Tag Archives: evaluating evidence

Vaccines are tested against placebos

Lately, my Facebook page has been flooded with people insisting that  “no vaccine is tested against a placebo” (sometimes stated with additional qualifiers like “double-blind” or “saline placebo”). This claim, like so many anti-vaccer claims, is blatantly false. Nevertheless, I … Continue reading

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Don’t be intellectually lazy

In recent conversations on this page, I have been struck by just how intellectually lazy science-deniers usually are. This is hardly a novel observation, but I think it bears discussion. I also want to note that this sort of lazy … Continue reading

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Masks and COVID vaccines were huge successes; ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine were not

COVID19 presented an unprecedented challenge for modern science/medicine. Faced with a novel infectious disease, doctors, scientists, and health officials rose to the challenge in remarkable speed. That rate at which we went from never having heard of COVID19 to having … Continue reading

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Yes, you should fact-check

Yesterday, I posted the fairly innocuous image above on the TLoS Facebook page, and the results were both fascinating and horrifying. Numerous people took time out of their day to embarrass themselves by doubling down and attacking fact-checkers, often with … Continue reading

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How well do you understand placebo effects?

“Placebo effect” is a term that almost everyone knows but few seem to understand. Misconceptions about placebo effects are rampant and usually center around the idea that a placebo effect occurs when you feel better because you thought a treatment … Continue reading

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