FSM News and Articles
Why the complementary medicine regulatory push was shelved: The Medical Board of Australia has scaled back efforts to regulate complementary medicines – reverting to the status quo of a ‘risk based’ approach. This means that if a therapy is considered to be low-risk it will be very difficult to regulate its use, even if there is no good evidence base behind it. ‘The key issue really is that patients are being exploited by non-evidence based practice like stem cell therapy or chelation therapy that can sometimes be attractive to vulnerable people,’ said FSM’s Ken Harvey. “Therapies that are not evidence-based really shouldn’t be offered other than in clinical trials … Yes, medicine changes and we don’t want to stifle innovation or emerging treatments that may eventually become standard. But the only way of sorting that out is with randomised clinical trials – not from gurus saying we will fix you with our stem cells.”
FSM Friends’ News and Articles
JNJ COVID-19 vaccine receives FDA emergency use authorization – great news: The Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine has received emergency FDA approval following an extensive review process. “There is a myth pushed by the anti-vaccine crowd that the FDA summarily approves vaccines without even a cursory review. They think that the FDA trusts anything ‘Big Pharma’ submits to them without thinking. That couldn’t be further from the truth.”
General
Misuse of the VAERS database – An old antivax deception repackaged to spread fear of COVID-19 vaccines: A report to VAERS generally does not prove that the identified vaccine(s) caused the adverse event described. It only confirms that the reported event occurred sometime after vaccine was given. “The sorts of tactics antivaxxers are using now have surprised and befuddled a lot of pro-science advocates, mainly because so many of them have not been paying attention to the anti-vaccine movement, in particular its longstanding tactics and its basis in conspiracy theories. They also don’t understand how the anti-vaccine movement has always been about more than just vaccines. It’s basically against public health and any collective action to protect public health.”
Great Moments in Health and Science
The Development of “Keyhole” Surgery. Laparoscopy: less blood, less pain, faster recovery: Minimally-invasive surgery produces less scarring and bleeding by using sophisticated instruments and cameras.
Lesser-known Health Professions
Nuclear Medicine Technologist: “The nuclear medicine technologist is a highly specialized health care professional who looks at how the body functions in order to help in diagnosis and treatment of a range of conditions and diseases. Nuclear medicine combines imaging, patient care, chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer technology, and medicine. Nuclear medicine technologists prepare and administer small amounts of radioactive substances called radiopharmaceuticals, as well as other medications, to patients for diagnosis.”