gidmk - Network

Week two of my newsletter! Sign up if you want regular updates...

Week two of my newsletter! Sign up if you want regular updates 🙂

https://open.substack.com/pub/gidmk/p/aspartame-glyphosate-aithe-law-and?r=be6k4&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

I have started a newsletter, it's great fun and you should definitely subscribe! Tell your friends! The more the...

I have started a newsletter, it's great fun and you should definitely subscribe! Tell your friends! The more the merrier!

https://open.substack.com/pub/gidmk/p/welcome-to-the-health-nerd-substack?r=be6k4&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

My new piece looks at exercise therapy for depression, why the evidence-base is so remarkably woeful, and why we can't really say that...

My new piece looks at exercise therapy for depression, why the evidence-base is so remarkably woeful, and why we can't really say that exercise is better than (or even as good as) drugs for depression https://medium.com/p/6436a0536395

For my first piece of 2023, I looked at the evidence-base for gas stoves causing disease, and why I'm not convinced of the health issues...

For my first piece of 2023, I looked at the evidence-base for gas stoves causing disease, and why I'm not convinced of the health issues around cooking on gas

https://gidmk.medium.com/should-you-worry-about-gas-stoves-14bf3fd69a71

Nova looks almost constantly surprised

Nova looks almost constantly surprised

Good writing tip - find texts that you like and don't like (for reasons other than subject matter), and try to figure out what makes...

Good writing tip - find texts that you like and don't like (for reasons other than subject matter), and try to figure out what makes them sound good or bad to you

I always feel a bit guilty rejecting papers, even if they're so woeful that people should've been embarrassed to submit them in the...

I always feel a bit guilty rejecting papers, even if they're so woeful that people should've been embarrassed to submit them in the first place

Just finished the first full draft of my thesis. Can't wait to get the PhD over and done with, so many more interesting projects to work...

Just finished the first full draft of my thesis. Can't wait to get the PhD over and done with, so many more interesting projects to work on!

One of the best things about Mastodon is that the bizarre ivermectin people who eschew scientific evidence have thus far not followed me...

One of the best things about Mastodon is that the bizarre ivermectin people who eschew scientific evidence have thus far not followed me here

Ah, peace

Occasionally people ask me for advice on writing or science communication, and my answer is extremely boring and very simple - practiceIf...

Occasionally people ask me for advice on writing or science communication, and my answer is extremely boring and very simple - practice

If you want to write a good blog, you have to first write 50 bad ones

Getting better at social media takes practice. It's all just work+time and you eventually improve

My random, not very online friends are asking whether I've left TwitterI think it's safe to say that the general public use of the...

My random, not very online friends are asking whether I've left Twitter

I think it's safe to say that the general public use of the bird site is crashing

Ah, journal invitations to review over ChristmasSo optimisticAlso, no, I will not

Ah, journal invitations to review over Christmas

So optimistic

Also, no, I will not

The problem with science communication is that it is fundamentally easier for people to believe untrue things that support their argument...

The problem with science communication is that it is fundamentally easier for people to believe untrue things that support their argument than facts which don't

"I've never lost a patient" is statistically impossible. It mostly means that people have not followed up their patients...

"I've never lost a patient" is statistically impossible. It mostly means that people have not followed up their patients sufficiently well to know if they're alive or not, which is imo a bad sign for their clinical practice

This is an interesting cross-sectional study on Long COVID comparing infected people with non-infected controls on symptoms 3+ months after...

This is an interesting cross-sectional study on Long COVID comparing infected people with non-infected controls on symptoms 3+ months after Omicron infection

While there are several interesting points, I think one of the most useful things to note is that vaccinated people were half as likely to report long-term COVID-19 symptoms as those who were unvaccinated at the time of infection https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciac947/6905455?login=true

On #China and #COVID19, I think what we've got is a really interesting, if tragic, case studyThe idea of Zero COVID should always have...

On #China and #COVID19, I think what we've got is a really interesting, if tragic, case study

The idea of Zero COVID should always have been to buy time while the population was vaccinated and we developed better treatments. The world was never going to eradicate COVID-19, so everything was to some extent a stopgap

Has the extra year of Zero COVID improved China's overall pandemic response above countries like Australia and NZ who ended the policy in 2021? I guess we'll see

I think the massive COVID-19 epidemic in China is really quite worrying. A confluence of really bad factors: - low vaccine uptake in older...

I think the massive COVID-19 epidemic in China is really quite worrying. A confluence of really bad factors:

- low vaccine uptake in older people
- no existing immunity
- long time since vaccine rollout
- very low booster rates

In addition, the government is still quite clearly lying about their death figures, which is problematic to say the least #COVID19 #China #epidemiology

There have been a lot of worrying headlines about dark chocolate and heavy metals recently, so I took a look at the science and whether you...

There have been a lot of worrying headlines about dark chocolate and heavy metals recently, so I took a look at the science and whether you should really be worried about lead in your chocolate bars

My new piece:

https://gidmk.medium.com/should-you-worry-about-lead-in-your-dark-chocolate-b13e640c03ef

Google Scholar is one of my favourite examples of sensitivity over specificity

Google Scholar is one of my favourite examples of sensitivity over specificity

Now I have both cats sleeping on me. I wish to go finish my work, but cannot move

Now I have both cats sleeping on me. I wish to go finish my work, but cannot move