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Where a product can be found in a supermarket has an impact on its sales. Markets get “stocking fees” for products placed at eye level versus the floor and on “end caps” at the end of the aisles, especially near the registers. What happens if you put more nutritional food at those locations? A new study sheds some disappointing light.

Natural immunity comes from being exposed to a microbe that causes a disease. Vaccination-mediated immunity comes from being exposed to a vaccine that is similar to but not the same as the microbe. If we understand a bit more about our immune system and its memory, it will help us navigate the information and misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, the COVID variants, and the length of our immunologic memory.

The last time I looked, Russia was still an importer of grains, part of the prolonged hangover from the good old days of the Soviet Union. But things have changed quite a bit.

Yet another study has found that the authorized COVID-19 vaccines greatly reduce infection. Let's take a look at this latest paper in the context provided by previously published research on vaccine efficacy.

I get it. People are sick and tired of COVID and endlessly cranky about having to deal with the changing facts and rules. Some of this discontent is expressed as dissatisfaction with the vaccines. While this frustration may be understandable it is not warranted. The vaccines are nothing short of a medical miracle. Don't shoot the messenger RNA. Blame the virus.

The evidence is in: genetic engineering promotes sustainable farming, vaccines save lives, and nuclear energy is our best hope of powering society in a changing climate. But the question remains, how do you convince a generally skittish public to embrace the science behind these technologies? Our answer: make a movie.

 It has been sixty years since the Concert for Bangladesh; It is doubtful that this low-income country, with half the population and 1/66th the size of the US, has had as much coverage in the media as now, with a report on the efficacy of masks in fighting COVID-19. It is a well-thought-out, performed, and reported study and deserves better than the superficial reporting of the media and 280 character Tweets. Let me provide a deeper look.

A new clinical trial examining the efficacy of masking on COVID-19 transmission has garnered a lot of media coverage. What the study shows and what people have been told the study shows are very different.

Mechanical ventilation is an imperfect method of supplying oxygen to patients who are hypoxic, but there aren't satisfactory alternatives. A recent study by a Japanese group has shown that a "butt breathing tube," probably not as delightful as it sounds, can supply oxygen to mice, rats, and pigs that were exposed to hypoxic conditions. Can this work in people?

The family farmer in the age of industrial farming, the yoga of sex, cyberhacking and biometrics, and the future of robotic farming.

As our lives become increasingly digitized, there has been a corresponding rise in concerns about the loss of privacy. That’s despite rules and laws in place meant to safeguard it. But according to a recent study, what we want to share for the public good is at odds with our privacy laws.

Dr. Schwarcz, the Director of McGill University's Office for Science and Society, and a long-time friend of ACSH has devoted one of his famous YouTube videos to ivermectin, including its history and evidence of efficacy (or the lack of) against COVID-19.

Medical imaging requires patients to be injected with or drink a radionuclide that can be “imaged” to show various organs and dysfunction. For the time that the radionuclide remains in your system (it is urinated out within a day or so), you are radioactive. According to the Health Physics Society, “our bodies are naturally radioactive, because we eat, drink, and breathe radioactive substances that are naturally present in the environment.”

Remember when we all had to turn our cellphones off when planes took off and landed? How about turning them off around medical equipment? It turns out that when we look for something radiating out of cellphones that might harm us, we might consider magnetism.

Why is so much attention being given to those who refused to get vaccinated? Why would someone trade the safe harbor of vaccination for the risk of death from COVID-19 and its variants in the tradeoff calculus?

California just paused its plans for a statewide COVID-19 vaccine mandate. There wasn't an ounce of scientific evidence to support this proposal and enough opposition to halt the legislation, at least until after the upcoming elections. There's an important lesson here for policymakers.

Skin keeps all of our parts inside; add in sunlight’s UV rays, and it makes Vitamin D an essential nutrient. Oh yes, skin and those same UV rays enhance romantic passions in men and women – what’s up with that?

1.4 million or 2% of Medicare beneficiaries reside in nursing homes – the burning center of the COVID-19 morbidity and mortality before vaccines. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) report how those beneficiaries fared between March and December of 2020. Let’s review the carnage. 

Could governments mandate that we quit reproducing sexually for the sake of public health? It sounds outlandish, but there are prominent thinkers making that case. Their argument is superficially plausible but ultimately absurd, both for scientific and ethical reasons.

What are the boundaries of individual freedoms? Are there limits to our liberty? Does a pandemic change the calculus? 

A recent analysis of COVID-19 and the 2020 wildfires in California, Oregon, and Washington estimated increases in COVID cases and mortality of about 20% associated with increased levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) based on satellite smoke observations. The study caught my eye for several reasons: PM2.5 is not “smoke,” the COVID-19 increases were not statistically significant, and a much simpler and transparent analysis of their data yielded different results. Here’s what I found.

I just got my COVID booster! I'm quite happy about this but it was a rather strange experience. Here's why.

48 of the 50 states allow some form of legal cannabis sale and use, the exceptions Nebraska and Idaho. 31 states have decriminalized its use. At last count, 17 states are allowing recreational sales. The feds continue to maintain it as a Schedule 1 drug, its possession punishable by up to a year in jail and a minimum fine of $5,000. 

Anti-vaccine group Children's Health Defense is abusing a new study of COVID-19 breakthrough cases to badmouth very effective shots.

A long-time critic of 2016 CDC guidelines for prescription of opioids calls for replacement of the CDC writers' team now revising the guidelines. Draft recommendations reviewed July 16th, 2021, double down on errors of science and misdirections which characterized the original. The present team has fundamental professional conflicts of interest and lacks first-hand expert knowledge of pain management practice.