As with many current problems, the issue of gun control and solutions to gun violence is heavily nuanced and multi-layered. So is the science. Let’s go behind the headlines and take a look.
Policy & Ethics
Barry Bonds has an asterisk next to his name because he used muscle-enhancing steroids. President Clinton earned an asterisk because he used another human as a humidor. Will Smith applied for his when he slapped Chris Rock. An asterisk after your name signifies some notable exception, usually bad. I have questions.
Science Magazine editor-in-chief H. Holden Thorp recently declared that researchers need to get off the sidelines and into the gun-control debate. His call to action was wrong in every possible way.
On Episode 4 of the ACSH Science Dispatch Podcast, we examine the need for COVID boosters and the increasingly irrelevant concept of herd immunity. We then dive into an incendiary discussion about the social-justice-inspired effort to deny the dangers of obesity. Finally, is there a "cancel culture" in science?
Robert Popovian, Pharm.D., MS, Founder of the strategic consulting firm Conquest Advisors (and also a member of the ACSH Scientific Advisory Board) and colleagues take on the important topic of generic drug prices, a sore spot for many Americans. Here is a summary of their latest article titled "U.S. Consumers Overpay for Generic Drugs." Dr. Popovian was formerly Vice President, U.S. Government Relations at Pfizer.
A new study sheds light on a worrying trend at the Food and Drug Administration: the agency appears to be funding low-grade vaping research and using it to justify strict e-cigarette regulation.
Disparities in COVID-19 outcomes by race or ethnicity have often been reported, deplored, and attributed to socioeconomic factors. It’s clear that vaccination is the main tool for slowing the spreading of the virus; here we examine disparate vaccination rates by race and ethnicity. However, among such disparities, there is an important distinction between equality (sameness) and equity (fairness).
Uterine transplants are not new. The first successful uterine transplant was done in Sweden in 2013. America boasted its first successful uterine transplant three years later at Baylor. But these were in cis-women born without a functioning uterus. Now, an Indian doctor is proposing uterine transplantation for trans-women. The reaction in the bioethics community is mixed.
Recent coverage in the Washington Post illustrates how the media (and even some in the scientific community) have exaggerated the risk COVID-19 poses to the elderly and downplayed the efficacy of vaccination in this age group.
On Episode 2 of the ACSH Science Dispatch Podcast, we examine New York City's now-defunct COVID vaccine mandate. Did it work, why or why not? We then dive into recent research showing that diet soda can help you safely lose weight, despite popular claims to the contrary.
ACSH has gotten into it (again) with Carey Gilliam, a self-inflated journalist who just won't shut up about glyphosate, even though no one cares what she has to say. This time my buddy Cameron English was the "target." Not that he needs it, but I come to his defense!
In order to preserve their "independence," a growing cadre of medical journals is refusing to publish any research conducted by vaping-industry scientists. It's a policy marred by hypocrisy that will exclude good science from the peer-reviewed literature.