/oss/taxonomy/term/4497/all en /oss/article/covid-19-pseudoscience/madej-madness <p>I’m irritated. There just seems to be no end to the nonsense that floods social media. This time the purveyor is Dr. Carrie Madej, an osteopathic physician who no longer practices and now “dedicates her time to educating others on vaccines, nanotechnology and human rights.” When it comes to Dr. Madej, I see two possibilities. Either the tungsten from the filament in her mental lightbulb has evaporated, or she is knowingly peddling balderdash. In either case, her views about COVID-19 vaccines are a menace to society.</p> Wed, 17 Nov 2021 21:23:40 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8924 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-history-general-science/bat-poop-accused-crimes <p>COVID has not been kind to bats. They have been accused of harbouring the SARS-CoV-2 virus and transferring it to people via an animal vector. But this is not the first time that these flying mammals have hit the headlines. Back in 1993, newspaper readers were stunned by this one: “Holy Blam, Batman! Bat Dung Brews Methane; Park Building Explodes!”</p> Fri, 09 Jul 2021 18:32:34 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8781 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-health/funhouse-mirror-risk-perception <p>The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated many preexisting problems. One of them is how to vet the avalanche of information flowing down at us on a daily basis. Another is how to properly assess the risks that we face.</p> Fri, 09 Jul 2021 18:22:36 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8780 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health/does-vitamin-d-protect-against-covid-seems-not <hr /> <p>This article was originally published in <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-does-vitamin-d-protect-against-covid-seems-not">the Montreal Gazette</a></p> <hr /> <p>One of the major arguments used by people who want to downplay the seriousness of this pandemic or the importance of vaccines is to raise the issue of Vitamin D.</p> Fri, 25 Jun 2021 23:38:18 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 8771 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health/sometimes-you-want-immunity-suppressed <p>“Boosting immunity” is a hot topic these days. That’s understandable since it is our immune system that protects us from invaders such as the SARS-CoV-2 virus. But boosting the immune system is a very nebulous concept because it is actually composed of a complex array of white blood cells, organs and messenger chemicals and cannot be revved up like a car engine. Poor diet, lack of exercise, stress , and lack of sleep can reduce immune activity, so remedying any of these can help “boost” the system.</p> Fri, 25 Jun 2021 16:54:58 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8768 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health/fear-myocarditis-no-reason-skip-covid-vaccine <hr /> <p>This article was originally published in <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-fear-of-myocarditis-no-reason-to-skip-covid-vaccine">the Montreal Gazette</a></p> Fri, 11 Jun 2021 21:16:02 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 8761 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/can-vaccines-make-our-body-magnetic <p>Now I’m even more attracted to the COVID vaccines than I used to be! That’s because I recently learned that they do not only equip us with antibodies against the virus, they also make our bodies magnetic! And we know that magnets can heal, don’t we? So now we should see massive healing of all sorts of diseases as the newly magnetized COVID vaccine recipients spread across the globe.</p> Fri, 11 Jun 2021 16:57:15 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8759 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health-pseudoscience/upside-down-doctor <p>Dr. Joe Mercola, an osteopathic physician who has made an impressive fortune selling supplements through his online store, has a new book out about the COVID-19 pandemic, a book which he co-authored with Ronnie Cummins, an organic food crusader. This book, as well as Mercola’s decades of peddling health misinformation on the Internet, exemplifies the dangerous blind spot of the wellness movement.</p> Fri, 04 Jun 2021 20:40:54 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8757 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health/what-expect-covid-19-vaccine-when-youre-expecting-or-breastfeeding <p>What should public health bodies do in the absence of data? And, even more importantly, what should the people left to make an important health decision do when no data is available?</p> <p>I have seen a lot of anxiety over the question of whether or not people who are pregnant or breastfeeding should get the COVID-19 vaccine. These very same people were prevented from participating in the large clinical trials in which these vaccines were put to the test. Therefore, we don’t have trial data on these groups of people, but they must now make a decision based on seemingly no data at all.</p> Fri, 28 May 2021 20:21:06 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8750 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health/lack-fda-covid-vaccine-approval-doesnt-matter <hr /> <p>This article was originally published in the <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-lack-of-fda-covid-vaccine-approval-doesnt-matter">Montreal Gazette</a></p> Fri, 28 May 2021 19:38:15 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 8747 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health/evidence-coronavirus-can-mess-our-dna-far-convincing <p>Science is hard. This is not meant to dissuade anyone from going into the sciences. It’s just a statement of fact with which all scientists would probably agree, and it’s a sort of mantra we can repeat to ourselves to recalibrate our expectations once in a while.</p> Fri, 14 May 2021 19:25:48 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8733 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health-general-science/lets-hear-it-voices-reason <p>The COVID-19 pandemic has been a golden opportunity for schemers, contrarians and conspiracy theorists to use public distress and thirst for knowledge to widen their reach. It is easy to get lost in those weeds and forget that there are good people whose intellectual rigour and clarity have provided us all with metaphorical flashlights during these dark times. They have looked at an expanding (and sometimes contracting) body of evidence on COVID-19, delineated the border between what we knew and didn’t know, and explained to us the maddening uncertainties of science in real-time.</p> Thu, 08 Apr 2021 16:45:11 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8692 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-videos/dr-joe-schwarcz-explains-graphene-face-masks <p><div class="media-youtube-video media-element file-default media-youtube-1"> <iframe class="media-youtube-player" id="media-youtube-2fnkgco1p4e" width="640" height="390" title="Dr. Joe Schwarcz explains graphene face masks" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/2fNKgCO1p4E?wmode=opaque&controls=&enablejsapi=1&modestbranding=1&playerapiid=media-youtube-2fnkgco1p4e&origin=https%3A//www.mcgill.ca&rel=0" name="Dr. Joe Schwarcz explains graphene face masks" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>Video of Dr. Joe Schwarcz explains graphene face masks</iframe> </div> </p> <p> </p> Fri, 02 Apr 2021 21:43:02 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8680 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/its-race-between-vaccines-and-variants-0 <hr /> <p><em>This article was first published in</em> <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-its-a-race-between-vaccines-and-variants">The Montreal Gazette.</a></p> Fri, 02 Apr 2021 20:33:16 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 8679 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health-general-science/humans-sometimes-get-way-science <p>I never expected to read the word “glooped” in a BBC article. An<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56556806"> investigation by the BBC programme Panorama</a> recently revealed troubling behaviour on the part of some technicians at one of the major UK COVID-19 testing laboratories. These laboratories receive the swabs that went up the nose and down the throat of potential coronavirus hosts. Technicians there must extract the genetic material present and try to amplify coronavirus-specific sequences using a test known as PCR to check for the presence of the virus.</p> Fri, 02 Apr 2021 19:50:04 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8676 at /oss