/oss/taxonomy/term/1958/all en /oss/article/covid-19-medical/what-if-your-covid-tests-are-expired <hr /> <p><em>This article was originally posted in the</em> <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-what-if-your-covid-tests-are-expired"><em>Montreal Gazette.</em></a></p> <hr /> <p>With COVID-19 cases on the rise again, many people were shocked to discover that rapid tests are no longer available at pharmacies. Having blissfully ignored the problem for the past several months, many were left wondering how to get tested and whether their old tests were still effective or were now expired.</p> Fri, 13 Oct 2023 10:00:00 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 9688 at /oss /oss/article/medical-critical-thinking/jumping-gun <p>Ready, Set, Go…. for Ozempic. That’s what the incessant television ads suggest. “Ask your doctor about Ozempic,” the ads advise, without mentioning what the drug is for. The marketer’s hope is that the doc, on seeing the few extra pounds on the questioner, will reach for the prescription pad. There is a good chance of that since the weight control effects of GLP-1 agonists, the class of drugs to which semaglutide belongs, have been a hot topic in the medical literature and are enthusiastically pointed out by pharmaceutical reps.</p> Wed, 17 May 2023 14:30:39 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9512 at /oss /oss/article/medical/generic-drugs-and-ambivalent-attitudes <p>Generic drugs offer low-cost alternatives to brand-name drugs and account for <a href="http://www.pmprb-cepmb.gc.ca/view.asp?ccid=1468">over ¾</a> of the prescriptions filled in Canada. Despite this, many people have lingering doubts, fears or negative perceptions of generic equivalents. Why?</p> Fri, 31 Mar 2023 20:11:47 +0000 Ada McVean M.Sc. 9461 at /oss /oss/article/health-and-nutrition-pseudoscience/here-be-homeopathic-chameleons <p>In the fight against pseudoscience, the idea that simply providing more information works every time has been questioned these last decades. The thinking used to be simplistic: when non-experts disagree with scientists, it must be because they lack the correct information. But as we have seen in the growing struggle against the anti-vaccination movement, feelings don’t care about facts. When your identity is shaped by pseudoscientific beliefs, you have made your brain more or less impervious to facts.</p> Sat, 27 Nov 2021 09:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8933 at /oss /oss/article/thomas-mulcair-tells-journalists-homeopathy-works-him <p>I attended a pro-homeopathy media event on November 19<sup>th</sup> supported by Thomas Mulcair, the former leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada and also the former president of the Office des professions du Québec, which is tasked with ensuring that professions in our province are exercised with competence and integrity.</p> Wed, 20 Nov 2019 16:13:32 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8002 at /oss /oss/article/health-quackery/two-thirds-montreal-pharmacies-sell-quack-flu-buster <p><img height="880" width="998" style="width: 600px; height: 529px;" class="file-original " src="/oss/files/oss/figure_1_1.png" alt="" /></p> <p>If your child has the flu this winter, you may be tempted by an all-natural treatment that has a Health Canada approval number and that is sold in many pharmacies. Its name is so challenging to the human eye, its maker has capitalized on this bafflement for one of its marketing slogans: “unpronounceable but effective.”</p> Fri, 11 Jan 2019 17:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 7529 at /oss /oss/article/controversial-science-homeopathy-news/when-enough-enough <p>On the “The Current,” the CBC’s national morning show, Dr. Heather Boon, Dean of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto, and I had a chance to express our views on the proposed study she is organizing to investigate the homeopathic treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in conjunction with the Riverdale Homeopathic clinic. This was stimulated by a letter I had written to Dr.</p> Fri, 06 Mar 2015 02:38:39 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 2240 at /oss /oss/article/controversial-science-drugs-health-homeopathy/why-yet-another-study-homeopathy <p>This post needs a bit of a background. A few weeks ago we noted that the Dean of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto was organizing a trial on using homeopathic preparations for the treatment of ADHD. A letter to the Dean asking how a Faculty of Pharmacy would get involved in studying something that is dismissed by the vast majority of the scientific community seemed appropriate. Eventually this letter was signed by more than ninety scientists and physicians and was sent off. There was no reply.</p> Tue, 24 Feb 2015 04:47:17 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 2237 at /oss