Health and Sanity category archive

Der Spiegel reports (follow the link for the full report):

Many researchers are looking for a new home because the Trump administration has launched a broadside attack on science in the U.S.

Also, RFK Jr. has hurt fee-fees because anti-science whack-jobs don’t get no respect.

Not that these two items might in any way be related . . . .

In an article at AL.com, Nicole K. Reh, who is on the path to earning a medical degree, writes about how “social” media is endangering persons’ health; she focuses on the recent measles outbreaks and the anti-VAXX lies that have fueled them.

One interesting frightening statistic that she cites particularly caught my eye:

A 2024 Stanford study found that 49% of TikTok health videos were inaccurate, and 14% were potentially harmful.

The entire piece is worth a read, and, remember, “social” media isn’t.

At Psychology Today Blogs, Dr. Thomas R. Verny points out that “(s)ome people spread disinformation meant to erode the public’s confidence in medicine” and offers suggestions to avoid being taken in. Here’s one of them; follow the link for the rest.

What is the track record of the writer or proponent? Have they in the past made mountains out of mole hills to concoct wild theories from kernels of truth and to promote, frankly, quack medicine?

Via Job’s Anger.

At Psychology Today Blogs, Susan A. Nolan and Michael Kimball note that

• A zombie fact is misinformation that persists in the face of evidence against it. . . .
• False beliefs about vaccine risks (a zombie fact) have fueled an outbreak of measles in the United States.

They go on to offer some simple techniques to keep your brains from being consumed by zombie facts.

Given the number for zombie facts careening down the disinformation superhighway, their article is well worth a look.

The Arizona Republic’s E. J. Montini is less than sanguine about RFK Jr.’s stewardship sewership of the Department of Health and Human Services. A snippet:

I’m old enough to remember a time when the federal government, by way of the Department of Health and Human Services, worked hard to keep as many Americans alive for as long as possible.

But that was way back in … 2024.

The plan now seems to involve thinning the herd.

Follow the link for his reasoning.

At Psychology Today Blogs, Timmen L. Cermak argues that we are in the midst of a war on science. In light of, say, just to pick one example, the anti-VAX movement, which is willing to endanger endanger everyone’s health based on one discredited article, despite over two centuries of evidence that vaccines work, methinks he makes some good points.

Here’s a tiny bit:

Three origins of these attacks include the sheer ignorance that comes from a lack of education. For example, political leaders criticizing studies of “transgender mice” propagate misinformation, since these studies are actually of transgenic mice—those in which genetic material from other species has been inserted into their DNA, like the GMO foods that suffuse our diet. Attacks also stem from the typical short-sightedness of business-oriented leaders who value quarterly profits over investing in research and development needed to maintain market position over the next decade. And finally, ideologies that value transactional power tactics and loyalty tend to denigrate academic and bureaucratic experts as elites, who are viewed as obstacles to their “end justifies the means” philosophy.

Follow the link for the rest.