth cells”: The latest antivax fear mongering

Recently, Novavax, an “old school” recombinant protein-based COVID-19 vaccine, was granted emergency use authorization. Now antivaxxers are fear mongering about its use of “moth cells” and “tree bark.” That’s because to antivaxxers, it’s about the vaccines, not any specific technology.

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Antivaccine nonsense Clinical trials Religion

Thacker parrots an old antivax trope: “Vaccines are magic!”

Paul Thacker proclaims, “Vaccines are magic!” and likens them to religion that you can’t criticize. This is an old antivax narrative that he’s now parroting.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience

Can you get Omicron every three weeks?

A recent article claims that Omicron reinfections confer “no immunity” such that it’s possible to be reinfected with Omicron variants every two to three weeks and calls COVID-19 the “forever plague.” Although it makes a reasonable point that “natural” postinfection immunity doesn’t last long because of variants, the article is undermines its reasonable criticisms of COVID policy with maximal fear mongering.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery

AAPS joins the legal thuggery against medical standards

The crank fake medical professional society Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) filed a lawsuit this week against medical specialty boards seeking to rein in COVID-19 misinformation. Coupled with previous suits, I can’t help but see this legal thuggery as increasingly coordinated with prior lawsuits by right wing groups.