Over 500 dengue fever cases during 2023 in Florida
Over 500 cases of dengue fever have been reported in Florida. This formerly tropical disease is moving into the USA.
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Another case of dengue fever in California
Another case of dengue fever has been discovered in Long Beach, a city in Southern California. Not a big worry, but stay tuned.
Dengue fever hits Southern California – there’s a vaccine for that
A case of dengue fever has been found in Pasadena, California that was not a result of travel to an endemic area.
Stopping dengue fever with genetically modified mosquitoes
Four hundred years ago, the world was so afraid of Galileo’s scientific ideas that the Catholic Church put him under house arrest for the rest of his life. And he was just describing heliocentrism, the astronomical model where the earth revolves around the sun. Very important to our understanding of the universe, but it was not a life or death matter.
You would assume that if a new scientific idea that would help people live longer and healthier, then there would be no fear. However, that assumption is disproven again and again with the antivaccine gang and the Big Pharma ad hominems that we hear frequently.
As I’ve discussed on a number of occasions, genetically modified organisms, whether they be crops or animals or other organisms, seem to cause an irrational and unscientific concern. GMOs are generally safe, and we have lots of scientific evidence to back that up. But still, people get scared.
Read More »Stopping dengue fever with genetically modified mosquitoes
Anti-science hysteria vs. dengue fever
Four hundred years ago, the world was so afraid of Galileo’s scientific ideas that the Catholic Church put him under house arrest for the rest of his life. And he was just describing heliocentrism, the astronomical model where the earth revolves around the sun. Very important to our understanding of the universe, but it was not a life or death matter. You would assume that if a new scientific idea that would help people live longer and healthier, then there would be no fear. However, that assumption is disproven again and again with the anti-vaccine gang and the Big Pharma ad hominems that we hear frequently.
The British newspaper, the Guardian, is reporting that a small UK based biotech firm, Oxitec, is running into public resistance to testing a genetically modified mosquito that may stop the spread of the species of mosquito that spreads dengue fever in the Florida Keys. Dengue fever is a disease caused by any one of four closely related dengue viruses (DENV 1, DENV 2, DENV 3, or DENV 4) that are transmitted by the bite of an infected Aedes aegypti mosquito, the most important transmitter or vector of dengue viruses in North America.Read More »Anti-science hysteria vs. dengue fever
Science mistakes — the favorite trope of the anti-vaccine world
Those people who disagree with science love to remind us that science makes mistakes. I keep observing this same ridiculous, illogical argument being used by all of the science deniers, repeating various “science mistakes” tropes as if it is all the evidence they need to refute scientific claims. Honestly, I think the pseudoscience pushers meet annually in Sedona, Arizona, ground zero of woo, to discuss which trope they’re pushing each year.
The anti-vaccine zealots, creationists, anthropogenic global warming deniers, and whomever else pretends to use science to actually deny science frequently focus on this theme of “science mistakes.” And then they produce a list of cherry-picked examples that “prove” that science is wrong (see Note 1). Of course, this indicates more of a misunderstanding of what is science and the history of science than it is a condemnation of science. But your typical science denier is probably not going to let facts get in the way of maintaining faith in their beliefs. So let’s deconstruct and discredit this “science mistakes” trope.
By the way, in my story, I admit that there are many “science mistakes,” so read on. Hopefully, it’s somewhat enlightening.
Read More »Science mistakes — the favorite trope of the anti-vaccine world
COVID-19 vaccine essentials – I stopped worrying and loved the jab
This article about COVID-19 vaccine essentials was written by Dr. Frederik Lermyte, Ph.D. (Twitter) Dr. Lermyte is an assistant professor in the chemistry department at the Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany). He is interested in all things science, although he focuses on understanding the structure and chemistry of proteins, especially those relevant for human health and disease.
Disclaimer: While I’ve tried to make this discussion about COVID-19 vaccine essentials as accurate as possible for something meant for a general audience, one or two mistakes might have crept in. I’m obviously also simplifying some things here for brevity. Also, all of this is only my opinion, and obviously not medical advice.
Someone reached out to me a while ago through Twitter as they had an appointment to get the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and were feeling anxious. I explained some vaccine essentials to them as a series of direct messages.
I’m adapting and sharing this article on COVID-19 vaccine essentials now (with permission from the person who originally reached out to me) in case it’s still useful to anyone. I actually thought it was all fairly well known by now, but I’ve been hearing more nonsense about these vaccines again lately, so perhaps this is still useful after all.
Read More »COVID-19 vaccine essentials – I stopped worrying and loved the jab
Genetically modified mosquitos are coming to Florida – saving humans
A plan to release over 750 million genetically-modified mosquitos in the Florida Keys in 2021 and 2022 has been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency and various Florida regulatory authorities. Predictably, activists who reject science are attacking this decision.
Basically, the genetically-modified mosquitos will help combat the invasive Aedes aegypti mosquito, which carries several dangerous diseases like the Zika virus and Dengue fever, passing it to humans.
There have been numerous cases of Zika virus infection in south Florida, and, because of the lack of effective preventative vaccines and treatments, public health officials have looked at other methods to prevent the Zika virus. The most effective way is to eliminate the carriers of this virus, mosquitoes.
I have written several articles about these GMO mosquitoes, which some have called the “Frankensquito,” a complete misuse of both the genetic modification of the mosquito and a misunderstanding of the Frankenstein myth. It’s just a scare tactic.
Let’s take a look at the real science behind these genetically-modified mosquitos, and why it will save humans.
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WHO’s top 10 public health threats – vaccine deniers included in the list
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently published their top 10 world public health threats in 2019. It includes all of the public health threats that you can imagine, plus what they call “vaccine hesitancy,” or what I call the anti-vaccine religion’s ignorance, misinformation, and lies.
Yes, the anti-vaccine fiction and deception are one of the greatest dangers to the world’s public health. Their tropes, memes, and falsehoods are convincing enough people to delay or avoid vaccinating their children that diseases we thought weren’t a threat anymore are coming back. Europe and the USA are experiencing an unprecedented measles outbreak because of slightly lower measles immunization rates.
I want to review the WHO public health threats list because it’s interesting to those of us who fight the good fight for science. Of course, I’m going to focus on the vaccine deniers because that’s what we do here.Read More »WHO’s top 10 public health threats – vaccine deniers included in the list
GMO facts and myths – your one stop for scientific evidence
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs or GMs) are one of the most well-studied areas of biological and agricultural research. However, one of the tactics of the GMO refusers is that “there’s no proof that GMOs are safe.” It’s time to look at the GMO science facts – examining myth from science.
Typically, in a debate, the side making the assertion (those that say GMOs are unsafe) are responsible for the evidence that supports their contention. But, the anti-GMO gang relies upon the argument from ignorance, trying to force the argument to “if you can’t prove that they’re safe, they must be unsafe.”
The anti-GMO forces also like to invoke the precautionary principle, which attempts to shift the burden of proof to those who are advocating GMOs (or any new technology) until the advocates “prove” that there are absolutely no negative consequences of using GMOs.
The principle is often cited by anti-science and/or environmental activists when there is a perceived lack of evidence showing that this technology is absolutely safe.
I’ve written numerous articles about GMOs, focusing on scientific evidence supported by high-quality research. And more than a few articles debunked myths and bad research from the anti-GMO crowd. To assist those who are doing research on the topic, this article was created to be a one-stop shop for GMO science facts – and fiction.
Read More »GMO facts and myths – your one stop for scientific evidence