FSM Friends’ News and Articles
COVID-19 vaccine rollout creates new scamming opportunities for crooks: “With the initial administration of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine earlier this week in the U.S., and the prospect of Moderna’s vaccine receiving an FDA Emergency Use Authorization at any moment, scammers are concocting fresh schemes to exploit the public’s understandable eagerness to end the pandemic. Having already hawked various nostrums, including fake preventatives and impotent therapeutics, vultures are circling the internet, knocking on doors, and dialing for dollars, ready to pluck the bones of financially and emotionally distressed consumers.”
General
Not sure about a news item? … That’s what I suggest you could do: “In so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) – but certainly not just there – we regularly encouter reports about new research results that sound odd, implausible, too good to be true, or outright fantastic (like borne out of fantasy). What should one do with such news? Keep an open mind, yes sure, but what if the news leads us up the garden path? “ Edzard Ernst provides a list of 12 recommendations you might do as well.
Study finds no benefit for dietary supplements: “More than half of U.S. adults take dietary supplements. I don’t, but some of my family members do. But does popping all of these vitamins, minerals, and other substances really lead to a longer, healthier life? A new nationwide study suggests it doesn’t. Based on an analysis of survey data gathered from more than 27,000 people over a six-year period, the NIH-funded study found that individuals who reported taking dietary supplements had about the same risk of dying as those who got their nutrients through food. What’s more, the mortality benefits associated with adequate intake of vitamin A, vitamin K, magnesium, zinc, and copper were limited to food consumption.”
Great Moments in Health and Science
Verification of the germ theory: That many diseases are caused by microscopic pathogens has been understood for centuries and was an important basis for much of modern disease treatments as well as preventions such as modern vaccines, anti-septic and public hygiene advice such as covering your mouth when you cough.