The pandemic has accelerated on-line grocery sales as the fear of shortages has given way to the fear of being out and about.
A July 22 paper in the journal Nature further underscored earlier studies showing that neither the anti-malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, nor chloroquine, prevents SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – from replicating in lung cells. ACSH advisor Dr. Katherine Seley-Radtke has more.
23andMe brings its special skill set of analyzing genetic ancestry to the history of transatlantic slavery, the Middle Passage. While there are few surprises, it does make a convincing case that our genes and culture are deeply intertwined.
Bill Gates, perhaps the greatest philanthropist the world has ever known, has become the target of unhinged, self-contradictory conspiracy theories that are disturbingly popular.
The study by Didier Raoult et. al., the one partly responsible for the massive, unwarranted use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID, has been picked to bits by a review panel hired by the journal that published it. It's now clear that the Raoult study was a methodological mess. How did it get published at all? Should it be retracted? Let's take a look.
What exactly do we mean, scientifically, when we talk about individuals? ... Can a model of surgical care costing a small fraction of care in the U.S. teach us anything? ... Nassim Taleb writes about the use of masks. Some habits are hard to break, especially when we see them as the norm and not a habit at all.
We normally butt heads with the Center for Science in the Public Interest. But its recent attack on Joseph Mercola's magical COVID cures deserves praise. CSPI could be a great organization if it focused more on eliminating quack medicine and less on labeling bacon as causing cancer.
The World Health Organization, WHO, has had a great deal of ink in the last few months, especially since it has become a "blame-worthy" target of the President. The Financial Times asks and answers the question, Who funds the WHO?
Long ago, roughly 100 years past, in a place far away, there were few (if any) effective treatments for pneumonia. One treatment that seemed to help was targeting the lungs with low-dose radiation. Could COVID-19’s attack on the lungs be stopped in a similar way? Several small studies are now underway to find out.
The company dedicated to discovering vaccines for herpes is back in the news. Rational Vaccines gained notoriety when its founder, the late Dr. Bill Halford, bypassed FDA protocol for vaccine development and set up a small trial on the island of St. Kitts, in the Caribbean, using live attenuated virus on volunteers who were suffering from herpes simplex. Now, three years after Dr. Halford's death, Rational is developing five vaccines for herpes and two for COVID. But his time, by the book.
