Debunking the “12% efficacy” viral myth — This piece is based on a fantastic investigation by Dr. Jeffery Morris that is worth reading and linked here. Recently, the internet has been abuzz with a new and shocking claim. Apparently, the Pfizer vaccine was not as effective as the 95% we were sold on — in fact, people…

Dispelling myths and looking to science — Abortion is in the news again, because in the United States a leaked Supreme Court document appears to show that the landmark Roe v Wade decision will be overturned shortly. …

What we know about Covid-19 death rates in elderly people — This article is based on an excellent review my colleague Prof. Andrew Levin and team published in the European Journal of Epidemiology, looking at the impact of aged care facilities and the pandemic. One of the biggest findings throughout the pandemic has centred around the age-related risk of Covid-19. In…

Why you probably don’t need to shine a light on your genitals — In the long list of things that you are never quite ready to write about, the practice of testicular red light therapy, or “ball tanning” as some have called it, is definitely up there near the top. It’s not necessarily that it’s the most bizarre subject I’ve ever come across…

Will we really go back to normal? — Today, as I sat on a train on my way to work, I thought about life beyond the pandemic. …

A major trial of vitamin D treatment for Covid-19 has a number of flaws that make the results unreliable — One of the bigger questions throughout the pandemic has been whether vitamin D supplements are a useful tool in preventing and treating Covid-19. Since early 2020, people have been constantly wondering whether taking some extra vitamin D would help them fight off the dreaded spicy cough.

A strong answer to a question that has been asked for the whole pandemic — Vitamin D is one of the most popular supplements in the world. Because it’s involved in numerous biological processes, and people with low levels of vitamin D are worse off in so many ways than people with higher levels, there’s long been a thought that it would help with everything…

How Covid-19 has exposed the cracks in the system — This piece covers a new paper by myself and some fantastic colleagues recently published in PLOS Biology. It’s open-access (anyone can read it) and you can find it here. Before the pandemic, there were well-known issues in science. Peer-review, seen as the stronghold against low-quality research, is notoriously fallible and…

Why Focused Protection was never a real strategy for reducing the impact of Covid-19 — During the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s likely that nothing has been more hotly-debated than government intervention against the disease. Were stay-in-place orders a reasonable response to a novel disease, or a calamity beyond imagining? …