1. The Medscape site run by WebMD asked for permission to repost our article 'Why This Scientist Won't Be Attending the 'Science March' from February and we said 'yes' because it is just as true now as ever. An alarming chunk of the public trusts science less and less because they believe it has been taken over by political activists. And the Science March is just such an event.
While lots of mainstream organizations have signed on, they are simply doing it for public relations. They know, just like we all know, that this march represents a political party protesting against a sitting president despite the fact his science and health picks have been quite good. We're too honest to rubber stamp something like this, especially when they declare, as they did a few days ago, that terrorists are just a marginalized community and science is responsible.
Hold your noses and attend if you must, science corporations, but don't pretend it is helping promote scientific thinking. It is instead simply politicization of science.
2. Our Medical Director Dr. Jamie Wells attended a Congressional Luncheon hosted by the Center for Excellence in Education (CEE), which supports science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.
The event included the presentation of the Senator Joseph I. Lieberman award for Outstanding Achievement in Science by the Senator.
Attendees were bipartisan, including Senator Ted Cruz, who spoke of his passion for STEM issues, and how his mother calculated orbits for Sputnik after getting a degree in mathematics from Rice.
And his father was a chemical engineer and computer programmer. Activists will insist that if a politician is not in the same party as them, they must be against science. But that is the usual politicization of science, not reality.
3. In news of the weird. One of the pop-up tent sites created by the anti-science community (Organic Consumers Association alone props up over 300 of these, including US Right To Know, etc.), apparently called NewsTarget.com, goes on a weird rant defending the bogus Natural News site, Food Babe, etc. by noting that *gasp* like every other non-profit we will take a donation from a corporation if they send it.
In conspiracy fantasy camp, this means you must be bought off (except the sites propped up by corporations that donate to Sourcewatch, Mother Jones, US Right To Know, etc.). They use the fact that a person named Skepchick - who they apparently also hate - didn't like our Science Media Credibility Chart that got worldwide attention, and that therefore the pro-science community is turning on each other like wounded jackals.
Who hasn't always said that the pro-science side lacks the echo chamber and conspiracy aspects of the various anti- groups? That's actually proof there is no conspiracy run by corporations. Right? If you agree, don't click the link above, your IQ will probably drop.
4. In USA Today, ACSH Fellow Dr. Alex Berezow and I wrote about the challenges Dr. Scott Gottlieb will face at FDA, and why he is an excellent choice to meet those challenges.
5. Fox 5's Ernie Anastos had Dr. David Samadi and Dr. Jamie Wells answer your medical related questions in his new "Doctors on Call" segment.
Other links:
Cape Gazette, linking to our work debunking miracle diets, in this case the vegetarian kind. Eat a special diet if you must, but do it because you like it, not because you want to engage in virtue signaling about how much more ethical or knowledgeable you are.
Bustle: How the opioid crisis is crippling millennials.
National Pain Report: How would opioid prescription guidelines read if patients wrote them?
Global News: Woman dies after taking turmeric IV to treat eczema. What happened? Unqualified charlatans called naturopaths, that's what happened.
Science Times: Here Is Why Consumption Of Vitamin D Is On An All Time High
