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HOTP
Science Feedback invited to speak at the European Science-Media Hub Summer School 2023
2023-06-22
Flora Teoh, PhD, Science Editor at Health Feedback, was invited to speak at the session on “Best practices in science journalism, experiences” on 8 June 2023 at the European Science-Media Hub (ESMH) Summer School “Storytelling in Science”, held at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France from 6 to 10 June 2023. During the session, she … Continued
What we know about the safety of mifepristone for medical abortions and the effectiveness of progesterone for “abortion reversal”
2023-02-24
Introduction The World Health Organization considers access to safe and affordable abortion services as important for the good health and well-being of women and girls. Unsafe abortion methods contribute to a significant portion of maternal deaths, and this is particularly evident in places where abortion is legally restricted. However, the development of medical abortion, a … Continued
Misinformation superspreaders are thriving on Musk-owned Twitter
2023-02-22
Key results 1. A study of 490 “misinformation superspreaders” (here defined as accounts that have repeatedly published popular tweets linking to known misinformation) shows that their collective popularity has significantly grown (on average, +42% interactions per tweet) since Elon Musk took effective control of the platform on 27 October 2022. Accounts from established and credible … Continued
What do we know about the safety of bisphenol A in food packaging?
2023-02-13
SUMMARY Bisphenol A is an industrial chemical that has been used for decades to make certain plastics and resins. These materials are used as a coating in food and drink cans and reusable water bottles, from which small amounts of BPA can leach into foods and drinks. The use of BPA in food packaging has … Continued
Wind turbines can kill birds, but not as many as fossil fuels and other anthropogenic impacts
2022-12-14
“It is true that renewable energy developments like solar and wind farms (along with the power lines to connect them to the grid) can impact negatively on birds and other wildlife, but compared to other human driven causes of bird mortality the impact remains small,” noted Aldina Franco, an avian ecologist at the University of East Anglia.
Authorization of bivalent COVID-19 boosters is based on scientific evidence of their safety and effectiveness
2022-11-07
image credit The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Publich Health SUMMARY In August 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized bivalent COVID-19 vaccine formulations as single booster doses. These bivalent formulations contain messenger RNA (mRNA) from the original SARS-CoV-2 strain and mRNA present in the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the Omicron variant. … Continued
Google’s demonetization of misinformation: one year on
2022-11-07
ProPublica finds that Google still monetizes many websites and articles that promote harmful misinformation, much of which is in direct breach of its stated demonetization policy. Enforcement of its own rules on languages other than English is particularly lacking.
Here’s what we know about how climate change impacts hurricanes – and what we don’t
2022-10-11
The uncertainty surrounding how hurricane frequency could change as the climate warms has been brought up in claims seeking to undermine climate change’s impact on hurricanes. These claims are examples of straw man arguments: noting that climate change may not lead to a higher number of hurricanes in the future does not mean that climate change has had – or will have – no impact on hurricanes at all.
Different parts of the planet warm more quickly than others. That doesn’t mean climate change isn’t happening.
2022-09-16
If you’re even a casual consumer of climate news, you probably know that some parts of the globe are warming more rapidly than others. Scientists have known for years, for instance, that the Arctic is heating up at a faster clip than the global average, and recently, the region made headlines after a study showed that the northernmost reaches of our planet are warming four times faster than the rest of the Earth.
Introducing the Climate Science Desk, Science Feedback’s new portal to help journalists verify climate claims
2022-09-09
Supported by the Climate Misinformation Grant Program from the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at the Poynter Institute, Science Feedback is launching the Climate Science Desk, an initiative aimed at helping fact-checkers and journalists connect with scientists to review the veracity of climate change-related claims. The Climate Science Desk features a portal where fact-checkers can submit … Continued