Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
Meet Dene Shulze-Alva and her daughter Sage, age 5. The above is a picture of her that was highlighted within an NPR article about vaccine denial. The backstory here is that she is a hardcore vaccine denialist who has not only refused to have her daughter vaccinated, but takes time out to fly right across the … Read more
There is a healthcare game to play here via the New York Times, but first a bit of preamble. Because I live in the UK and have personally experienced the UK’s National Health Service I have a rather obvious bias. This perhaps also comes with strong feelings of hostility towards UK conservative political wet-dreams that … Read more
When we started vaccinating for measles back in the 1960s it had the intended effect; the decline and obliteration of Measles. We might think of it as a harmless childhood illness, but its eradication is truly a big deal. The prognosis for measles is that complications such as bronchitis, sensorineural hearing loss, and panencephalitis (which is fatal), can occur, so eradicating it … Read more
As a rather blatant slap in the face for the anti-vaccine movement there is a new study that illustrates the profoundly positive and deep impact that vaccines have, and will continue to have. Vaccines save 20 million lives, $350 billion in poor countries since 2001 It is the one medical intervention that stands out from … Read more
I do confess to having a bit of a conflict of interest here. I drink rather a lot of Diet Coke, a can or two per day, and so I seriously have to examine my thinking and ask if confirmation bias is kicking in when writing to assure you that Aspartame is totally safe. Is … Read more
Julia Belluz writes in Vox about the state of maternal healthcare in the US. The article entitled “California decided it was tired of women bleeding to death in childbirth” contains the following graph that sums things up … Let me emphasise what this is telling you. Between the years 1990 and 2016, the numbers of women dying … Read more