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In this month's round-up, you'll find that we've been writing about and discussing a range of topics, from the ever-present dangers and complexities of the coronavirus to the need for accurate scientific journalism. And not only are we laser-focused on the deadly force of the tiny microbe, we've also got our eye on that big, wandering moose. What do we mean by that? Read on.

In a MedScape editorial, Robert Lowes defends Dr. Oz from criticism about weekly miracle cures and scare journalism by noting that the pro-science and health groups aligned against him support lower greenhouse gas emissions, in the form of natural gas, and the safety of genetically modified foods, implying that American CO2 emissions have not dropped due to cleaner natural gas and that GMO foods are harmful, both against the science consensus in earth science and biology, respectively.

Indian activist Vandana Shiva opposes the tools and practices of modern agriculture and science and advocates regressive policies that cause widespread malnourishment, famine, and death to the very people she claims to champion. And she's no friend of the environment, either. She should never be given a podium.

A long-time critic of 2016 CDC guidelines for prescription of opioids calls for replacement of the CDC writers' team now revising the guidelines. Draft recommendations reviewed July 16th, 2021, double down on errors of science and misdirections which characterized the original. The present team has fundamental professional conflicts of interest and lacks first-hand expert knowledge of pain management practice.

Portier, an activist statistician who pushed to get the common herbicide ingredient glyphosate listed as a "hazard" for carcinogen-labeling purposes while with the International Agency for Research on Cancer, only later revealed he was on the payroll of an anti-science litigation group that, at the time, was targeting glyphosate.

I won't pretend to be objective about ABC News anchor John Stossel. I worked for him from 1995-2001, as an associate producer on one-hour specials very much like the one airing tonight (10pm Eastern), called Lies, Myths, and Downright Stupidity.

"Lying" is considered one of those words civilized people should never say. That's why politicians never use it. Instead, their opponents are "misinformed" or "misspeaking" or "using alternative facts." 

From the “French baby death linked to vitamin dose” headline, you'd think that the vitamin treatment was responsible.

1. On Science Codex, a take on how anti-science groups who are all working together, and even funded by the same groups, such as Organic Consumers Association and its vassal sites like Sourcewatch and US Right To Know, mobilize its bloggers for their clients. In this case they allege that Dr. Geoffrey Kabat, an advisor here who is an epidemiologist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Dr.

If you're a scientist and public communicator, you are putting yourself in professional and personal danger. And as Kevin Folta's case shows, things are only getting worse.

1. In US News and World Report, they cover a publicity briefing by Greg Glassman, CEO of the Crossfit extreme exercise empire. Glassman is trying to generate some traction for his recent publicity stunt claiming he knows that soda causes diabetes, despite the fact that the evidence is similar to claiming spoons do.

Recently, I posted a piece on the discovery of the potential for a serious allergenic response from a foodstuff that was being promoted as a non-genetically-modified (non-GM) alternative to GM soybeans. There was almost total media silence on this matter even though the research itself was published in a leading peer-reviewed medical journal. ACSH Nutrition Director Dr.

This year the American Council on Science Health turned 45. That's a long time for a non-profit to be around. But ACSH has persevered because we continue to offer something no other organization provides: quick and easy-to-read, always factual – and thorough – science.

Would you pay a premium for a product that would prevent your family from getting the food-borne illnesses that sicken 48 million Americans and kill 3,000 more each year? And if it was endorsed by the USDA, the CDC and the WHO, wouldn't you find that safety appetizing?

Some people are deeply moved by the idea that there is a more holistic way of viewing human health, that there is a warm, friendly alternative to cold, institutionalized medicine as I learned while conducting interviews for a new "e-monograph" about unconventional medical practices.

The Tampa Bay Times recently ran a story that would have been unsurprising to many of you. It found that much of the locally-sourced organic food being served in one restaurant was actually nothing of the kind. There's a simple reason for that: Organic is just a process, or marketing, or both, since there is no real difference in the food.

Why is everyone always above average? Hint-we are poor judges of our ability. Chemophobia is challenging to discuss, but it does drive 100% natural marketing. Are hospital administrators and their salaries growing at such a high rate that they are the cause of high prices? The graph says yes, the truth is a bit more nuanced. Finally, with all the concern about a replication crisis and the integrity of science, you would think that writing a paper debunking other research would be easy; you would be wrong.

An article late last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association should not just have come with a well-hidden edit showing the conflicts six months later. It should have come with a warning label stating that no real science was involved.

1. The BBC was into poop - the still-ongoing trend of public serial poopers - and linked to work by Dr. Jamie Wells on it. That wasn't the only place this fad was noted. 

Facebook may be overtly partisan and secretly conspiratorial, but companies have the freedom to do that. The only thing that will absolve Facebook of blame is if government seeks to regulate them.

ACSH has gotten into it (again) with Carey Gilliam, a self-inflated journalist who just won't shut up about glyphosate, even though no one cares what she has to say. This time my buddy Cameron English was the "target." Not that he needs it, but I come to his defense!

The Guardian axed its science blog in August 2018. Then, apparently, it found a new moneymaker in spreading chemophobia and more with a new series titled "Toxic America."

A recent article in Newsweek would have you believe that you're being poisoned by pesticides on apples. But you're not. It's just another example of "scare by omission of dose." Nothing new here. Nothing to worry about either. 

The New Face of the New McCarthyism ACSH’s Jeff Stier got the last word in the Los Angeles Times’ report on PLoS Medicine’s recent announcement that they will no longer review studies that are funded by the tobacco industry.

A Review of the Greatest Unfounded Health Scares of Recent Times
FOURTH EDITION First published May 1997 Revised September 1997 Revised June 1998 Revised September 2004
Introduction
H. L. Mencken once said that the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety), by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. Unfounded health scares, for instance.