Donald Trump forcing medical scientists to pander to the half-thought out whims of one time UFC commentator Joe Rogan is a pretty damning indictment of where we are. When future historians write about this period of the idiocracy, the role of halfwit podcasters will be subject of many PhDs..

Academics, anyone else noticed a decline in basic editorial standards at major journals? Just had one reject an already accepted manuscript for "duplicated references", turned out to be an AI hallucination in their proofing software. Another asked me review a manuscript I'm author on..

Finally happened; bike nicked in Dublin 🤨 On Jervis St, under 2 CCTV cams. If anyone sees a suspicious Decathlon 500 folding bike offered for sale, let me know..

I didn't think much that RFK Jr does could shock me anymore, but it's difficult to overstate how unethical this is. This isn't a trial, it's a piece of antivaccine theatre that will cause severe harm, and everyone involved is contemptible. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Uh oh. This appears to be an old moral panic reanimated by modern technology - I've written extensively on "satanic panic" and how leading questions led to false memories of abuse in suggestive populations that never happened. ChatGPT is that on steroids... www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Elon Musk's content indistinguishable from that of white supremists, surprising no one. Is there a fundamental law that requires those pathetic enough to assert ostensible racial superiority be the most underwhelming specimens imaginable? www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Prasad overruled FDA staff to reject Moderna’s flu vaccine application www.statnews.com/2026/02/11/m... via @statnews.com "Vaccine skepticism is emanating into FDA from the top, as health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a known vaccine critic [read: antivaxx zealot]."

Ivermectin is an article of faith in the MAHA gospel, and one of their defining characteristics is deep antipathy towards vaccination. The lauding of ivermectin began in part as an "alternative" to vaccination - this & Moderna rejection are sheer regulatory capture 😐

The fact that this comes hours after approval of an "Ivermectin for cancer" trial is a damning indictment of the ideological capture the worst people from the pandemic now have over health in the USA...

Whoever does Santa's logistics is the final boss of the Travelling Salesman Problem

This is pathetic by the University of Oklahoma; If you acquiesce like this to obvious hard-right grifters, they will be emboldened to erode things further. Popper's paradox of tolerance strikes again, institutions cannot make the mistake of trying to entertain those who exist to undermine them..

The FDA made this assertion without releasing an iota of data to support it or uttering a word about risk-benefit. This is what science by press release looks like, a damning indictment of the ideological capture RFK Jr has enforced www.nytimes.com/2025/11/28/h...

Happy Thanksgiving for those who celebrate. The perfect opportunity to remember the 1997 Macy's parade, when Barney the dinosaur committed public seppuku and the Cat in the Hat put someone into a Coma.. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Ma...

Who the hell was stupid enough to think that giving Robert F Kennedy power over medical scientists would make him listen to them? No - mendacious idealouges like him always abuse that power to force their lies on everyone else. We fucking told you so www.reuters.com/business/hea...

Hard-right love "Ireland being overrun" narrative on immigration. But as @fotoole13.bsky.social notes, actual numbers small: here's log-plot of raw inward migration [2024-2025] in terms of Croke Park. As @csoireland.bsky.social explain, net immigration falling too.. t.co/lxq09kU7XU

"Make America Healthy Again" will make not only America but the entire world sicker. RJK Jr and the MAGA movement are modern Lysenkoists, and the consequences of their anti-science agenda will be severe, as I write in @emboreports.org www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

So @jamesheathers.bsky.social & I answer the burning question: does Cake cause Herpes? No, but one can torture the data to give that impression, and that's a problem. Promiscuous dichotomisation in biomedical science hugely increases spurious findings, best avoided link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Seems everyone has a James Watson story. I met him when I was 27 in Oxford and he told me to fuck off after a joke at his expense, which admittedly I half deserved 🫠 www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Kim Kardashian is wrong (shocker!) - moon landings certainly happened. As I showed before, Apollo had >400k staff who'd need be complicit. Chances of them keeping it secret? Virtually zero. Probability of a celebrity saying something daft, alas, approaches unity🤪 journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

To most Irish people, Mary McGee was the woman whose supreme court battle legalised contraception. To me, she was my aunt with a cheeky sense of humour & great laugh. Took this of her & my dad just a few weeks ago - RIP May, you'll be missed www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025...

After that AI slop from Mick Wallace (not sharing, it's grim), hope President Connelly rejects the asinine nonsense from her former compatriots, Wallace & Daly. As I wrote in @bylinetimes.bsky.social their useful idiocy & propaganda vectoring is something she'll hopefully not enable..

Funny how the reprobates assaulting Garda in #Citywest get so worked up when they think an immigrant may have committed a crime, but don't give a damn otherwise. All this is just a figleaf for the worst people to pretend their racism is justified, or even laudable

Bizarre in a "free speech" country - that Kirk veered into conspiracy theory & religious cryptofascism is matter of public record. Going after people for this is like the apocryphal words of Galileo after his conviction for heresy "..and yet it moves.." edition.cnn.com/2025/10/14/p...

Disappointing to see Joe Wicks fearmongering about ultra-processed foods. Aside from fact that data on UPFs is inherently confounded & often reflects things like poverty (an actual killer), this reel by Joshua Hill explains why such nonsense is so deeply harmful www.instagram.com/reel/DPUGquB...

"Widespread and on the rise." Today's article pick from Damn History, a free monthly newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to writer @drg.bsky.social! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe www.bbc.com/future/artic...

Do not mistake this as benign - breaking up MMR into separate shots is inherently antivaccine, as it promotes myth of "vaccine overload" & makes it much more unlikely people will get their children vaccinated. Also, single vaccines aren't available in USA! www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

Asked lots about this piece on Chronic Lyme disease, and disappointed in the @guardian (a publication I both subscribe and contribute to) for running it. Short thread explaining the multitude of problems with it, and why I consider it irresponsible to run as is..🧵

Asked lots about this piece on Chronic Lyme disease, and disappointed in the @guardian (a publication I both subscribe and contribute to) for running it. Short thread explaining the multitude of problems with it, and why I consider it irresponsible to run as is..🧵

If you're a clinician or researcher in Ireland feeling a little overwhelmed by statistics, join myself & @cathalwalsh.bsky.social on 11th October in SJH for a 6-credit CPD Essential Medical Statistics, where we'll demystify things together. Tickets here! www.eventbrite.ie/e/essential-...

Given the values espoused by Farage are chiefly racism and mendacity, I suppose it takes a particular kind of bravery to write a piece in a national newspaper this asinine...

Just published: Influencers peddle expensive wares with "proven" benefits, but research quality of red & blue light therapy for skin conditions is terrible, utterly inconsistent, & biologically dubious.. journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

If you're a clinician or researcher in Ireland feeling a little overwhelmed by statistics, join myself & @cathalwalsh.bsky.social on 11th October in SJH for a 6-credit CPD Essential Medical Statistics, where we'll demystify things together. Tickets here! www.eventbrite.ie/e/essential-...

Donald Trump talking garbage on public health. Incidentally, notorious fraudster Andrew Wakefield also proposed breaking up the MMR into separate vaccines because he had patents on an alternative but like Trump he was feeding into "vaccine overload" myth..

Impressive degree of mendacity to try insist on a Tylenol autism link, given its flatly contradicted by better data, like this study of >2 million Danish kids. There's a grim history of false "causes" for autism, a dogwhistle RFK Jr & Trump blowing.. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Prediction: After today's announcement, Leucovorin will become the new ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine - an effective drug for one indication forced without evidence onto another condition for which it has no efficacy, ultimately causing harm...

Danny Healy Rae's statements about autism today have prompted understandable anger from autism support groups. Rather than stick a boot in, it's worth unpacking his misconceptions because I hear them from parents all the time.. a short thread 🧵 www.thejournal.ie/danny-healy-...

Why has this microRNA review paper been cited more than 2,000 times? Our Sleuth in Residence @drg.bsky.social digs in

Last week @gorskon.bsky.social worried Charlie Kirk may become the Horst Wessel of MAGA, a propaganda tool to go after opponents. Seems today that JD Vance confirms it. Straight out of autocratic regime playbook, and completely at odds with first ammendment... www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Provocateurs always insist they just want to debate things, because debate gives dubious positions a platform & even veneer of respectability. The reality is that debate too often rewards the most mendacious & leaves us all more divided (too long for tweet, text below🔻) (1/2)

Two things are true; No one ever should ever be a victim of gun violence & Charlie Kirk built a career sowing division & hatred. It is possible to condemn his killing without hagiography, and note that he's being shown more empathy in death than he extended to others in life..

Opposition to the idea of vaccination existed even before vaccines themselves did - for BBC futures, I explore the strange history of the antivaccine movement. The tropes of antivaccine propaganda are not only meritless, but centuries old www.bbc.com/future/artic...

So #RFKjr appointed a CDC vaccine panel largely comprised of antivaccine cranks, including Joseph Fraiman, whose claim to fame is a terrible paper with half-assed statistics claiming Covid mRNA vaccines were dangerous, which I debunked in same journal.. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

So #RFKjr appointed a CDC vaccine panel largely comprised of antivaccine cranks, including Joseph Fraiman, whose claim to fame is a terrible paper with half-assed statistics claiming Covid mRNA vaccines were dangerous, which I debunked in same journal.. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#RFKjr hearing affirms him as the most perversely ill-suited person imaginable to head HHS, all pseudoscience & antivaccine quackery. The one thing he was ALMOST right on proved he remains too stupid to realise you can't fix systemic inequality with crystals & enemas..

"Health freedom" arguments against vaccination are popular again, but they've been tested in courts for centuries, and always found lacking. In today's @FT I explain why this dubious stance, and ancient history of antivaccine disinformation www.ft.com/content/0307...

UK Nurseries overwhelmed by measles - the tired mantra we need "respect" uninformed choices that have already left 1 child dead so far when each case leads to 12-18 secondary infections is ludicrous - Australia's "No Jab, No play" is good counterpoint www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Women are disproportionally targeted with medical misinformation, and put at unique risk by it. Tonight @debscohen.bsky.social and myself will discuss some of the reasons why and how to counter it. Still tickets available if you'd like to join us online.. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/countering...

..this seems like quite a reach by investigating detectives given the deeply concerning lack of evidence for the initial case and conviction. A more cynical person might see it as doubling down over critical reflection... www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

When I first started covering Kate Shemirani during the acute phase of the pandemic I said her medical disinformation would kill people. Tragic that her own daughter is one of her victims - arrogant, narcissistic conspiracy theorists kill innocent people www.bbc.com/news/article...