/oss/taxonomy/term/4776/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/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/do-bad-viruses-always-become-good-guys-end <p>In our social media age, talk of virulence has gone viral, with most of us atwitter about the course the new coronavirus is taking. As novel variants move up the ladder of concern, we are left asking the same questions: is this one more transmissible? is it more dangerous to us? will our vaccines stop it?</p> Sat, 18 Dec 2021 09:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8951 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health-and-nutrition/great-covid-19-immunity-test-kit <p>The kit arrives in the mail. You swab the inside of your cheek and mail it back. Two weeks later, the company emails you a report. You are told you have a 2% risk of getting COVID-19 and a 5% chance of passing the virus on to another person. The report claims these risks will never change. You decide that the risk is low enough and return to your pre-pandemic lifestyle.</p> Sat, 23 Oct 2021 08:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8907 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-general-science/worlds-second-best-molecule-year <p>The COVID-19 pandemic has made visible so many unsung heroes. Essential workers, parents who must work from home and care for their children, healthcare personnel. But there is one hero whose positive impact on the pandemic remains unsung and for good reasons. It doesn’t technically qualify as a hero because it’s not even alive. It’s a molecule but not any molecule, mind you. The prestigious journal <i>Science </i>dedicated<a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/246/4937/1543.long"> its Christmas 1989 cover</a> to throwing flowers at it, calling it “the molecule of the year.”</p> Thu, 11 Feb 2021 19:29:57 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8615 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health/covid-19-vaccine-betting-hare-or-tortoise <p>The race is on! Pharmaceutical companies and assorted academic researchers around the world are engaged in the quest for the current version of the Holy Grail, a vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that hopefully will restore some degree of normalcy to our lives. Given that no vaccine has ever been produced in less than four years, the challenge is a mighty one. However, with many brilliant minds cooperating in an unprecedented fashion, there is a good chance that at least some of the close to two hundred projects now underway will bear fruit.</p> Thu, 10 Sep 2020 01:03:22 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8394 at /oss