Public Health

If we want people to trust disease epidemiologists during the COVID-19 pandemic - and the next pandemic after that, since this was the third one of just coronavirus in 17 years - then we have to start holding suspect epidemiologists accountable. Behavior that remains alarming is manufacturing agenda-filled papers or data dredging or p-hacking to get a result. Concern about "studies" claiming that particulate matter so tiny it takes an electron microscope to detect it will still give your child a lower IQ, and hundreds of woo papers written a lot like that, were dismissed as unimportant nit-…

I’ve written in the past about the tendency of some researchers to compensate for weak study design or small sample size by over-hyping their research findings, particularly with the news media. Unfortunately, we seem to have another case in point with a recent publication, entitled “Phthalates and attributable mortality: A Population-based longitudinal study and cost analysis.” The paper was published on-line on October 12 and was accompanied by a press release from NYU Langone Health, which later that day was amplified by a CNN article by an author who has,…

Even if insurance and household incomes are similar, white people are more likely than people of color to be sent home after surgery rather than to a skilled nursing facility. People of color are also more likely to stay in long-term care or get care at home, according to results presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY 2021 annual meeting. The reason, the authors believe, it is that people of color are more likely to have severe diabetes and high blood pressure, which can impact recovery.  This study is the first project of the Health Outcomes and Perioperative Equity (H.O.P.E.) group of…

The animal rights activist group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has an op-ed in American Journal of Medicine claiming that if you want the COVID-19 vaccine to work 'better', whatever that is supposed to mean, adopt a vegetarian diet. It's easy to dunk on people taking ivermectin, they are dumb Republicans according to science-y Twitter, but this kind of nonsense is just as reckless if we want the public to trust in decision-making. I certainly would not want to visit Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, where the lead author of the opinion piece teaches. Ivermectin uses bad…

In 2021, it is vital that the public trusts epidemiologists when it comes to disease transmission. The cultural obstacle is that epidemiology is such a large field, much of it populated by woo. Osteopaths hurt their own reputations by not demanding that hucksters like Joe Mercola have his license revoked, while epidemiologists who want to be trusted guides now need to recognize they have to overcome suspect claims about some new fad food linked to increasing longevity, trace chemicals linked to changes in hormones, and that particulate matter so small it takes an electron microscope to see it…

Nearly 70 years ago, results of a Swedish experiment, now called the Vipeholm studies, correlated frequent candy consumption and tooth decay. With the benefit of scientific hindsight, this is no surprise. What is a surprise is how different cultures reacted.  For example, instead of public awareness campaigns highlighting the effects of carbohydrates on oral health, as Americans might expect, Sweden asked people to cut back on candy drastically, to eating candy one day per week. Thus was born lördagsgodis - “Saturday sweets.” Parents only let their kids eat candy on Saturday. They…

With the delta variant of Covid-19 surging in many countries - e.g., over 100,000 new cases per day foreseen in the UK in the next few days, and many other countries following suit - we may feel depressed at the thought that this pandemic is going to stay with us for a lot longer than some originally foresaw.In truth, if you could sort out your sources well, you would have predicted this a long time ago: epidemiologists had in fact foreseen that there would continue to be waves of contagions, although at some point mitigated by the vaccination campaigns. However, so much misinformation and…

Covid experts around the world respond to the UK’s decision to lift remaining restrictions on July 19 in an emergency online summit. They say no public health officer would recognize this as a strategy. This article as a tweet thread, including the short video clips of experts making their main points. See:: Westminster gov. failed to bring the virus under control & is now preparing to remove the last few remaining measures that inhibit it from spreading even more widely amongst our only partially vaccinated population. International COVID experts respond:https://t.co/MtQAdD9Zkt…

Adolescent girls and young women can and will use HIV prevention products with consistency, according to interim results of a study of two different methods: daily use of the antiretroviral (ARV) tablet Truvada® as oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and the monthly dapivirine vaginal ring, a new HIV prevention product currently under regulatory review in several countries. To provide protection against HIV, both must be used consistently- daily, for oral PrEP, and for the ring, a full month at a time - which previous studies of these products found to be especially challenging for younger…

A new paper has statistically linked inflammatory bowel disease, an umbrella term for chronic inflammation of the digestive tract, to processed foods. But because every food is processed - no one eats wheat that hasn't been milled - the term has now become "ultra-processed." They do so by noting that IBD is more common in industrialized countries. While this is true, so is medical care of all kinds. Every condition is more diagnosed in industrial countries and the richest of them all, the US, has more diagnoses than anyone else. To try and create a link between foods with higher levels of…