Crémieux Profile picture
Nov 1, 2024 3 tweets 1 min read Read on X
Among health "experts" who tweeted about Monkeypox, there was a dramatic tendency to get basic facts wrong.

For example, many claimed risk wasn't especially heightened among gay men.

PhDs were among the worst misinformation spreaders. Image
Being an "expert", being "credentialed", having "studied" something and so on, is not sufficient to make someone truly credible, to endow their words with reliability.

Being right is, and most popular "experts" were usually not right.

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More from @cremieuxrecueil

May 28
The Floyd Effect had precedent.

In Baltimore, the death of Freddie Gray came with a large and immediate uptick in the number of homicides. Image
Police pulled back right away.

The arrest rate plummeted. Image
The number of shootings soared far beyond what had happened in recent years. Image
Read 6 tweets
May 25
The revolution in organ transplants is here thanks to gene editing.

A 62-year-old man on dialysis needed a new kidney. Doctors implanted him with a pig's kidney that had been given 69 edits to be human-compatible.

He immediately stopped needing dialysis. Image
This man was insanely unhealthy before and after the operation, but at least the organ transplant worked.

On day eight he had his only hiccup, a rejection episode that was easily overcome with a hit from some monoclonal antibodies and some corticosteroids.Image
For background on how insanely unhealthy this man was, just look at his prior history.

He did die 52 days after the operation, but it was still a success. He died from an unrelated heart attack, with no evidence of xenotransplant rejection, and he had stable kidney function.Image
Read 5 tweets
May 25
It's often said that you can't see behavioral phenotypes, but that's just not true.

BMI is a well-known behavioral phenotype that you can see.

Like other behavioral traits, the BMI polygenic score is enriched for expression in brain tissue rather than, say, adipose tissue.Image
The chart above was a 2020 replication of a 2015 result: Image
That result also replicated in another 2020 study: Image
Read 8 tweets
May 24
High schoolers think it's funny to self-report being transgender.

This makes estimates of trans percentages and other stats unreliable.

Students who self-report as trans also frequently report being blind 7-foot-tall crackheads who belong to a gang and never visit the dentist. Image
The study is from 2014, and of course, we might "know" (who can say, given the nutty response patterns?) that transgender numbers have greatly increased since then.

In a 2017 follow-up it was found that the issue remained.
Cutting out just the most obvious "mischievous responders" halved the rates of "LGBQ-Heterosexual disparity" in 20 a composite of 20 different health measures.

This one didn't deal with trans identity so much, but it's probably even more affected than general gay results. Image
Read 9 tweets
May 22
Statins work by inhibiting the HMG-CoA reductase enzyme. Variations in the HMGCR gene work by affecting HMG-CoA reductase enzymatic activity.

The metabolic effect of variation in HMGCR and of taking statins is virtually identical.

This gives us a great natural experiment🧵 Image
If you're wondering about the effects of taking statins over long periods of time, look no further than people with genetically low cholesterol due to variants in HMGCR.

Compared to starting statins later in life, those with genetically low LDL have 3x lower heart disease risk! Image
Not only that, but the safety profile of low LDL is phenomenal.

People with low LDL do as well or better on most health dimensions.

So, TL;DR: It's great and statins are safe. Thank you, genetic freaks.
Read 14 tweets
May 21
Is red meat good for your heart? The answer depends on who you ask.

If you ask someone paid by the meat industry, they say it's good for you, or at least neutral.

If you ask a financially independent researcher, they say it's neutral, or more likely harmful. Image
This happens all over the place.

For example, when studying mindfulness, as a group, only authors who, say, offer mindfulness courses, speaking arrangements, and have book deals publish positive effects.

Or as another example, member when people were debating banning gas stoves? The authors of the key study on asthma were conflicted.

Their conclusions were also invalid. Maybe that's coincidental, but I doubt it. Image
Read 4 tweets

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