Skeptics Stack Exchange
Skeptics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [disease]

Questions about pathology; impairments of health or a condition of abnormal bodily functions.

  1. An abnormal condition of a part, organ, or system of an organism resulting from various causes, such as infection, inflammation, environmental factors, or genetic defect, and characterized by an identifiable group of signs, symptoms, or both.
  2. A condition or tendency, as of society, regarded as abnormal and harmful.
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Do rusty nail wounds cause tetanus?

My Mother and aunties always asked with alarm how I got even a minor scratch when I was young. If an injury was caused by anything rusty, I was to be transported immediately to the doctor for a "tetanus shot" so I would not get "lockjaw". Do…
Logic Knight
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Was the Brazilian Zika virus outbreak centered in a place where GMO mosquitoes were released?

A blogger claims: By July 2015, shortly after the GM mosquitoes were first released into the wild in Juazeiro, Brazil, Oxitec proudly announced they had “successfully controlled the Aedes aegypti mosquito that spreads dengue fever, chikungunya and…
Avery
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Is the Zika virus a serious threat?

An article on WGNO.com makes the following claims on the Zika virus: A relatively new mosquito-borne virus is prompting worldwide concern because of an alarming connection to a neurological birth disorder and the rapid spread of the virus across…
JonathanReez
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Do studies show that viruses are contagious?

An acquaintance of mine has been very adamant that viruses can't be caught and continues to link me things like this Ickonic video, where Jaymie Icke interviews Dr. Andrew Kaufman M.D. who claims: I lived my whole life believing we can pass these…
TheXenocide
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Are vaccinated children significantly less healthy than the unvaccinated, as recent study claims?

In their 2020 study termed "Relative Incidence of Office Visits and Cumulative Rates of Billed Diagnoses Along the Axis of Vaccination" [full text], appearing in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Lyons-Weiler et…
sudonym
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To what degree do facemasks protect against COVID-19?

I've seen this picture multiple times on social media. Every time I see it, it has numbers that vary wildly, and usually with no source. Examples: Advert for facemasks Twitter comments Actors Facebook Walls With the following infographic, what…
tuskiomi
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Do fevers caused by infection not exceed 105 °F (40.6 °C)?

This question is prompted by but distinct from Is fever (temperature) below 106° F harmful? That question asks about whether fevers below that temperature can cause harm. This question is asking whether there is any appreciable risk of fevers below…
paradisi
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Is it dangerous to use wooden cutlery and cutting boards with raw meat?

I have heard multiple times that "one should never cut raw meat on a wooden cutting board nor mix it using a wooden spoon." The reason most often cited is that apparently bacteria can survive in the wood's pores. I also found this PDF from the…
octosquidopus
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Does exercise make you healthier?

It is widely believed that regular exercise helps people become fitter, stronger and healthier. For example, from Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans: Regular physical activity is one of the most important things you can do for your health.…
John
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Is "Syphilis: All of these men have it" a WWII propaganda poster?

Spotted via https://twitter.com/LI_politico/status/692846941034549248 (courtesy of a parody picture in https://twitter.com/Megapope/status/692850205297741827), but described as real by Mother Jones in The Enemy in Your Pants: The military’s…
Andrew Grimm
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Do 80 percent of sexually active people get infected with HPV?

The Cleveland Clinic claimed on a page about HPV: HPV that affects the genitals is very common. As many as 20 million people are thought to have an active HPV infection at any given time, and as many as 5.5 million new cases of genital HPV…
George Chalhoub
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Do the commercially produced toilet seat covers significantly reduce the spread of disease?

In many public toilets there are disposable toilet seat covers that can be placed over the seat before sitting down. These covers certainly allay some of the "yuck factor" associated with placing one bare buttocks where so many have gone before,…
DQdlM
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In February 2020, did Tencent release accurate statistics for the Wuhan coronavirus that were 10 times the official figures?

Taiwan News reported the following on February 5: As many experts question the veracity of China's statistics for the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, Tencent over the weekend seems to have inadvertently released what is potentially the actual number of…
Betterthan Kwora
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Is eating fish and drinking milk at the same time linked with skin disease?

I heard from several people that drinking milk or dairy products while eating fish can lead towards a special skin pigmentation disorders such as different skin color or bright spots on skin. I asked a dermatologist about it and she said it is…
Imran Qureshi
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Is there a dramatic decrease in the number of diagnoses of noninfectious diseases?

According to an article in the Swiss newspaper Tagesanzeiger, the CEO of Novartis (one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies) stated in a phone conference on quarterly financials that "There is a dramatic decrease in the number of…
burner21
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