Skeptics Stack Exchange
Skeptics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [public-health]

Use this tag for questions about the health of people on a community or population level. Do not use this tag for questions about the health of individuals or biological mechanisms.

Public health is the science of protecting and improving the health of people and their communities. Overall, public health is concerned with protecting populations. These populations can be small, for example, a local neighborhood, or large, for example a country or region of the world.

115 questions
26
votes
3 answers

Has there been a 1101% increase in excess deaths among children aged 0-14 across Europe in 2022?

According to the blogger Peter Sweden: If we take a look at the excess deaths among children aged 0-14 across Europe, there has been a HORRIFYING 1101% increase in excess deaths so far this year compared with the same time period in 2021. Why? Is…
Martín-Blas Pérez Pinilla
  • 1,911
  • 1
  • 17
  • 23
25
votes
3 answers

Is gonorrhea "on the brink of becoming untreatable"?

In this article of the Financial Times about a "sexual health crisis" in the US, the following claim is made: The study showed doxycycline was less effective for preventing gonorrhoea, which is on the brink of becoming untreatable and can increase…
An old man in the sea.
  • 501
  • 4
  • 9
24
votes
2 answers

Was a male birth control trial cancelled due to symptoms that were no worse than female birth control?

This Cracked article makes the following claim: Take, for instance, a recent male birth control trial. When participants started to drop out because of side effects, the World Health Organization became concerned. When one subject's depression got…
dsollen
  • 10,062
  • 12
  • 43
  • 71
23
votes
3 answers

Were many vaccine-preventable diseases almost gone before vaccines were introduced?

The movie Silent Epidemic: The Untold Story of Vaccines presents arguments against vaccination. One of the arguments is that the alleged benefits of vaccines are actually due to modern health and sanitation. Nancy Banks is shown saying: many of the…
Nick Tomlin
  • 341
  • 2
  • 8
23
votes
1 answer

Does the US rank worse than other developed countries in infant mortality mostly because of differences in the definition of "infant mortality"?

Wasn't sure how to phrase that title, but in a comment on this article, someone stated that The US ranks 30th in child birth mortality; 30th, not 5th or even 7th, 30th, behind most of Europe, Israel, Japan, and clearly 20+ other countries. and was…
Michael A
  • 708
  • 4
  • 11
21
votes
2 answers

Have one out of every two people who have ever lived died of malaria?

Michael Finkel writes in National Geographic: Some scientists believe that one out of every two people who have ever lived have died of malaria. The Wall Street Journal Article The Tenacious Buzz of Malaria by Sonia Shah author of "The Fever: How…
Christian
  • 33,271
  • 15
  • 112
  • 266
20
votes
5 answers

Is food becoming less nutritious because of depletion of soil minerals and nutrients?

Over and over, I have heard and read claims that the soil growing much of the planet's crops is "depleted" and thus our foods do not have sufficient minerals, vitamins, and other nutrients. Five examples of such…
RockPaperLz- Mask it or Casket
  • 561
  • 5
  • 18
20
votes
1 answer

Are women's public restrooms dirtier and/or more bacteria-laden than the men's rooms?

When a friend was posting an article about a proposed shared wall of stalls between the men's and women's sides where the doors only opened from one side at a time to provide load-sharing (yes, he pointed out his pun), I trotted out what I "knew" as…
Sean Duggan
  • 6,438
  • 2
  • 37
  • 60
20
votes
2 answers

Are there health risks to not washing hands after urinating?

It seems to me that the health risks of hand washing after urinating are greatly exaggerated in the world. I understand that hand washing after defecation is an entirely different story as fecal matter contains very harmful microbes. If it is…
Scottie
  • 661
  • 6
  • 9
19
votes
1 answer

Were 25% of newly-infected HIV-positive gay men actively seeking infection in 2003?

Rense quotes a 2003 Drudge Report article, that previewed an apparent Rolling Stone magazine article titled "Bug Chasers: The Men Who Secretly Long To Be HIV+." The men who want the virus are called 'bug chasers' [...] "At least twenty-five percent…
myktin
  • 367
  • 3
  • 7
18
votes
1 answer

Did France ban wifi in schools and daycares in 2015 because of health concerns?

A variety of websites (along with many claims on social media sites like Instagram) claim a law that went into effect in January 2015 bans wifi in schools and nurseries for health reasons. One links to the statute, but I have no French comprehension…
warren
  • 996
  • 2
  • 10
  • 23
18
votes
1 answer

Were international travellers kept waiting in densely packed queues at US airports due to COVID-19 screenings?

There are several claims online that international travelers returning from Europe were kept waiting in densely packed queues at JKF and O'Hare airports, due to COVID-19 screenings, on the weekend of March 14 2020. Tweet from @kr3at JFK airport in…
Peter
  • 1,407
  • 11
  • 19
17
votes
1 answer

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
  • 173
  • 4
17
votes
1 answer

Do societies that are less abstemious have more sensible drinking patterns?

Questions about whether alcohol consumption is good for you or not have been asked here before (see Is alcohol beneficial in small amounts? and Recommended alcohol drinking quantity: are they just making it up? ). But a recent review of the evidence…
matt_black
  • 56,186
  • 16
  • 175
  • 373
16
votes
2 answers

Is the rate of food poisoning in the USA much worse than the rate in the UK?

One part of the interminable debate in the UK about leaving the EU has been a debate about what the UK would have to agree to if they do trade deals with other countries. In an interview with BBC radio 4 (reported in the Guardian) the US ambassador…
matt_black
  • 56,186
  • 16
  • 175
  • 373
1
2
3 4 5 6 7 8