/oss/taxonomy/term/375/all en /oss/article/covid-19-medical-critical-thinking/spikeopathy-speculative-fiction-contaminates-blood-supply <p>We have to talk about the word “spikeopathy,” not to be confused with “psychopathy.”</p> <p>Our office recently celebrated its 25th anniversary—25 years of, among other things, separating sense from nonsense on scientific matters. I would argue that our work is harder now than it has ever been: as the dance of science becomes ever more convoluted, pseudoscience follows in its footsteps, imitating its complexity and looking more and more convincing.</p> Fri, 07 Jun 2024 06:31:59 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9971 at /oss /oss/article/medical-history/why-measles-so-contagious <p>Even if he had been aware of what was happening inside the girl’s body, the man likely would not have been worried. She was, after all, sitting quite a long ways away.</p> <p>The girl was 11 years old. She was a refugee from Malawi, a narrow African country surrounded by Zambia, Tanzania, and Mozambique. She had flown from Malawi to South Africa earlier that day and was now on a 12-hour flight to Australia. The day before the trip began, she had started to feel a bit sick.</p> Fri, 19 Apr 2024 15:13:40 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9918 at /oss /oss/article/medical/measles-are-back-blame-complacency <hr /> <p><em>This article was first published in <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-measles-are-back-blame-complacency">The Montreal Gazette</a>.</em></p> Fri, 01 Mar 2024 15:24:08 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 9852 at /oss /oss/article/medical/we-can-now-envision-end-cervical-cancer <hr /> <p><em>This article was first published in the <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-we-can-now-envision-the-end-of-cervical-cancer">Montreal Gazette.</a></em></p> Fri, 02 Feb 2024 18:45:59 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 9822 at /oss /oss/article/infographics/2023-year-review <p style="text-align:center"><img height="1603" width="500" class="media-element file-extra-large no-float" src="/oss/files/oss/styles/wysiwyg_extra_large/public/2023_year_in_review_infographic_0.png?itok=S5m4OctP" alt="" /><!--td {border: 1px solid #cccccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}--></p> Thu, 04 Jan 2024 15:32:55 +0000 Cat Wang, B.Sc. 9774 at /oss /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/covid-19-medical-general-science/nobel-prize-committee-sends-message-messenger-rna-research-merits-sciences-highest-honour <p>The wall above that photocopier located at the University of Pennsylvania may eventually feature a plaque that reads something like “it was here that Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman met in 1998 and forged a partnership that would lead to millions of lives being saved by modified RNA Covid-19 vaccines and result in the duo being awarded that 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology.” </p> Wed, 04 Oct 2023 10:00:00 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9671 at /oss /oss/article/medical-critical-thinking-history/white-lie-heart-vaccine-history <p>Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Dr. Edward Jenner invented vaccines because of an observation he and he alone made. You see, milkmaids were renowned for their beauty. At a time when smallpox was endemic and was scarring the faces of the people who survived it, Jenner noticed that milkmaids would always escape from this dermatological blight. Why was that?</p> Fri, 09 Jun 2023 13:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9539 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition/gene-therapied-pork-or-fear-rna-vaccines-livestock <p>“How long have you been consuming gene therapied pork?” That’s the question Joe Mercola, snake oil salesman supreme and <a href="/oss/article/covid-19-health-pseudoscience/upside-down-doctor">one of the world’s richest doctors</a>, recently asked on his website. (His article has now been moved to <a href="https://takecontrol.substack.com/p/eating-pork-treated-with-gene-therapy">his paid Substack blog</a>).</p> Fri, 21 Apr 2023 17:55:44 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9487 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-medical/vaccine-study-has-people-worried-being-misinterpreted <hr /> <p><em>This article was originally posted in the <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-vaccine-study-that-has-people-worried-is-being-misinterpreted">Montreal Gazette.</a></em></p> Fri, 10 Feb 2023 11:00:00 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 9381 at /oss /oss/article/medical-critical-thinking/young-athletes-dying-vaccines-thats-hoax <hr /> <p><em>This article was originally posted in the <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-young-athletes-dying-from-vaccines-thats-a-hoax">Montreal Gazette.</a></em></p> Fri, 21 Oct 2022 10:00:00 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 9272 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/future-proof-coronavirus-vaccine <p>You may remember learning about Newton’s third law in school. It states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. A classic example would be a rocket being propelled forward by expelling gases backward. In a tongue-in-cheek way, we could apply this law to the COVID-19 pandemic: the virus makes a move, we make a countermove. As important mutations arise in the virus that create a new variant that outcompetes the others, scientists start to work on a new vaccine that could be a better countermove to this new variant.</p> Thu, 28 Apr 2022 18:07:58 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9099 at /oss /oss/article/health-and-nutrition-you-asked/what-are-adjuvants-vaccines <p>In 1926, Alexander Thomas Glenny, a British immunologist, discovered that noted that vaccinated guinea pigs had a better response when the jab caused a local inflammation at the site of the injection. He then had the idea of adding substances to the vaccine to cause such an inflammation and found aluminum salts to be particularly effective.</p> Fri, 11 Mar 2022 22:51:33 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9050 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/natural-immunity-covid-has-its-limits <hr /> <p>This article was originally posted in <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-natural-immunity-to-covid-has-its-limits">the Montreal Gazette</a></p> Fri, 25 Feb 2022 18:21:27 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 9036 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health-and-nutrition/why-children-shouldnt-just-be-left-get-covid <hr /> <p><em>This article was originally published in the <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-why-children-shouldnt-just-be-left-to-get-covid">Montreal Gazette</a></em></p> Sat, 12 Feb 2022 03:11:59 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 9024 at /oss