The World Health Organization does a tremendous job advancing the cause of global public health. But two recent, major screw-ups show that the institution is far from perfect. In one instance, a group of UK scientists accused the WHO of spreading "blatant misinformation."
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In criticizing the journal Science, when it rains it pours.
Here's this week's offerings: Why we emotionally attach to Alexa and Siri ... the Pontiff joins the debate on AI ... India can go to Mars (but bathrooms still seem to be a challenge) ... and how do those restaurant buffets turn a profit?
As the Wuhan coronavirus relentlessly engulfs the world, scientists are relentlessly looking for a way to treat the infection. A vaccine is more than a year away, but an antiviral drug called remdesivir is being evaluated in clinical trials by Gilead Science, the world's premier antiviral drug company. Keep your fingers crossed.
We've been quite busy answering questions about coronavirus, UV light, and hand sanitizer.
One way in which COVID-19 is not novel is that the disease follows a set pattern: first onset, then the body’s response, followed (hopefully) by recovery. To get a better sense of how this pandemic might play out, we should consider what we know about COVID-19’s timeline.
Chloroquine, the old malaria drug, is making news as a potential therapy for coronavirus. Does it belong in the headlines for its antiviral properties, or is it just hype and bluster? Will it become a drug? Let's find out.
The internet is brimming with nutritional nonsense. A new book teaches us how to spot the myths.
The purpose of the Facebook page "I Fu**ing Love Science" is to popularize science while remaining scientifically accurate. However, one of its posts was recently flagged as "fake news" by Facebook fact-checkers.
To err is human, but unfortunately, so is coping with mistakes and errors. A controversial paper on vaping, which has been retracted, demonstrates the more subjective, human side of science.
The global mortality rate from air pollution is estimated to be 8.8 million people per year. That's 18% higher than the 7.2 million lost annually from tobacco. Do you believe it? There is room for doubt. Let's take a look.
COVID-19 has spread across the media much faster than across the world. The uptick is seen in the articles we're bringing forward this week. But rather than concentrate on what to do -- which has already been amply covered -- we're sharing reflections on how we got here. And what we can do differently.
As the horror known as the coronavirus tightens its grip on the world, and a vaccine is years away, our best hope is an antiviral drug that minimizes the damage caused by coronavirus replication. New data on favipiravir, a repurposed drug originally discovered in Japan, looks promising in trials in China. But nothing is ever straightforward in drug discovery -- and that is no different here. Here's a summary of the new findings.
In the Digital Age, we have access to more information than at any time in human history. But that doesn't stop the spread of conspiracy theories. Here are the best (worst?) ones involving the new coronavirus and the disease COVID-19.
Surgery is bad enough, but postoperative nausea and vomiting make it far worse. There's a "new" drug that has been shown to help prevent PONV. But how well does it work? Plus TWO quizzes for all you masochists out there.
Balance is an intricate “dance” of multiple sensory inputs. But what happens when one of them stops working as well as it should? As it turns out, hearing loss has unanticipated consequences.
Stories of "Chicken Little" and how we "model" our world. Should we always be the center of those models? In our moment of existential dread, new data seems to suggest we got the dinosaur extinction wrong. Finally, in six months, we will have our first national election in the time of COVID-19; how should we prepare?
Q: Where do you go to find overpaid, under-sane professors, talking about chemistry when they know nothing about it?
A: MIT, the home of Dr. Stephanie Seneff, who has spent a career making up nonsense about glyphosate. And she's outdone herself this time: Glyphosate causes COVID. Nope, not kidding.
The biology of the virus will help us learn how to fight it.
No, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is not a biological weapon. But that doesn't mean the virus didn't escape from a laboratory. A growing body of circumstantial evidence indicates that very well may be what happened.
We will soon be approaching the moment when, despite all of our best efforts, we'll be one ventilator shy of what's needed. It's now time to share what critical-care physicians and nurses have known for some time, and what they're planning to do when that moment arrives.
An occasional feature where a picture is indeed worth a thousand words.
Throughout this pandemic, we have heard many heartbreaking and heartwarming stories of how we're responding and coping. Many of those have been about the elderly, accounts written by adult children describing how they miss contact with their parents, segregated from them by institutional living. But here is a first-hand account by an older couple in their mid-80s, who describe what they are thinking and living through during this staggering health crisis.
The world anxiously awaits while clinical trials of remdesivir are in progress. The drug failed to stop Ebola. Does this mean it will also fail to stop coronavirus? No. According to a new study in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the drug should work better. Here's why.
Remdesivir, an antiviral drug that many are pinning their hopes on to help solve this pandemic nightmare, is now being tested in hundreds of trials. Results are expected within weeks. But the drug has already been tested in monkeys. And it worked.
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