FSM News and Articles
The unfolding COVID-19 disaster in PNG: “Helping New Guinea with its disastrous COVID-19 outbreak is not pure altruism on our part. The unbridled, indeed raging pandemic, known to have infected 100,000 already and likely to have infected a million more within a week or so, provides a perfect ‘incubator’ for wild type more infectious variants of the COVID-19 to develop. We need to help our close neighbour in a way that prevents transmission of the New Guinea variant spilling into Australia.”
FSM Friends’ News and Articles
A worthless acupuncture study in cancer patients: “Acupuncture points don’t even exist. There is no consistency among acupuncture trials as to which are the “correct” points to use. There is no relationship between training and outcome. You can clumsily fake your way through an acupuncture treatment, pretending to stick needles in random places, and as long as you are friendly and positive with the patient, you will get the full ‘acupuncture’ effect. This is all consistent with acupuncture being an elaborate placebo, and nothing else. This study does nothing to change that conclusion.”
The “Disinformation Dozen” spreading anti-vaccine messaging on social media: “Instagram has been audited and it observed that followers of leading anti-vaxxers would be automatically served more anti-vaccine content, focusing on COVID-19 misinformation and conspiracy theories, in addition to anti-semitic content and posts on QAnon.”
Lesser-known Health Professions
Perfusionists: Perfusionists operate heart and lung machines that take over the functions of patients’ organs while they are in surgery. There is a Certified Clinical Perfusionist (CCP) credential that is required to hold this job. These professionals do not necessarily have to work full-time hours. In some cases they work as needed on an on-call basis.