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As the debate over the origins of SARS-COV-2 rages, the case for silencing social media users grows weaker.

Drinking cholera, culture wars, let's put a hydra in a blender and see what we get [spoiler alert: no organisms are harmed], the science of gerrymandering.

We learn more and more every day about the bacteria, viruses, and fungi that live within us and support us. It's our own personal world: the microbiome. And researchers have identified ecologic niches with varying microbial occupants. And it seems that cities have unique microbiomes, too.

I've written numerous times that when it comes to supplements, you can throw both common sense and science out the window. Up is up and so is down. Somehow, I’ve been laboring under the notion that I don't really have much else to write about this topic. That was until a leisurely stroll up and down the aisles of a CVS store. And an existential thought experiment at no extra cost.

A recent survey found that fewer than 40% of Americans trust their federal public health agencies. Could “mission creep” into issues such as climate change, gun violence, and racism rather than a focus on traditional public health issues be a cause? Did mission creep impact our response to the COVID-19 pandemic?

It's been well established that virus transmission is much less likely to occur outdoors than in poorly ventilated indoor spaces. Can we estimate how much airflow is needed to make an environment safe?

Smoking cigarettes is stupid, involving financial and, more importantly, significant health costs. While there are several “drivers” to the smoking habit, including sociability and status (especially during those rebellious teen years), could we agree that nicotine is, by far and away, the most significant component of chemical dependency?

The anti-biotech group U.S. Right to Know has launched a crusade against Bill Gates, warning of his dangerous agenda for global food production. Unfortunately, the facts complicate the David vs. Goliath narrative the group is pushing.

There has been a small incidence of diffuse clotting, especially in atypical body sites, like the central vein draining the brain, among some AstraZeneca and J&J COVID-19 vaccine recipients. A newly released pre-print suggests a possible underlying biologic cause.

Buying from your nearby farmer's market offers a number of important benefits. Environmental sustainability and local economic growth are not among them, according to a new review of the evidence.

Phase III trials put the efficacy of the two earliest COVID-19 vaccines in the mid-’90s, certainly more than we had hoped. The word on the media “street” has been that vaccinations result in fewer hospitalizations and no deaths. The CDC is now reporting on “breakthrough infections” since the beginning of the year. 

The virus from Wuhan, can something be "partly false," Skynet is increasing real, are fungi our friends, does our soul live within our network?

Despite increasing evidence that vaping is safer than smoking, uncertainty surrounds the long-term effects of electronic cigarette use. Many in the tobacco control field have used the lack of data to speculate about these unknown risks. Here's a better way to deal with the uncertainty.

As more and more of the US population is vaccinated, we are not clutching our vaccine supplies so tightly. We are beginning to send them to others in need. There is a great deal of talk about the costs, and you know, somewhere, some “bean counter” is doing a cost-benefit analysis. 

There seems to be a reproducibility “crisis” in the sciences, where the results obtained by one group of researchers cannot be reproduced by another, putting the validity of the original work in doubt. What is the fate of those papers? Do they languish in some academic backwater hell lining birdcages?

Advances in genetics have been revolutionized in the last few years. First came CRISPR, which can edit single genes, possibly preventing diseases with a single genetic determinant – raising the possibility of gene editing of children. CRISPR is too immature to be commercialized for this purpose, and this debate is speculative for now. But genome-wide association studies (GWAS) - which assesses the entire genome and can identify multiple genetic markers predictive of disease -- have made landfall and are being commercialized for that purpose.

As COVID-19 cases drop and immunization rates rise, Americans are proving the media's glass-half-empty predictions about vaccine hesitancy mostly false. It turns out that people don't like getting sick, and they'll take steps to protect themselves when given the tools to do so.

Some of my best memories are of the times I spent hiking and camping with my family as a child, Boy Scout, and on leave from the Navy.  I have great memories of swimming in rivers, lakes, and ponds; running for the park rangers when bears invaded our campsite, of watching the sunset over the ocean (or rise over the rim of a canyon). 
 
What bothers me is that today, so many of these things can no longer be enjoyed.

Extracts from the Ginko Biloba tree have long been used as naturopathic remedies for issues like memory loss and cognitive impairment. But is there any scientific evidence to support their use?

The FDA is conducting a workshop to discuss the science (lack thereof, really) of Morphine Milligram Equivalents as it applies to the atrocious CDC 2016 Opioid Prescribing Guidelines. Public comments have been solicited. Here are mine.

The New York Times recently featured a new study by Christopher Tessum and colleagues on disproportionate exposures to people of color from fine particle (PM2.5) emissions, raising questions about environmental injustice.

According to at least one source [1], it takes an average of 17 years for a proven intervention to be fully implemented. By that metric, we would have no treatments for COVID-19 besides those identified anecdotally. How did the boots on the ground of our healthcare systems actually respond?

Being friended doesn’t make you friends.
How do we face death?
Do we think in words or images?
Should we let the “leaning tower” fall?

Dr. Jeffrey Singer of the Cato Institute and a member of the board of scientific advisors at ACSH has written a piece that should deliver a devastating blow to those who maintain the fallacy that prescription opioids are responsible for the so-called "opioid crisis." Although this trend is seen nationwide, nowhere is this more evident than in Massachusetts, where fentanyl is found in the blood of 91% of overdose victims — six times that of drugs like hydrocodone or oxycodone. A must-read.

Neutraceuticals is a portmanteau, the combination of the words "nutrition" and "pharmaceuticals." It refers to “a food containing health-giving additives and having medicinal benefit,” and which seeks to combine the halos of good nutrition and medicine. It seems too good to be true. And as you know, often that promise is more sizzle than steak.