'ChatGPT is nothing more than a “souped-up autocomplete”. (It) does not draw its info from a carefully curated database of facts. It has no way of selecting the most reliable sources, references, or evidence. It cannot evaluate.' Book review: The AI Con... www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Maths Puzzles for Conspiracy Theorists. One of the cartoons from my new book 'Physics for Cats'. In good bookshops now and online in English, French, German and Spanish editions.

This isn’t bad …

Off to Manchester today for #CPCNorth - who will I see there?

cannot stress this enough

Just in case it finally disappears, the CDC page I've been obsessively refreshing for months is currently still there, confirming that vaccines do not cause autism

Pharmacies should be at the heart of #HIV prevention by raising awareness of and offering #PrEP - a pill that stops HIV transmission. 💊 Recommendations have been published in a new @policybristol.bsky.social briefing. 📰News: tinyurl.com/ywu9xre5 📄Policy briefing: tinyurl.com/5n6bhzj3

This book by @kjcharleswriter.com is utterly, sweetly, impressively delightful! A 1920s MM romance between a detective fighting corruption and a hot graphologist (handwriting analyst), who is also a post-war amputee. They’re so cute!! 📚💙 📚❤️ 📚🏳️‍🌈 📚♿️

This may ruffle some feathers with Starmerite partisans, but at some point the silence from Downing Street becomes so deafening that the logical conclusion is that Starmer agrees with the ethnonationalists running amok The onus is on Downing Street to prove otherwise and show leadership

Such a shame that Rule Britannia has been hijacked by the roundabout painters and hotel botherers. #LastNightOfTheProms

Some will say this escalated quickly. Those who've had their eyes open and ears listening will tell you, this is just the beginning.

National mental health director Claire Murdoch resigns with immediate effect claiming political pressure for a new person...her resignation letter....👀

🦴 Fragility fractures in older adults can be life-changing. 💡 Hip fractures = up to 40% mortality in 1 year. Join our webinar (Part 1 of 2) to explore: 🔹 Bone health 🔹 Post-fracture care 🔹 The pharmacist’s role in prevention 🎯 For all pharmacists 🔗

Years too late. Incredible that the GMC - whose entire raison d'être is upholding professional standards in UK medicine - has allowed Aseem Malhotra to spew out his toxic, dangerous, anti-scientific disinformation for so long. Regulatory failure at its worst. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

For anyone who needs respite from the news, I highly recommend Taskmaster, an extremely silly long-running UK show in which five comedians compete at absurd tasks. Low-stress, high-pleasure, lots of laughs, utterly disconnected from reality. As your doctor, I hereby prescribe one episode minimum.

Worth reading the full article - it's not 100% rubbish but it's only leading to small gains in very specific tasks, and for some things it's slower and also produces worse results. So perhaps the billions in productivity gains are not just over the horizon. Awkward.

Ho ho ho hoooo! This is just too delicious.

In a hundred years, if we survive to write about it, historians will look back on this period as a snake oil boom for AI while fascism burned everything down.

The Labour party right now:

It's disappointing that the government's plan to get people moving is focused around "Go for a jog" rather than, as the evidence suggests, building environments that encourage everyday incidental exercise: the ability to walk to amenities liveapp.inews.co.uk/category/388...

Derek @dieworkwear.bsky.social yrs ago you helped settle the biggest debate in medicine when you ruled that scrubs should be untucked. Thought you might appreciate this full circle, as today my professional body the European Society of Cardiology hosted someone at conference that you might recognise

Keir Starmer has appointed as his new Comms Director Tim Allan who was a board member of the hate group Sex Matters. It's no longer even pretending to adhere to its Manifesto promise to "remove indignities for trans people who deserve recognition and acceptance."

This is just sad. We’ve posted about this before. Now here is what is going down. The rainbow crosswalk at the Pulse memorial in Orlando (created to honor the 49 lives lost in the 2016 shooting) has now become the target of state enforcement.

this is so sick - man w/ confusion, scheduled for dementia screening - man repeatedly asks chatbot if ‘she’ is real - chatbot lies repeatedly, saying ‘yes’ & giving address saying ‘the door is unlocked’ - man falls on the way and dies what if he made it & walked into a woman’s home? 2 victims?

Better red than dead. #methemoglobinemia

“A system dropping from 80% to 42% accuracy when confronted with a pattern disruption would be unreliable in clinical settings, where novel presentations are common” lmao they replaced one answer choice with “none of the above” and it broke jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

A reminder that the mRNA vaccine technology saved millions of lives during the Covid pandemic and received the 2023 Nobel Prize for Medicine

I refuse to wade into the debate around trans issues except to say that everyone deserves dignity and safety. Full stop. But as a student of philosophy, this one has me gasping for breath.

In the light of the current Abidec shortage we have updated the information on Liquid Vitamin & Iron Supplements in Neonates & Children. It has a link to a summary of liquid & chewable/soluble tablet multivitamins available in the UK nppg.org.uk/vitamins/

I think there should be more press about this popular medical historian, author @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social & dual USA-UK citizen’s case. She needs to be in the UK for cancer treatment, yet is not allowed to leave US.

A coroner has asked a hospital trust to explain its policy on patients’ allergy status following the death of a patient who was given a penicillin-based antibiotic, despite her GP record showing a known allergy to the drug #ukpharmacy #patientsafety

This is true and also, increasingly, I am less and less understanding of a public that indulges these lies - because what is meant by illegal in too many minds is "inhuman". And that belief is encouraged by the media, yes, but at some point citizens have to take responsibility for it too.

Happy Yorkshire Day

Terribly sad to hear of the death of Allan Ahlberg, one of the greatest writers for children of our age; I grew up with Burglar Bill, Funnybones, Cops and Robbers, Happy Families and so many more; as a parent I have discovered what a joy they are to read, even when requested night after night.

Nietzsche abhors a vacuum www.worldofmoose.com/products/nie...

UPDATE: it's been over a week since I was prevented from boarding a flight home. My MP is on the case. My immigration lawyer is on the case. Still no answers. Still in limbo. I'm feeling pretty dejected. Apparently obtaining citizenship still does not safeguard one against these scenarios.

good morning

Happy 100 hots day to all who celebrate

reminder reminder reminder: this technology is not smart enough to do your job. but your boss is dumb enough to think it can. any other framing is overly credulous and missing the point

Some of the bottles of rice and formula and flour Egyptians threw into the sea have actually made it to Gaza - now people in Cyprus and Lebanon are joining the effort, with scientists from all over the world virtually assisting them in figuring the time and location to do so based on the currents. 💚

As a GP, I am not allowed to receive a pen or post-it note pad from a pharmaceutical company rep! Govt banned them in case I was influenced to prescribe medications. This should also be banned? Influence being bought in Govt? Patients should influence not the healthy & wealthy

Before COVID and 2020, I made my own neurotransmitters. After, not so much. Prozac and Wellbutrin basically allow me to sleep and get out of bed once I awake up. I could be a doctor without them but I couldn’t also bake, garden, and be cross country team parent. I could survive but not *live*.

Do you live with HIV? Are you in Europe and currently on treatment? Please take part in the Ask Us Europe survey, which aims to improve treatment and care for people with HIV. I am proud to have worked on it with @shareeastlondon.bsky.social and a powerful group of people with HIV. Please share. 🙏

South Asian Heritage Month is always in university downtime, but I wanted to do something for our students coming back in for resits - so here’s my notice board 🇦🇫🇧🇩🇧🇹🇮🇳🇲🇻🇳🇵🇵🇰🇱🇰 southasianheritage.org.uk

My reflections on my lunch just now, after William Carlos Williams

🧶 #knitting Friend is expecting babba, wants unusual stripey jumper in gender neutral colours. I’ve done loads of these before, but this is very unconventional friend, need unusual ideas. Anyone got good baby stripes to inspire me? Post pic pls!

Remember, a first draft's only job is to exist