/oss/taxonomy/term/4580/all en /oss/article/infographics/2023-year-review <p style="text-align:center"><img height="1603" width="500" class="media-element file-extra-large no-float" src="/oss/files/oss/styles/wysiwyg_extra_large/public/2023_year_in_review_infographic_0.png?itok=S5m4OctP" alt="" /><!--td {border: 1px solid #cccccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}--></p> Thu, 04 Jan 2024 15:32:55 +0000 Cat Wang, B.Sc. 9774 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-medical/what-if-your-covid-tests-are-expired <hr /> <p><em>This article was originally posted in the</em> <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-what-if-your-covid-tests-are-expired"><em>Montreal Gazette.</em></a></p> <hr /> <p>With COVID-19 cases on the rise again, many people were shocked to discover that rapid tests are no longer available at pharmacies. Having blissfully ignored the problem for the past several months, many were left wondering how to get tested and whether their old tests were still effective or were now expired.</p> Fri, 13 Oct 2023 10:00:00 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 9688 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-medical-general-science/nobel-prize-committee-sends-message-messenger-rna-research-merits-sciences-highest-honour <p>The wall above that photocopier located at the University of Pennsylvania may eventually feature a plaque that reads something like “it was here that Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman met in 1998 and forged a partnership that would lead to millions of lives being saved by modified RNA Covid-19 vaccines and result in the duo being awarded that 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology.” </p> Wed, 04 Oct 2023 10:00:00 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9671 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition/nattokinases-clot-busting-promises-sway-scientists-who-should-know-better <p>It has been called a “powerful all-natural supplement,” one that shows “exceptionally potent” clot-busting action. This same enthusiastic source even refers to it as a “miracle food.” No, this was not written by a naturopath on Facebook; it comes from <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390%2Fijms18030523">a scientific paper</a>, whose authors really ought to be more objective.</p> Fri, 04 Aug 2023 12:44:02 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9593 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-medical/vaccine-study-has-people-worried-being-misinterpreted <hr /> <p><em>This article was originally posted in the <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-vaccine-study-that-has-people-worried-is-being-misinterpreted">Montreal Gazette.</a></em></p> Fri, 10 Feb 2023 11:00:00 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 9381 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/does-covid-19-mess-immune-system <p>Have you heard that, apparently, COVID-19 is “airborne AIDS?”</p> <p>“I think that that epithet is horrifying and beyond offensive,” Edward Nirenberg tells me. He is a science communicator with a degree in biochemistry who focuses his communication efforts on vaccines and COVID-19. “It categorically isn’t. It’s not what the data show.”</p> Fri, 10 Feb 2023 13:59:23 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9386 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-critical-thinking/pro-vaccine-documentary-tackles-vaccine-hesitancy <p>I often feel like there is a production line somewhere (possibly Florida) where anti-vaccine propaganda documentaries are quickly assembled and released on social media to garner millions of views. The recipe is fairly simple: weave in interviews of the same handful of prominent anti-vaccine activists with emotional appeals from parents whose children were “never the same” after receiving their shots. But I would be hard pressed to name many <i>pro-vaccine</i> documentaries.</p> Fri, 03 Feb 2023 11:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9377 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-critical-thinking/anti-vaccine-documentary-died-suddenly-wants-you-feel-not-think <p>People want to feel like their concerns are heard. Being dismissed can lead to loss of trust, which can send people looking for empathy in the wrong places.</p> Fri, 25 Nov 2022 11:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9306 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-medical-critical-thinking/evidence-shows-masks-work <hr /> <p><em>This article was originally posted in the <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-the-evidence-shows-masks-work">Montreal Gazette.</a></em></p> <hr /> <p>As we see cases of multiple respiratory viruses rising in Canada and around the world, we now have to deal with not just COVID-19, but also respiratory syncytial viruses (RSV) and influenza. As a result, overcrowded ERs are functioning so far beyond capacity it beggars belief and the health-care system is struggling to provide people with the optimal care they deserve.</p> Fri, 18 Nov 2022 11:00:00 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 9298 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-medical-critical-thinking/claims-immunity-debt-children-owe-us-evidence <p>At the beginning of the fifth season of the television show <i>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</i>, we the audience are introduced to a character, Dawn, we have never seen before. Intriguingly, every character around her acts as if she has always existed. We know that something is amiss, but her friends and relatives don’t.</p> <p>I feel the same way about the concept of an “immunity debt.” It sprang out of nowhere, but so many people act as if this is an old chestnut in the field of immunology.</p> Fri, 11 Nov 2022 11:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9291 at /oss /oss/article/granola-and-guns-rise-conspirituality <p>I was interviewed by many journalists in 2020 about the pandemic, and the question they kept asking me was some version of, “What exactly is going on here?”</p> <p>They were not clueless about COVID-19. Rather, they were trying to make sense of a strange fraternization they were witnessing in the middle of this public health crisis. Listening to these journalists, beards were being scratched over the phone, voices were hesitant, connections were painfully being enunciated in a sort of disbelief. They were witnessing a phenomenon for which they didn’t have a word.</p> Fri, 07 Oct 2022 10:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9253 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-medical/vitamin-d-no-cure-covid <hr /> <p><em>This article was originally posted in the <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-vitamin-d-is-no-cure-for-covid">Montreal Gazette.</a></em></p> <hr /> <p>During the pandemic, vitamin D has been touted by many as a cheap, easy way to prevent or cure COVID during the pandemic. But there’s a simple reason I don’t recommend it for these purposes: It doesn’t work.</p> Fri, 23 Sep 2022 10:00:00 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 9240 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-medical-critical-thinking/eric-feigl-ding-epidemiologist-who-moves-fast-and-breaks-things <p>The tweet that catapulted him to stardom began with the all-caps exclamation, “HOLY MOTHER OF GOD.” This is not language we expect from scientists on Twitter, and certainly not something we would see in an academic paper. But this is the tone Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding used at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to sound the alarm.</p> Fri, 09 Sep 2022 10:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9222 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/how-social-distance-university-residence-hall <p>Living for two semesters in 91����’s Upper Residence dorms, I dodged COVID-19 against all odds.</p> <p>But a couple of days after checking out of the university residence, unscathed and uninfected, the virus hunted me down in my private Montreal apartment.</p> <p>How did I survive the unsafe space of a university residence, untouched by outbreak after outbreak? After all, we shared dining halls and hallways, common rooms and dorm rooms, even bathroom sinks, showers and toilets in close proximity. All the while ordered to stay two metres apart.</p> Thu, 02 Jun 2022 20:31:28 +0000 Haleh Cohn 9124 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking/steve-kirsch-and-seduction-simplicity <p>A central lesson we scientists learn in university is that science is complicated. Experiments that should yield either result A or B show us C, instead. Individual studies are flawed, and our understanding of a problem is achieved by collating these puzzle pieces to the best of our ability and interpreting the emerging picture in a way that, we hope, minimizes our biases. It is tricky work, but you know what is easier?</p> <p>Oversimplifying.</p> Thu, 19 May 2022 19:39:38 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9115 at /oss