Sarah-Jane O'Connor • Aug 13, 2020 •
As New Zealand holds its breath waiting to find out the extent of the latest cases of COVID-19 community transmission, it’s hard to avoid the growing amount of mis- and dis-information online. It’s a very natural instinct to want to debunk this misinformation, but unfortunately, science communication theory shows that not only does this not work, it can be harmful. Read More
Alison Campbell • Jun 21, 2018 •
Today a science-minded friend posted a screenshot of a post by another individual to the FB group 1080 eyewitness. Because it is a) heavy on the innuendo, b) inaccurate, and c) decidedly unpleasant, I thought it worthy of a bit of additional attention. Let’s look at c) first. The original poster claimed to have written this on the Prime Minister’s … Read More
Ken Perrott • Jan 31, 2017 •
New Zealand anti-fluoride campaigners have whittled their list of objections to community water fluoridation (CWF) down to 12 reasons. Maybe that’s progress – they used to tout a list of 50 reasons! Let’s go through that list one by one and see if any stand up. I am responding here to each reason given in the Fluoride Free New Zealand’s … Read More
Ken Perrott • Jan 06, 2017 •
Anti-fluoridation campaigners’ claims that community water fluoridation reduces IQ are simply false. That is the conclusion of Alex Kasprak – and he says why in his new Snopes.com article (see Fact Check -Fluor-IQ). Snopes.com tackles fluoridation claims. These days anti-fluoridation activists use this claim as their main argument – and they often cite scientific articles to back it up. Read More