Making decisions about early intubation based on uncertain evidence — At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a lot of chaos. Hospitals were suddenly faced with thousands of people who were very sick with a completely new disease. Instead of the usual decision-making, with decades of research to fall back on, a lot of doctors were forced to…

The increasingly important question about the potential harms of marijuana — Marijuana is one of the perennial topics that I've been writing about almost since I started putting these articles together. It’s one of those wonderful things that we like to think of as somewhat bad for our health, but also secretly wish could cure our healthcare issues. Every six months…

When it comes to systemic issues, just saying “personal responsibility” is never the answer — Every time there’s a public discussion about a systemic issue — whether it’s road safety, education of children, or even the economy at large — there’s always someone who says that the problem would disappear tomorrow if everyone just took personal responsibility. If we all just did the right thing…

Why masks don’t cause Long COVID, and the evidence behind this bizarre myth — Note: The mask review that is discussed in this article has recently been retracted due in part to the errors identified here. There have been a huge number of myths that have sprung up during the pandemic. Whether it was the bizarre idea that pandemic deaths were drastically over-counted, despite…

Pregnancy, on the other hand, can be quite dangerous — Abortion is in the news again, this time because a federal judge in the United States has invalidated the FDA approval for one of the main medications used in medical abortions, mifepristone. This may have wide-reaching impacts on the availability of medical abortions in the US, with one of the…

Why the evidence doesn’t hold up very well when it comes to exercise and depression — Depression is one of the biggest health issues in society today. It’s hard to know for sure how many people experience depression, but current best estimates put it at about 1 in 10 people experiencing symptoms consistent with major depressive disorder every year, and a scarily high 1 in 5…

Somehow prices are still higher than many other places in the world — Insulin is one of the most amazing medications ever discovered. Prior to the first commercially-produced insulin products, Type 1 diabetes was quite literally a death sentence, and a quick one. When insulin became commonly available in the 1920s, diabetes almost immediately went from a universally fatal terminal diagnosis to a…

The question we’re still somehow debating — Masks are, for many, one of the most contentious issues of the pandemic. While in theory they are just small scraps of fabric that you wear on your face, for many masks have become a symbol of either the wish to protect people from COVID-19 or a refutation of the…

Formula is overhyped to sell more product, but the benefits of breastfeeding may also be oversold — Note: this is part two, you can find part one which looks at the dodgy claims of formula manufacturers here. In part one of this short series, I looked at formula, and we learned that basically every claim made on the packaging of a formula tin was either unproven or…