/oss/taxonomy/term/4633/all en /oss/article/covid-19-critical-thinking/bret-weinstein-would-be-galileo <p>Galileo has many heirs. I don’t mean biological descendants; rather, some intellectuals see Galileo’s face in the mirror staring back at them. Freed from the shackles of academia (or simply kicked out of their university), they find a lucrative niche for themselves, telling their enraptured fans that, just like Galileo, they have an Earth-shattering theory… and a mysterious “they”<i> </i>don’t want you to know about it.</p> Fri, 27 Sep 2024 05:56:13 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 10096 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-medical/potential-treatment-prevent-long-covid <hr /> <p><em>This article was originally posted in the</em> <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-a-potential-treatment-to-prevent-long-covid"><em>Montreal Gazette.</em></a></p> <hr /> <p>The cruelty of COVID is that many people recover only to be left with long-term symptoms. What we have taken to calling long COVID seems to affect about 10 per cent of people post infection. Symptoms tend to resolve slowly over months, if not years, but apart from suggesting patience there was not much medicine could offer. Until now.</p> Fri, 16 Jun 2023 10:00:00 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 9543 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-medical/theres-more-covid-death-rate <hr /> <p><em>This article was originally posted in the <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-theres-more-to-covid-than-the-death-rate">Montreal Gazette.</a></em></p> Wed, 27 Jul 2022 18:06:06 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 9190 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking/fogen-effect-masks-big-methodological-issue <p>Have you heard of the Fögen effect, alternatively spelled “Foegen?” It is the idea, or so goes the claim, that wearing a mask could make COVID-19 more severe. And you might be tempted to take it seriously because it has a very scientific-sounding name. Surely, if this mechanism of action has been baptized in the scientific literature—with a German name to boot!—it must be genuine.</p> Thu, 21 Jul 2022 15:40:47 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9186 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-critical-thinking-pseudoscience/infertility-diabolical-agenda-anti-vaxx-sleight-hand-propaganda <p>There is a lot to unpack in the deceptively simple (and simply deceptive) 30-minute documentary <a href="https://infertilitymovie.org/a-diabolical-agenda/"><i>Infertility: A Diabolical Agenda</i></a>, released on June 10, 2022.</p> Fri, 15 Jul 2022 11:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9173 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/navigating-false-negatives-covid-rapid-tests <hr /> <p><em>This article was originally posted in the <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-navigating-false-negatives-on-covid-rapid-tests">Montreal Gazette</a>.</em></p> Tue, 05 Apr 2022 19:04:40 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 9073 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health-and-nutrition/mens-genitals-meet-coronavirus <p>Maybe we should focus on the penis.</p> <p>I have seen this suggestion proposed by science communicators many times during the pandemic. That the COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective doesn’t seem to matter to some men: they see the illness itself as nothing worse than a bad cold.</p> <p>Maybe we should focus on the penis.</p> Fri, 04 Mar 2022 20:53:54 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9043 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 /oss/article/covid-19/debilitating-puzzle-box-long-covid <p>Imagine sitting in front of 40,000 tiny pieces that you have to assemble into a jigsaw puzzle. Except that some of these pieces may belong to a different puzzle. There is no box to tell you what the final image looks like. And in front of you is a massive hourglass, its sand slowly and inevitably flowing down, and as time goes by, more and more people suffer. You must solve the puzzle while minimizing suffering.</p> Fri, 04 Feb 2022 20:36:09 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9015 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/next-preventing-emergence-new-variants <hr /> <p>This article was originally published in <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-next-preventing-the-emergence-of-new-variants">the Montreal Gazette</a></p> Fri, 28 Jan 2022 20:35:49 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 9013 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/covid-19-air-both-problem-and-solution <p>On March 28, 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, the<a href="https://twitter.com/who/status/1243972193169616898?lang=en"> </a><a href="https://twitter.com/who/status/1243972193169616898?lang=en">World Health Organization (WHO) tweeted out</a>, “FACT: #COVID19 is NOT airborne.”</p> <p>For medical doctors and biomedical scientists (including me), this made sense. Few diseases were known to be airborne.</p> <p>But to aerosol scientists, this was both puzzling and infuriating.</p> Sat, 15 Jan 2022 09:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8980 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/hospitalization-rates-confirm-covid-vaccines-benefits <hr /> <p>This article was originally <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-hospitalization-rates-confirm-covid-vaccines-benefits">published in the Montreal Gazette</a></p> Fri, 14 Jan 2022 20:14:39 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 8981 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/shedding-light-illusionary-connections <p>We may have left 2021 behind, but unfortunately, the misinformation that characterized the past year continues unabated. Betty White, comedienne extraordinaire, passed away on December 31, just eighteen days shy of her one-hundredth birthday. It didn’t take long for zealous members of the anti-vax community to link her death with the booster shot she received three days earlier.  </p> Fri, 07 Jan 2022 21:37:05 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8972 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/can-you-fool-covid-rapid-test-putting-vaseline-your-nostrils <p>This notion emerged after some partiers on a flight chartered by a private Quebec club allegedly planned to trick a COVID rapid antigen test to produce a negative result. Their idea was to prevent the swab from picking up the virus by providing a Vaseline barrier. Whether they actually tried this or just blathered nonsensically about Vaseline interfering with the test by “having no pH” isn’t clear, but it is extremely unlikely that this ruse would work. The test requires very few viral particles, and in any case, these would become embedded in the Vaseline.</p> Fri, 07 Jan 2022 21:32:06 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8971 at /oss