hype

Weekly reads: possible rare HIV cure, stem cell chicken, FDA commish

HIV infected T cell, HIV cure

The idea of stem cells outright curing diseases is exciting and has powerful appeal, but media need to be careful about using the word cure in headlines and articles as we saw this week related to a possible HIV Cure. HIV cure via stem cells and chemo? The big news of the week was that …

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Vote for Screamers awards for worst science hype of the year: Gorilla Glue, COVID, diabetes ‘cure’, more

The Screamers Science Hype Awards.

The amount of biomedical science hype out there is mindboggling at times, but some media or other items really take the cake for being exceptionally bad. Today’s post highlights the worst of the year 2021 as the candidates for my annual The Screamers science hype award. Click on the link in the previous sentence to …

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About that Joe Rogan stem cell treatment & clinic promotion

Joe Rogan Stem Cells Mike Tyson

Joe Rogan first popped up more squarely on my radar screen years ago because of a concerning video that’s out there of him talking with Mel Gibson about stem cells. At the time it was one of the most-watched videos on YouTube on stem cells. I took apart that stem cell video and its claims including …

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2020 The Screamers Science Hype Award goes to Stephen Hahn

Dr-Stephen-Hahn-Commissioner-of-FDA

Today’s post announces the winner of the 2020 The Screamers Science Hype Award. Since this is the inaugural year for The Screamers, I’m just going to give out one main award: Overall Worst Science Hype. Science Hype Award to FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn Remarkably, the winner of the overall The Screamers Award for Science Hype …

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Overselling stem cells for COVID-19: WSJ article & UMN PR

EM-of-Novel-Coronavirus-SARS-CoV-2-that-causes-COVID-19

Many are  jumping on the bandwagon of trying stem cells for COVID-19 or testing other cellular therapies for the novel coronavirus disease, but there have been problems with either the rationales for the trials themselves or more often with how they portrayed. Sometimes there has even been outright hype. I’ve called this collective trend of …

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Kimera Labs FDA letter cites exosomes for COVID-19, more issues

Duncan-Ross

A firm called Kimera labs just received an untitled letter from the FDA. The firm has been supplying non-FDA-approved exosomes to various customers including at least one stem cell clinic without sparking any obvious action from the agency, but on April 10th that changed with the letter, which in my view is quite serious. What …

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Wild stem cell ad piggybacks off hyped ‘interstitium is new tissue’ pub

Union-Tribune-interstitium-stem-cell-ad

Last year an odd pub  made the big claim that the interstitium is a new organ. I didn’t buy that. Now an over-the-top stem cell advertisement that recently ran in the San Diego Union-Tribune (U-T) is piggybacking off of the supposed “interstitium as new tissue” claim to make all kinds of other claims about some …

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‘So you don’t get eyeball in your hand’: Swedish Medical Center ‘infomercial’

Swedish-Adam-Pourcho-Regenerative-Medicine

Swedish Medical Center in Seattle is now marketing regenerative medicine therapies including some things that in my view are not really scientifically proven to work including via an infomercial. This is part of a bigger trend where more legit medical centers have begun selling regenerative medicine “treatments” that are still being developed. Sometimes they even …

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60 Minutes Australia Pushes Unproven Stem Cells for Cerebral Palsy

A stem cells for cerebral palsy 60 minutes ad.

The 60 Minutes show here in the U.S. has done sobering segments over the years on risky, unproven stem cell clinics, but now there is a new episode of 60 Minutes Australia that is the polar opposite: it mostly made a mess of things with its fluffy coverage of the story of a wonderful little …

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