At the beginning of the COVID pandemic, I had a simple and naive thought: if I just explain the science clearly enough, people will understand and stop believing misinformation! What a sweet, sweet summer child I was. I very quickly encountered reality. While there were many people who appreciated clear
Yesterday several text messages from Fauci’s government phone were released, and headlines immediately suggested they revealed a cover up. The texts in question came from Anthony Fauci, Rochelle Walensky (CDC director at the time), and Vivek Murthy (Surgeon General at the time) discussing potential risks of COVID vaccination in
A few years ago I gave a lecture to my emergency medicine co-residents about using social media as a physician. Before starting, I asked how many thought the lecture was going to be a warning about the dangers of social media, reminding them what not to do (it wasn’
Over the past several months I’ve been working on a few new projects, and I finally get to share them with you. The first one is the most exciting of all — a project I’ve been working on for 9 months which has finally been published — this tiny little
Nope. A look at an interesting AI study that has led to some very overhyped headlines. Yesterday a new study was published in Science comparing the diagnostic capacity of several AI tools to physicians. It made headlines for including something novel — they fed the AI tools and clinicians real-world
“Where do I find accurate health information?” This question has becoming increasingly common over the last year, especially with the recent changes to the CDC website. And I’ll confess — I find it pretty difficult to answer. Common advice says to 1. rely on reputable sources (such as academic or
An updated hierarchy of evidence for the age of memes, rumors, and AI hallucinations I’ve been dissecting science rumors and flawed studies for five years now, and there is one communication challenge that I have run into over and over again. For any given scientific claim or study, it&
There is a growing, concerning movement undermining one of the most well established scientific theories there is: germ theory, the idea that germs – like viruses and bacteria – cause disease. But it's subtle. Outright denial of germ theory is still a fringe idea: very few deny that viruses and
When Jeff Yau started having strange symptoms after his COVID-19 infection – numbness, tingling, and shaking – he experienced what thousands of others with long COVID have found: answers were hard to find, and treatments weren’t working. But Dr. Jeff Yau was in a unique position: he’s a neuroscientist
A blog about science in a world of untrue facts.
In July a FDA panel voted to loosen restriction on the production of “peptides” in the United States. (In an absurd level of conflict of interest, the members of that FDA panel consisted largely of people who sell peptides.) Peptides are an extremely broad class of biological molecules that consist
A confession — Twitter used to be my favorite platform for science communication, by far. But the Twitter that once was is now gone, and it hasn’t really been replaced. The robust #medtwitter and science communities that lived there have spread to various platforms including Bluesky, Threads, and LinkedIn, meaning
Two days ago I decided to throw out my bagged greens and strawberries due to the ongoing cyclospora outbreak and give them to my chickens. I thought that might make a nice reel explaining the outbreak, so I filmed it. Shortly after posting it, along with many comments worried about
Welcome to Episode 5 of The Communication Lab — my series teaching you science communication on social media (if you’re new to this series, start here). This week we’ll dive into the world of reels and carousels (yes, despite falling down an Instagram rabbit hole a few weeks ago,
Let me tell you about a small snippet of hell called new mom instagram. I didn’t announce my pregnancy for some time, and most people not in my immediate vicinity found out only after he was born. But my algorithm knew — it was remarkably precise tracking through first trimester,
Welcome to Episode 4 of The Communication Lab — my series teaching you how to do science communication on social media (if you’re new to this series, start here). This week is all about newsletters: how do you build a successful newsletter from the ground up? Starting a newsletter or
Welcome to Episode 3 of The Communication Lab — where I’m going to teach you how to use social media for science communication (if you’re new to this series, start here). This week we’ll start digging into the nuts and bolts of scicomm, beginning with selecting a social
Welcome to Episode 2 of The Communication Lab — where I’m going to teach you my tips and tricks for science and health communication on social media (if you’re new to this series, start here). This week we’ll dive into something everyone in scicomm struggles with at the
The Communication Lab episode 1: Imposter syndrome, vulnerability hangovers, and just getting started Welcome to the first episode of The Communication Lab — my series teaching tips and tricks for science communication (scicomm) on social media! Later in the series we’ll dive into the how to’s of scicomm (topic
Over the past several months I’ve been working on a few new projects, and I finally get to share them with you. The first one is the most exciting of all — a project I’ve been working on for 9 months which has finally been published — this tiny little
I'm sending this not because I'm worried, but because the internet is stressing The internet is stressing over the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak. But the hype does not match the risk — currently, my level of concern for the US population is low. Here’s a quick
Nope. A look at an interesting AI study that has led to some very overhyped headlines. Yesterday a new study was published in Science comparing the diagnostic capacity of several AI tools to physicians. It made headlines for including something novel — they fed the AI tools and clinicians real-world
