As the saying goes, “Another day, another dollar.” That’s how people shilling for shady Covid-19 cures must view the pandemic. One day it’s ivermectin, the next it’s hydroxychloroquine or colloidal silver.
It’s not as if the U.S. monkeypox response has been ideal, but we actually began with a head start. Unlike in the early days of COVID-19, viable vaccines were available for monkeypox in the form of smallpox vaccines.
Remember hydroxychloroquine? Yes, there were anecdotes and observational studies, but, no, it flunked the gold standard for evidence, randomized controlled trials. Ditto with ivermectin.
Now the man named “the most influential spreader of coronavirus misinformation online” is promoting another candidate for magic bullet: vitamin D.
Some ultraviolet (UV) disinfecting wands—pitched to kill bugs like E. coli or Salmonella on surfaces—emit unsafe levels of radiation that may injure skin or eyes in a few seconds, warns the FDA. Some wands gave off 3,000 times more UV-C than the recommended limit.
Misinformation is nothing new, but our 24-hour news cycle and social media have made things worse than ever. Falsehoods were 70 percent more likely to be retweeted than the truth, according to one study.
Some basic tips: Never share anything if you’ve only read the headline. And if you’re unsure if an article is accurate, don’t share it. Here’s what else to know about health misinformation.
It’s no surprise that in this confusing environment, with millions of patients desperate for help, some companies have taken advantage of how loosely dietary supplement claims are regulated to sell unproven long COVID treatments.
It’s long been held that the more general immune-enhancing characteristics of the century-old bacilli Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine might convey protection against diseases other than TB. Why not Covid-19?
There’s so much COVID-19 misinformation out there, it’s easy to become desensitized to it. But, a recently passed Missouri law (the Gag Rule) takes misinformation to a new height (low?) and may shock even the most cynical among us.
COVID-19Lisa Mankofsky, Esq., Matthew Simon, Esq., Peter Lurie, MD, MPH
