Schneider Shorts of 22 October 2021: acupuncture in Nature, creationism in Scientific American, proxalutamide scandal reaches Brazilian Senate, a surprise new US academy member, entirely valid conclusions of photoshop fraud, MDPI reaches level X, colchicine doesn’t work for COVID-19 but fake Russian statistics do, plus Russian paper mills and a stuck Sputnik V.
Table of Discontent
COVID-19
- Crime against Humanity: proxalutamide quack Cadegiani accused
Science Elites
- Entirely valid: Dora Kovacs’ conclusions
- Hooray for Sood: guess who is Academy member now!
- Schmitt’s COI: A Charite Berlin professor discovers he has some
Science Breakthroughs
- Acupuncture in Nature: peer-reviewed by fellow acupuncturists!
- Green Eugenics, or some silly twins research
- Loeb seeks God: Harvard genius in Scientific American
- More coffee, please! Coffee is good for your liver
Russia Special
- Russian Papermills: by far not as good as Chinese!
- COVID-19 stats a la Poutin: deadly lies and propaganda
- Sputnik V stuck: EU being russophobic again
- Lost in Space: a cosmonaut movie
News in Tweets
COVID-19
Crime against Humanity
New York Times reports from Brazil:
“A Brazilian congressional panel is set to recommend that President Jair Bolsonaro be charged with “crimes against humanity,” asserting that he intentionally let the coronavirus rip through the country and kill hundreds of thousands in a failed bid to achieve herd immunity and revive Latin America’s largest economy.
A report from the panel’s investigation, excerpts from which were viewed by The New York Times ahead of its scheduled release this week, also recommends criminal charges against 69 other people, including three of Mr. Bolsonaro’s sons and numerous current and former government officials.”
As El Pais Brazil writes:
“Flávio Adsuara Cadegiani is the 66th name among the 68 indictment suggestions in the final report of the CPI on the Pandemic. According to the document, the endocrinologist is accused of a crime against humanity according to article 7 of the Treaty of Rome (Decree 4,388, 2002).”
You can read about Cadegiani’s fraud and horrendous ethics breaches here and here. Among other things, he is accused of experimenting on people without ethics approval and of causing the deaths of 200 patients in the control group of his COVID-19 trials with the anti-androgen proxalutamide, which is marketed by the US company Cadegiani works for, Applied Biology. The patients in the control arm apparently were poisoned with a bizarre mix of all possible drugs Cadegiani and his partners declared to be “standard care”.
In fact, Cadegiani refuses to tell the National Research Ethics Commission (Conep) what he gave his control group patients which then caused their deaths, a sthe National Health Council press release hints:
“Despite requests for elucidation from Conep, the researcher has never demonstrated the traceability of the medicines supplied in the research (distribution and dispensing chain), making it impossible to certify which product the control group actually received. Thus, the hypothesis that the control group has inadvertently received a drug other than a placebo with toxic potential is not discarded, which would explain the high frequency of kidney and liver failure in this group.”
The El Pais article also discusses a certain case report Cadegiani et al published in a BMJ journal:
“the patient was using an anabolic steroid daily, which worsened his diagnosis, with worsening of covid-19 symptoms four days before the appointment. In his treatment, the man received a dose of 600mg of proxalutamide, followed by 200mg daily for the next seven days. The drug is not registered in Brazil and was used by the physician without authorization from the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), in a dose never officially applied to a human being.”
This was the case report about this “compassionate use” case which however never had an ethics approval from the Brazilian authority Anvisa:
Flavio Cadegiani , Erica M Lin , Andy Goren , Carlos G Wambier Potential risk for developing severe COVID-19 disease among anabolic steroid users BMJ Case Reports (2021) doi: 10.1136/bcr-2021-241572
BMJ editors are quoted by El Pais with:
“following the concerns raised to the BMJ, we are investigating the use of the drug reported in this case (proxalutamide) and the surrounding circumstances availability and license for use”.
What exactly is the BMJ investigating? The authors proudly admit they don’t believe in ethics approvals. Here Carlos Wambier, dermatology professor at Brown University in USA:
“Finally, Wambier argues in favour of the compassionate use of the drug without registration and without Anvisa’s approval against the coronavirus, when comparing it to “a non-sterile nylon thread”, as “the only solution available to suture a huge cutaneous laceration and save life“.
Science Elites
Entirely Valid
In 2019, a paper in a fancy journal from a Harvard lab from the neurobiologist Dora Kovacs was criticised on PubPeer:
Luigi Puglielli , Genevieve Konopka , Eunju Pack-Chung , Laura A. MacKenzie Ingano , Oksana Berezovska , Bradley T. Hyman , Ta Yuan Chang , Rudolph E. Tanzi , Dora M. Kovacs Acyl-coenzyme A: cholesterol acyltransferase modulates the generation of the amyloid beta-peptide Nature Cell Biology (2001) doi: 10.1038/ncb1001-905
Kovacs replied in October 2021
“We spent many hours looking for raw blots or TIFF files of the two figures in question but, 20 years after publication, our attempts have failed. However, we were able to find a few relevant images and blots in our archives and are uploading all of them. They validate our published data.“
In her long statement, Kovacs admitted in passing that her replacement raw data was actually meaningless (“the blots may possibly derive from two different gradients as their fraction number differs“). She also refused to explain why those 20-year-old unpublished replacement blots from May 2001 were nicely stored and catalogued until today, while the raw data for the published paper disappeared. Which reminds me of this case, by another elite US scientist:
Instead, Kovacs kept reiterating:
- “In summary, data interpretation and overall conclusions of this 20-year old paper remain entirely valid. Sincerely, Dora M. Kovacs (last and corresponding author).“
- “In conclusion, we remain firmly convinced that data interpretation and overall conclusions of this 20-year-old paper are entirely valid. We have contacted the journal for their advice regarding the concerns raised here about Figure 1b. Sincerely, Dora M. Kovacs”
Which surely must also apply to this Kovacs-Puglielli paper from 2009 and especially also to this one:
Luigi Puglielli, Blake C. Ellis , Aleister J. Saunders, Dora M. Kovacs Ceramide stabilizes beta-site amyloid precursor protein-cleaving enzyme 1 and promotes amyloid beta-peptide biogenesis Journal of Biological Chemistry (2003) doi: 10.1074/jbc.m300466200
Luckily, that JBC paper is probably “too old“.
The first author of both papers, Luigi Puglielli, is now full professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Hooray for Sood
In the news category of “Everything is F**ked”, the toxic cancer researcher Anil Sood has been elected as a fellow to the US national Academy of Medicine.
This is the Academy’s announcement:
“Anil Kumar Sood, MD, FACOG, FACS, professor and vice chair for translational research, department of gynecologic oncology and reproductive medicine, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. For discovering the mechanistic basis of chronic stress on cancer and the pivotal role of tumor-IL6 in causing paraneoplastic thrombocytosis; developing the first RNAi therapeutics and translating multiple new drugs from lab to clinic; and devising and implementing a paradigm shifting surgical algorithm for advanced ovarian cancer, dramatically increasing complete resection rates.”
I wrote about Sood’s cancerous science several times. Thing is, his MD Anderson preferred to crack down on the whistleblowers instead and to protect his falsified papers from well deserved retractions. And now the Academy of Medicine, who knew perfectly well of Sood’s PubPeer record (over 50 papers) and whistleblower charges, sent a perfectly clear message to everyone by electing Sood.
Schmitt’s COI
Clemens A Schmitt, professor at the Max Delbrück Center and the Charité University Medicine in Berlin, Germany, suddenly discovered that he has, instead of his usual none, quite a number of conflicts of interests to declare.
His recent Nature paper Lee et al 2021 (as reminder, proposing Navitoclax as COVID-19 medicine) now includes this additional sentence:
“C.A.S. received travel support, honoraria and consulting fees from Abbvie, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Celgene, Gilead/Kite, Janssen-Cilag, MSD, Novartis, Octapharma, Pierre Fabre, Roche, Sanofi, Takeda and TissUse.”
Previously, I informed Nature that Schmitt is advisory board member of Roche, whose franchise Genentech markets Venclexta (Venetoclax). It then turned out, Schmitt previously completely forgot to mention that he is paid not just by one, but by BOTH companies jointly marketing this Navitoclax successor drug: Roche and Abbvie.
The Charité Berlin however simply refused to release to me a list of Schmitt’s patents or name Schmitt’s pharma paymasters, because this university hospital sees itself above the German FOI laws on financial transparency. At least Nature achieved something there!
We also learn who the reviewers of that Nature paper about the magic of senolytics were:
“Peer review information Nature thanks Jesus Gill, Stanley Perlman and David Sinclair for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Peer review reports are available.”
Ahahaha, David Sinclair, of course.
Science Breakthroughs
Acupuncture in Nature
Look what Nature published:
Shenbin Liu, Zhifu Wang, Yangshuai Su, Lu Qi, Wei Yang, Mingzhou Fu, Xianghong Jing, Yanqing Wang & Qiufu Ma A neuroanatomical basis for electroacupuncture to drive the vagal–adrenal axis. Nature (2021). doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04001-4
It is indeed about the long debunked practice of acupuncture, just modernised with the “electro” bit instead of just needles. The ancient Chinese therapy of Qi is being vindicated not just with the authority of the Chinese Communist Party, but also with optogenetics and other fancy science tools, to conclude:
“Our studies provide a neuroanatomical basis for the selectivity and specificity of acupoints in driving specific autonomic pathways.”
The authors are affiliated with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard, and other quack institutions like the Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Fudan University, Shanghai, and the Meridians Research Center, Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing.
So if they all say in Nature that acupuncture with its meridians and other woo is actually solid science, who are we to question it. And in case you wonder who peer-reviewed that paper, well who else was qualified to do this but other acupuncturists?
“Nature thanks Patrik Ernfors, Kevin Tracey, Luis Ulloa and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Peer review reports are available.”
One of these reviewers, Luis Ulloa, anaesthesiology professor at Duke University, even wrote an editorial in Nature, titled “Electroacupuncture activates neurons to switch off inflammation” to celebrate the breakthrough paper from China.
Previously, Ulloa published this, in Nature Medicine:
Rafael Torres-Rosas, Ghassan Yehia, Geber Peña, Priya Mishra, Maria del Rocio Thompson-Bonilla, Mario Adán Moreno-Eutimio, Lourdes Andrea Arriaga-Pizano, Armando Isibasi &Luis Ulloa Dopamine Mediates Vagal Modulation of the Immune System by Electroacupuncture. Nature Medicine (2014) doi: 10.1038/nm.3479
“we report that sciatic nerve activation with electroacupuncture controls systemic inflammation and rescues mice from polymicrobial peritonitis.”
That breakthrough was celebrated in Scientific American, under the headline “Can Acupuncture Curb Killer Immune Reactions?” :
“For his part, Ulloa had no intention of trying to determine whether flows of vital energy, or qi, were making their way through the body’s “meridians” based on the interpretation for how acupuncture works in Chinese traditional medicine. In fact, he agrees with Novella’s argument about nerve stimulation. In the study, the researchers found no anti-inflammatory effect when a toothpick was used to probe ST36 Zusanli, in a manner similar to the way acupuncture needles had been inserted for centuries before the advent of electroacupuncture.
As a prospector for neuroimmune pathways, Ulloa insists his interest in exploring acupoints in his research has not flagged. “It is no coincidence that all acupoints but one—360 of 361 described in humans—are located in the proximity of a major nerve,” Ulloa says. In his study, ST36 Zusanli led directly to the discovery of one of the most intricate neuroimmune circuits found to date. “Instead of testing millions of potential points, we reasoned that acupoints may provide an advantage in stimulating neuronal networks more efficiently,” he says.”
The other peer reviewer mentioned above, Kevin Tracey of Feinstein Institute, is described by Scientific American as a “former colleague of Ulloa’s” and “one of the pioneers of bioelectronic medicine“, who founded a company based on acupuncture.
Indeed, all this is a good business, for acupuncturists and for Nature.
(Hattip Tiger BB8 & Smut Clyde)
Green eugenics
The Guardian informs its electro-SUV-driving holiday-home-owning caviar-communist readership that they are indeed genetically superior:
“Your green credentials may be linked to your genes, study says“
“The researchers used data for more than 1,000 twins from the TwinsUK registry, the country’s largest twin database. They examined responses from identical and non-identical twins to questions about their concern for nature, environmental activism and how environmentally friendly their own behaviour was.
The results suggest that identical twins consistently had more in common across all three categories. This, the scientists say, suggests a link between people’s genetics and their environmental behaviour, as well as suggesting that there is some heritability to environmentalist traits.”
This was the study with “more than 1,000 twins from the TwinsUK registry”:
Chia-chen Chang, Thi Phuong Le Nghiem, Qiao Fan, Claudia L Y Tan, Rachel Rui Ying Oh, Brenda B Lin, Danielle F Shanahan, Richard A Fuller, Kevin J Gaston, L Roman Carrasco Genetic Contribution to Concern for Nature and Proenvironmental Behavior BioScience, (2021) doi: 10.1093/biosci/biab103
The National University of Singapore study proclaims:
“Using a twin data set (N = 2312), we show moderate heritability (30%–40%) for concern for nature, environmental movement activism, and personal conservation behavior and high genetic correlations between them (.6–.7), suggesting a partially shared genetic basis.”
Loeb seeks God
Avi Loeb is a creationist loon and a UFO-truther I wrote about before, in earlier Shorts. His Harvard chair for astrology astronomy is sponsored by some investment banker, and another billionaire recently gave Loeb $2mn to build telescopes for finding alien spaceships, which turned science journalists ecstatic, Galileo epithets included.
Now Loeb, who does see himself as the second coming of Galileo, wants to talk to us about God, and Scientific American wet themselves with pleasure of hosting his contribution:
“A less explored possibility is that our universe was created in the laboratory of an advanced technological civilization. Since our universe has a flat geometry with a zero net energy, an advanced civilization could have developed a technology that created a baby universe out of nothing through quantum tunneling.
This possible origin story unifies the religious notion of a creator with the secular notion of quantum gravity.”
And this is Loeb’ scholarly reasoning:
“If so, our universe was not selected for us to exist in it—as suggested by conventional anthropic reasoning—but rather, it was selected such that it would give rise to civilizations which are much more advanced than we are. […] One way to put it is that our civilization is still cosmologically sterile since we cannot reproduce the world that made us.
With this perspective, the technological level of civilizations should not be gauged by how much power they tap, as suggested by the scale envisioned in 1964 by Nikolai Kardashev. Instead, it should be measured by the ability of a civilization to reproduce the astrophysical conditions that led to its existence.”
You laugh, but that dunderhead is a Harvard professor somehow and the former chair of the astronomy department there.
More coffee please!
Science has long proved that coffee is a miracle drug which prevents ALL diseases. Here another one, from Elliot Tapper, associate professor at University of Michigan, per press release:
“The team found that individuals who consumed more than three cups of coffee a day showed reduced levels of liver stiffness when lifestyle factors were considered. They also found that these same individuals experienced reduced risks associated with increased liver stiffness.
“While coffee consumption was associated with a lower risk of elevated liver stiffness, this didn’t include fatty liver disease, or steatosis,” said Tapper. “Overall, our findings showed that if coffee has an effect on the liver, it is likely by reducing fibrosis, or scar tissue” […]
“Our research revealed the importance of looking for this condition,” he said. “It also gives us something to discuss with our patients who may want to do something extra to help their livers. It highlights the value of conducting a complete nutritional assessment with our patients, as liver specialists and health care providers. If something as simple as consuming coffee can reduce liver cancer or symptoms of cirrhosis, there is a critical need for us to explore this topic further in trials.”
This was the study:
Sebastian Niezen, Manaav Mehta, Z. Gordon Jiang, Elliot B. Tapper Coffee consumption is associated with lower liver stiffness: a nationally representative study, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. (2021) DOI: 10.1016/j.cgh.2021.09.042
It also declared:
“Caffeine was not significantly associated with LSM [liver stiffness measurements] at any dose. Finally, adjusting for sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and HEI-2015, coffee consumption remained associated with lower LSM. The protective nature of coffee consumption is therefore not attributable to caffeine and persists in participants regardless of their diet quality.”
Drink another coffee now, or you will get fat, sick and then die.
Russia Special
You may notice that I often write about lies and russophobic propaganda about Putin’s Russia. Now a special section even!
Russian Paper Mills
Apparently, paper mills selling fraudulent papers to crooked academics exist also in Russia. But as elsewhere, those Russian products do not match the Chinese quality: the journals the Russian mills publish in are largely predatory and the papers are lazy plagiarisms.
A guest post by Anna Abalkina in Scholarly Kitchen, titled: “Unethical Practices in Research and Publishing: Evidence from Russia“. Abalkina is member of the network Dissernet, which exposes Russian politicians and other high-profile figures for plagiarism in their academic works. Abalkina writes:
“The increased pressure to publish appears to have led Russian academics to buy “authorship” in thousands of articles from one of dozens of paper mills that sell co-authorship credit. […]
Prices for “co-authorship” range from $1,300 to $6,200 per article, the cost of which is divided among the co-authors. Despite the high cost of having one’s name listed dishonestly as a co-author, fraudulent authors may come out ahead due to the financial bonuses offered by universities for publishing an article in one of the journals indexed in Scopus and Web of Science. Some universities have an interest in boosting (or at least turning a blind eye to) such behavior by their own faculty, because more publications can be converted into higher budget allocations.”
Many texts are just plagiarised translations from Russian into English.
“My appeals to the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (to which most state universities are subject) regarding plagiarism in the PhD theses and scientific articles of rectors brought no results. In its response to my appeal regarding plagiarized articles, the Ministry argued its position in the following way:
“Currently, the legislation of the Russian Federation does not prescribe the liability for the violation of ethical principles regulating the behaviour of editorial boards, editors, reviewers, publishers and authors in the field of scientific publications.”
COVID-19 stats a la Poutin
I am always amazed how our western media reports in shock that the Russian COVID-19 deaths reached 800, then 900, and now even over 1000 casualties on a single day. Those are officially made-up bullshit thresholds, the real death rates in Russia are several times higher, one look into the excess death stats (which are not that fake yet) is enough: 660k excess deaths in Russia since the pandemic began and until August 2021.
In Russia, COVID-19 tests are applied very sparingly or evaluated creatively, especially towards those showing symptoms, also to keep the cases of SARS-CoV2 infections, hospitalisations and deaths nicely low. The lies about the real extent of Kremlin’s disastrous COVID-19 mismanagement are so pervasive and contradicting that Putin now had to start lying himself that in Europe it must be much worse, people would die in the streets unable to reach overwhelmed hospitals etc.
In this regard, a report by the Washington Post:
“Russia’s official statistics showed 221,313 pandemic-related deaths by mid-October, but the independent demographer Alexey Raksha calculated that excess mortality — seen by analysts as the most reliable indicator of coronavirus deaths — has reached around 750,000. Raksha’s calculation used figures maintained by Rosstat, Russia’s statistical agency. […]
Raksha said he thinks that inaccurate statistics sent a message to Russians that the pandemic had been beaten and therefore left space for covid conspiracy disinformation and anti-vaccination propaganda to flood Russian social media.”
The kleptocratic regime keeps telling its people that Russia is winning against the virus while the west poisons its people with deadly vaccines, and then gets bitten on its arse by its own lies.
The lies serve to please the Thief-in-Chief Putin, who apparently long ago moved into his cloud cuckoo fantasy land and only gets told about the outside world what he wants to hear. Washington Post continues:
“The data for [Russia] is absolutely unreliable,” said Alexei Kouprianov, an independent analyst and biologist who last year organized a community of experts on social media, Watching Covid. He was fired from the St. Petersburg campus of the Higher School of Economics in September 2020.
As Putin’s government tightens political control in the country, the handling of the pandemic has largely been left to the regions. The pandemic has exposed fragilities in a system in which regional officials conceal problems for fear of losing their posts and critics — even analytical experts — are sidelined.”
Those who question Russia’s officially approved numbers on COVID-19, lose their jobs.
“Tatiana Mikhailova an economist and expert in data analysis, formerly of the prestigious Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, discovered a pattern in many Russian regions’ reporting on daily cases. Instead of the familiar pandemic curve,the overall case numbers swung wildly in regional reports. Numbers for the main city in region went up one day and the rest of the region’s numbers went down — as if the city and the wider region were taking turns in experiencing surges.
“I discovered this strange pattern in many regions that basically told me that the official statistics are lying,” she said. “They just underreport the cases that they have so as not to show the growth of cases.”
After she published her graphs, the academy blocked her from giving interviews, and she resigned rather than be silenced.”
Russian people deserve better that that bloodthirsty killer gnome and his mob of tricksters and thieves.
Sputnik V stuck
Reuters reports about the status of European Medicines Agency (EMA) approval process for the Russian COVID-19 vaccine and Kremlin’s pride, Sputnik V, in the EU:
“The EU drug regulator is unlikely to decide whether to approve Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine until at least the first quarter of 2022 because some data needed for the review is still missing, a source with knowledge of the matter said.
“An EMA decision by the end of the year is now absolutely impossible,” the source said, referring to the European Medicines Agency.
If the required data is received by the end of November, “then the regulators may well decide in the first quarter of next year”, he said. He declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.”
You can imagine how Russian state-controlled media will again scream “Russophobia” and decry their favourite topic, the vaccine mass murder by AstraZeneca and mRNA vaccines. Right, here we go:
Lost in Space
Remember how we all admired Russia for sending a film crew into space, to shoot scenes for a fiction film on the ISS? Well. Those will now be re-done in a film studio. Because, as the Russian media reports:
“The shooting of scenes for the feature film “Challenge” took place on board the International Space Station for 12 Earth days. Especially for this, actress Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko were sent into orbit. In addition to directing, Shipenko performed the duties of a cameraman. To do this, he had two digital video cameras with him. The filmed scenes were copied to the hard disk every day by Shipenko, and the memory cards were formatted and used for new filming.
“After every day of shooting, I dumped everything I shot to an external SSD via my laptop. It took an hour and a half. Everything was copied normally. But we flew to Star City, inserted the disc into the computer, and there was nothing on it! Nothing at all! I don’t understand how it happened! ” – the director laments.
Experts have not yet found an explanation for the loss of the material.”
I have a theory. Maybe the film crew never actually went to space in the first place? Or if it did, was their film record stolen by green LGBT aliens in cahoots with CIA agents and German fascists masquerading as ISS astronauts?
Hoho, it’s not like Russia won’t defend itself from such provocation!
News in Tweets
- Turkmenistan’s leaky gas fields, a Bloomberg investigation into an environmental disaster: “The country’s most unique human-made landmark is the result of a 1970s-era drilling accident, when engineers shattered the roof of a huge underground gas deposit, opening a crater 70 meters wide. What happened next has never been precisely confirmed. But according to the generally accepted story, rather than let the fumes leak uncontrollably, someone decided to light the gas on fire, presumably on the theory that it would quickly burn off. It didn’t. Nicknamed the Gates of Hell, the crater has burned continuously ever since. Turkmenistan receives almost no tourists, but for the few who do visit, it’s a prime attraction“.
- MDPI’s “Sustainability appeared on a list of journals of dubious quality, published byThe National Publications Committee. The committee has announced that they wanted to introduce a new level in the Norwegian publication indicator, a «gray zone level» for dubious magazines where they are unsure of the quality. A “level X”.” (Khrono, in Norwegian)
- Again about MDPI, who is surprised its owner Shukun Lin behaves not just racist but also sexist? (H/T Richard Poynder)
- Elisabeth Bik is surprised the Elsevier-run scholarly publisher conference World Congress on Research Integrity (WCRI) never invites her as speaker. Why, Elies? Do Shell and BP invite Greta Thunberg to their events?
- The psychologist and open data enthusiast Brian Nosek said of Elisabeth Bik in this Buzzfeed article: “She’s the Liam Neeson of scientific integrity”. Indeed, Bik is quite tall, but neither is she male nor Irish nor an overvalued while mediocre film actor, and she never boxed. If anyone is similar to Neeson, it’s Bik’s nemesis Didier Raoult, who is a tall pretentious show-off who lifts.
- Oh look, colchicine doesn’t work for COVID-19 after all, unlike Professor Jean-Claude Tardiff insisted. The results were just published in The Lancet. Still, it must have been fun for the RECOVERY team to run yet another huge and expensive clinical trial with thousands of patients to prove yet another purported miracle drug and yet old arrogant white male git with a French name (previously: Didier Raoult) wrong!
- Well, at least Traditional Chinese medicine works, or so the order from the very top goes. “China has administered herbal treatments to 92 percent of confirmed cases of COVID-19. In Hubei province, more than 90 percent of confirmed cases received TCM treatment, and it has proved effective, according to a Chinese government white paper issued in June last year.” (China’s National Health Commission).
- In UK, a nation run by a gang of criminal clowns, the COVID-19 circus has a side show of fake tests, with public contracts knowingly issued to thieves and fraudsters (like Ajan Reginald!).
- Gosh, how fast antivaxxers switch from blathering of “Vaccine Holocaust” and “Nuremberg trial” to rabid antisemitism, openly blaming the Jews. This (literal) conman Richard Fleming is friends with the Nobel Prize Quack Luc Montagnier, btw:
Make a one-time donation
Make a monthly donation
Choose an amount
Or enter a custom amount
Your contribution is appreciated.
Your contribution is appreciated.
DonateDonate monthly
For Better Science 
“.. Anil Sood has been elected as a fellow to the US national Academy of Medicine.”
Quite right!
On balance throughout the world “physician-scientists have a negative effect on science.
The US national Academy of Medicine is giving Anil Sood recognition of that.
LikeLike
“It is no coincidence that all acupoints but one—360 of 361 described in humans—are located in the proximity of a major nerve,”
True, it is not coincidence. But not because generations of acupuncturists collected evidence across 3000 years and found empirically effective acupuncture points (which happened to be in proximity of nerves) – which is what Ulloa wants us to think. It’s because when Cheng Dan-an was creating “neo-acupuncture” in the 1930s, he decided to abandon the traditional acupuncture points (which lay along arteries and veins), along with the traditional blood-letting lancets, and used his knowledge of nerve pathways to define new, rational acupuncture points.
LikeLiked by 1 person
With an attitude like this, you will never publish in Nature.
LikeLike
I heard WCRI-2022 is going to be in South Africa, right? Makes me wonder if a certain Abdon Atangana will be invited, based on his recent contributions, like this one:
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03201385/document
(And based on his connections with Elsevier where IIRC he serves as an editor of Results in Physics and – erm… – Chaos, Solitons and Fractals.)
LikeLike
Pingback: Strage selettiva – ocasapiens
If a student defends itself like those professors he is sacked. But it seems as a professor your conclusions can never be affected.
Conclusions not affected. They should put it in the abstract or something “in case there is a problem with figures, conclusions will not be affected”.
Blots are useless anyway, they are just decorations. If you have a good idea it’s true in itself, no need to prove it.
LikeLike