As part of a challenge study conducted during the pandemic, 34 healthy volunteers were deliberately infected with SARS-CoV-2 to assess the potential cognitive impacts of COVID-19. Everything about the experiment, from its timing to its design, was suspect and almost certainly unethical.

Recent headlines declared that the artificial sweeteners Xylitol and Erythritol could increase your risk of stroke and heart attack. Now that the media excitement has died down, let's take a closer look at the study behind the headlines. Does it really implicate these sugar substitutes as a threat to heart health? Not exactly.

Pain patient advocates recently made their case to the FDA during an agency listening sessions, arguing that the federal government has launched an unjustified crusade against prescription opioids.

Rather than reduce overdose deaths or drug abuse, the nationwide crackdown on painkillers has only left millions of patients to suffer without recourse. Are regulators finally waking up to this reality?

Scientific American's endorsement of Kamala Harris for president ignited a ferocious debate in the science community. Is she the best choice for advancing science, as her supporters contend, or is it unwise for researchers and scientific institutions to back political candidates?

The emerging Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement has resurrected the well-worn accusation that food and drug companies dictate US public health policy. How true is this claim? And do the leaders of the MAHA campaign have their own conflicts of interest? They sure do.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) seems to be in an awkward spot. The group fears that children could be exposed to hormone-disrupting pesticides through food. However, it also endorses the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones—drugs that disrupt normal hormone production—in gender-dysphoric youth.

Are the AAP's divergent standards justified, or is this just a classic case of hypocrisy?

Scientists have learned much about COVID-19 over the last four years. But several aspects of the pandemic remain to be fully explained, including Long COVID: a chronic condition that can cause or contribute to some 200 health effects throughout our bodies.

A recent study suggests that fibrin, a key component of blood clots, plays a role in the development on Long COVID, and may lead to effective treatments for the condition. Let's take a closer look at the results.

Some patients taking weight-loss drugs like Ozempic are beginning to report slower or no weight loss as their bodies build up a tolerance to the medication. Does this spell trouble for obese people looking to slim down long-term? Dr. Chuck Dinerstein reports his personal experience with the so-called Ozempic plateau.

Scientists often think they're smarter than they are because of their narrow academic expertise, according to a new study. Recent history is littered with corroborating examples in which experts made false declarations about COVID-19 and refused to acknowledge their errors. What drives this hubris, and how should the public respond to it?

America's anti-opioid crusade routinely denies chronically ill patients access to adequate pain control, relegating them to an agonizing existence. Many of these individuals would rather die than withstand the anguish, and some advocates of physician-assisted suicide say we should help these patients end their lives. Is this an ethical solution to the crisis of untreated pain? We have our doubts.