Latest Video
Latest Blog Posts

Previous drafts of Florida’s vaccine analysis tell a very different story
You may recall Florida’s vaccine analysis which claimed that mRNA vaccines are associated with increased risk of cardiac death in young men. This week, the Tampa Bay Times shared earlier, unpublished drafts of that analysis. Those earlier drafts tell a dramatically different story…

Who funds you? Explaining research funding.
If I had a nickel for every time someone has accusingly asked me “who funds you??”, I wouldn’t have enough money to buy a box of pipette tips, because research is expensive and requires funding to do much of anything.

No, ER misdiagnoses are not killing 250,000 per year
This week a shocking headline was published: ER misdiagnoses kill up to 250,000 per year!
Turns out this statistic is based on the death of just one man. In Canada. Over a decade ago…

A critical review of Florida’s new vaccine analysis
Florida just announced the results of an analysis that they performed, claiming the results show “an increased risk of cardiac-related death among men 18-39” for the mRNA vaccines, and recommend this group not receive these vaccines.
Is this justified? Let’s look at the data…

A case study in graphs that crush my soul
Graphs are central to scientific communication, and when used appropriately are amazing tools that help people understand complex data. But with a few small changes, graphs can also be used to mislead and distort what’s going on. Recently I came across a graph (trying to minimize the effectiveness of COVID vaccines in kids) that was so bad it deserves its own entire post. Check out a break down of the chart crimes here.

BA.5: What do you need to know?
Recently, BA.5 has been all over the news, raising alarming questions about immune evasion, reinfections, and the future of the pandemic. What makes BA.5 different from previous COVID viruses? In our latest post, we address what makes BA.5 special, along with what these differences mean for vaccine efficacy and the chances of reinfection.
Subscribe
By entering your email, you agree to our Privacy Policy.
Support
Want to support this site? Click the ‘Buy Me a Coffee‘ link in the corner, or find more ways to support here.
About

Kristen Panthagani, MD, PhD is a physician-scientist who likes to help people understand science.ย She saw a lot of people getting unnecessarily confused by inaccurate claims flying around, and started this blog to help clarify some of those things.
Data Visualizations
People are looking at the percent of vaccinated hospitalizations and getting alarmed. But by itself, this number can't tell you much about how the vaccines are working, as it's highly dependent on the rate of vaccination in a community. Here's some maths to show what I mean๐๐ฝ pic.twitter.com/MmfiL7H1lw
— Kristen Panthagani, PhD (@kmpanthagani) July 20, 2021
Reviews
Featured In
A shocking headline recently claimed that every year 250,000 people in the U.S. die after misdiagnosis in the emergency room. Even more shocking, the statistic was extrapolated from the death of one man, writes @kmpanthaganihttps://t.co/MDt0lVT8ms
— Wall Street Journal Opinion (@WSJopinion) December 30, 2022
Though Covid vaccines protect against serious illness, they are not perfect shields against the virus, particularly not the Delta variant. Experts say โbreakthroughโ infections are still relatively uncommon.
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 23, 2021
Hereโs why they occur. https://t.co/rEDD2DMj0U
Recently the FL Dept of Health made some significant vaccine policy recommendations based on a problematic non peer reviewed study they did.
— Jerome Adams (@JeromeAdamsMD) October 9, 2022
See below for some (of the many) objective concerns.๐๐ฝ
A critical review of Floridaโs new vaccine analysis https://t.co/mE8DC6O25A
Breakthrough cases arenโt the cause of the US Covid-19 surge https://t.co/j20tM5QBIN
— Vox (@voxdotcom) August 3, 2021
Florida Surgeon General Ladapo made headlines for announcing that men ages 18 to 39 should not get the COVID-19 vaccine. He said thereโs an 84% increase in cardiac-related deaths for that group, but doctors told us the underlying analysis is flawed. https://t.co/C9P6wey6bS
— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) October 14, 2022
The @nytimes collected breakthrough data from 40 states. At least until recently, severe COVID infections among fully vaccinated people have been relatively rare.
— Danielle Ivory (@danielle_ivory) August 10, 2021
We also learned that a rising share of breakthrough infections is not necessarily scary.https://t.co/q5zFMoFHxo