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Can mistletoe cure cancer?
2023-05-16
Introduction Cancer is a leading cause of mortality worldwide. In 2020, an estimated 19.3 million new cancers were diagnosed and about 10 million people died from the disease[1]. Because of the strong public interest in cancer cures, many claims of miraculous therapies are popular on the Internet. These cures are usually claimed to be better … Continued
Can you achieve a balanced diet by eating only meat? A look at the scientific evidence
2023-04-11
Introduction A diet that involves eating meat all the time sounds like a meat-lover’s dream. And you may have heard various social media influencers tout the health benefits of such a diet. Sounds like a win-win? Not so fast. As with most things in life, reality isn’t that simple. The carnivore diet consists of exclusively … Continued
What we know about the safety of mifepristone for medical abortions and the effectiveness of progesterone for “abortion reversal”
2023-02-24
Introduction The World Health Organization considers access to safe and affordable abortion services as important for the good health and well-being of women and girls. Unsafe abortion methods contribute to a significant portion of maternal deaths, and this is particularly evident in places where abortion is legally restricted. However, the development of medical abortion, a … Continued
Misinformation superspreaders are thriving on Musk-owned Twitter
2023-02-22
Key results 1. A study of 490 “misinformation superspreaders” (here defined as accounts that have repeatedly published popular tweets linking to known misinformation) shows that their collective popularity has significantly grown (on average, +42% interactions per tweet) since Elon Musk took effective control of the platform on 27 October 2022. Accounts from established and credible … Continued
What do we know about the safety of bisphenol A in food packaging?
2023-02-13
SUMMARY Bisphenol A is an industrial chemical that has been used for decades to make certain plastics and resins. These materials are used as a coating in food and drink cans and reusable water bottles, from which small amounts of BPA can leach into foods and drinks. The use of BPA in food packaging has … Continued
Authorization of bivalent COVID-19 boosters is based on scientific evidence of their safety and effectiveness
2022-11-07
image credit The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Publich Health SUMMARY In August 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized bivalent COVID-19 vaccine formulations as single booster doses. These bivalent formulations contain messenger RNA (mRNA) from the original SARS-CoV-2 strain and mRNA present in the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the Omicron variant. … Continued
What can explain the excess mortality in the U.S. and Europe in 2022?
2022-11-02
image source Introduction Every day, people die of many causes: diseases, accidents, violence, or simply old age. The number of deaths in any given country is usually stable from one year to the next. It is thus possible to estimate how many people are expected to die the following year. While changes in a country’s … Continued
Germany-based network of websites and Facebook accounts amplify clickbait content to monetize web traffic via Google AdSense and e-commerce
2022-09-08
SUMMARY This investigation, which took place between May and August 2022, shows that a network of German- and English-language Facebook pages are using the platform to build an online following of millions which can be financially exploited. We identified this network by analyzing various open-source information, such as Google Analytics and AdSense codes, web infrastructure, … Continued
What you need to know about the current monkeypox outbreak: transmission, symptoms, treatments, etc.
2022-08-20
Photo by CDC/Cynthia S. Goldsmith at Public Health Image Library (PHIL) The ongoing monkeypox virus outbreak began in May 2022, when the U.K. notified the World Health Organization (WHO) of a handful of confirmed cases of monkeypox. Soon, cases appeared in many other countries, and as of 9 August 2022, there have been over 40,000 confirmed … Continued
What do we know about the safety of titanium dioxide in menstrual hygiene products?
2022-08-09
Photo by Josefin on Unsplash Introduction Social media posts claiming that titanium dioxide in tampons are responsible for reproductive cancers began circulating in early August 2022. One notable example is this TikTok video by user Rachel Morgan, whose video received more than 1.5 million views and attracted more than 30,000 comments. In this article, we … Continued