Dr David Robert Grimes
@drg.bsky.social
Cancer researcher, physicist, scoundrel. Author (#TheIrrationalApe / #GoodThinking). Science, Medicine, Foppish hair.
Alt socials: https://linktr.ee/drg1985
Alt socials: https://linktr.ee/drg1985
So @jamesheathers.bsky.social & I answer the burning question: does Cake cause Herpes? No, but one can torture the data to give that impression, and that's a problem. Promiscuous dichotomisation in biomedical science hugely increases spurious findings, best avoided
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
November 13, 2025 at 12:42 PM
So @jamesheathers.bsky.social & I answer the burning question: does Cake cause Herpes? No, but one can torture the data to give that impression, and that's a problem. Promiscuous dichotomisation in biomedical science hugely increases spurious findings, best avoided
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Kim Kardashian is wrong (shocker!) - moon landings certainly happened. As I showed before, Apollo had >400k staff who'd need be complicit. Chances of them keeping it secret? Virtually zero. Probability of a celebrity saying something daft, alas, approaches unity🤪 journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
October 31, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Kim Kardashian is wrong (shocker!) - moon landings certainly happened. As I showed before, Apollo had >400k staff who'd need be complicit. Chances of them keeping it secret? Virtually zero. Probability of a celebrity saying something daft, alas, approaches unity🤪 journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
To most Irish people, Mary McGee was the woman whose supreme court battle legalised contraception. To me, she was my aunt with a cheeky sense of humour & great laugh. Took this of her & my dad just a few weeks ago - RIP May, you'll be missed
www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025...
www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025...
October 29, 2025 at 9:48 AM
To most Irish people, Mary McGee was the woman whose supreme court battle legalised contraception. To me, she was my aunt with a cheeky sense of humour & great laugh. Took this of her & my dad just a few weeks ago - RIP May, you'll be missed
www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025...
www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025...
After that AI slop from Mick Wallace (not sharing, it's grim), hope President Connelly rejects the asinine nonsense from her former compatriots, Wallace & Daly. As I wrote in @bylinetimes.bsky.social their useful idiocy & propaganda vectoring is something she'll hopefully not enable..
October 26, 2025 at 8:15 PM
After that AI slop from Mick Wallace (not sharing, it's grim), hope President Connelly rejects the asinine nonsense from her former compatriots, Wallace & Daly. As I wrote in @bylinetimes.bsky.social their useful idiocy & propaganda vectoring is something she'll hopefully not enable..
One response it is just a human interest story, but this doesn't negate responsibility of @theguardian.com to check things. As I wrote in The Irrational Ape, Andrew Wakefield's mendacious linking of autism to MMR vaccine only got traction in UK media due to such irresponsible credulity!
October 6, 2025 at 5:07 PM
One response it is just a human interest story, but this doesn't negate responsibility of @theguardian.com to check things. As I wrote in The Irrational Ape, Andrew Wakefield's mendacious linking of autism to MMR vaccine only got traction in UK media due to such irresponsible credulity!
The piece has these red-flags without any scepticism. For instance, unhappy with NHS, author sought 2nd opinion from a doctor whose work is presented in glowing terms. Doesn't mention potential vested interest that same doctor charges £399 for online consultations on (fringe) CLD
October 6, 2025 at 5:00 PM
The piece has these red-flags without any scepticism. For instance, unhappy with NHS, author sought 2nd opinion from a doctor whose work is presented in glowing terms. Doesn't mention potential vested interest that same doctor charges £399 for online consultations on (fringe) CLD
And while medical opinion does not support existence of CLD, 1000s of alternative healers & self-described "Lyme literate physicians" prescribe (at high cost) dubious treatments & tests for it: hell, I wrote about this in @theguardian.com 9 years ago! www.theguardian.com/science/blog...
October 6, 2025 at 4:56 PM
And while medical opinion does not support existence of CLD, 1000s of alternative healers & self-described "Lyme literate physicians" prescribe (at high cost) dubious treatments & tests for it: hell, I wrote about this in @theguardian.com 9 years ago! www.theguardian.com/science/blog...
Asked lots about this piece on Chronic Lyme disease, and disappointed in the @guardian (a publication I both subscribe and contribute to) for running it. Short thread explaining the multitude of problems with it, and why I consider it irresponsible to run as is..🧵
October 6, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Asked lots about this piece on Chronic Lyme disease, and disappointed in the @guardian (a publication I both subscribe and contribute to) for running it. Short thread explaining the multitude of problems with it, and why I consider it irresponsible to run as is..🧵
Given the values espoused by Farage are chiefly racism and mendacity, I suppose it takes a particular kind of bravery to write a piece in a national newspaper this asinine...
October 6, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Given the values espoused by Farage are chiefly racism and mendacity, I suppose it takes a particular kind of bravery to write a piece in a national newspaper this asinine...
Donald Trump talking garbage on public health. Incidentally, notorious fraudster Andrew Wakefield also proposed breaking up the MMR into separate vaccines because he had patents on an alternative but like Trump he was feeding into "vaccine overload" myth..
September 26, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Donald Trump talking garbage on public health. Incidentally, notorious fraudster Andrew Wakefield also proposed breaking up the MMR into separate vaccines because he had patents on an alternative but like Trump he was feeding into "vaccine overload" myth..
..I've written so often about the mendacity of Andrew Wakefield, but essentially he was able to make people think (falsely) there was a link between the MMR vaccine and autism BECAUSE of this, as I wrote in the Irrational Ape here...
September 18, 2025 at 6:02 PM
..I've written so often about the mendacity of Andrew Wakefield, but essentially he was able to make people think (falsely) there was a link between the MMR vaccine and autism BECAUSE of this, as I wrote in the Irrational Ape here...
..does this mean that difficult topics should not be discussed? On the contrary, everything absolutely should be up for discussion. But discussion is operative word, rooted in evidence. We need to stop assuming provocateurs act in good faith (text below 🔻) 2/2
September 15, 2025 at 10:38 AM
..does this mean that difficult topics should not be discussed? On the contrary, everything absolutely should be up for discussion. But discussion is operative word, rooted in evidence. We need to stop assuming provocateurs act in good faith (text below 🔻) 2/2
Provocateurs always insist they just want to debate things, because debate gives dubious positions a platform & even veneer of respectability. The reality is that debate too often rewards the most mendacious & leaves us all more divided (too long for tweet, text below🔻) (1/2)
September 15, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Provocateurs always insist they just want to debate things, because debate gives dubious positions a platform & even veneer of respectability. The reality is that debate too often rewards the most mendacious & leaves us all more divided (too long for tweet, text below🔻) (1/2)
#RFKjr hearing affirms him as the most perversely ill-suited person imaginable to head HHS, all pseudoscience & antivaccine quackery. The one thing he was ALMOST right on proved he remains too stupid to realise you can't fix systemic inequality with crystals & enemas..
September 4, 2025 at 5:35 PM
#RFKjr hearing affirms him as the most perversely ill-suited person imaginable to head HHS, all pseudoscience & antivaccine quackery. The one thing he was ALMOST right on proved he remains too stupid to realise you can't fix systemic inequality with crystals & enemas..
This is Trump's new surgeon general. Is it possible he thought the post was "serial grifter" ?
May 8, 2025 at 1:47 PM
This is Trump's new surgeon general. Is it possible he thought the post was "serial grifter" ?
Whitehouse insisting #lableak is origin of COVID-19, despite zero evidence for this assertion & plenty against it. Aside from the sinophobic swipes, they've also insinuated people like Tony Fauci are complicit: When governments endorse conspiracy theory, democracy suffers
April 19, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Whitehouse insisting #lableak is origin of COVID-19, despite zero evidence for this assertion & plenty against it. Aside from the sinophobic swipes, they've also insinuated people like Tony Fauci are complicit: When governments endorse conspiracy theory, democracy suffers
...plus if this quote is accurate, being stuck in a capsule with these people would make one want to commit an act of astronautical sabotage..
April 15, 2025 at 11:52 AM
...plus if this quote is accurate, being stuck in a capsule with these people would make one want to commit an act of astronautical sabotage..
"Katy Perry in Space!" - such performative nonsense. They skirted the Kárman line, where gravity is a whopping 3% lower than on earth. Hollow PR for yet another billionaire with rocketery phallic compensation issues. A hugely polluting waste with zero value to anyone but Jeff Bezos..
April 15, 2025 at 11:51 AM
"Katy Perry in Space!" - such performative nonsense. They skirted the Kárman line, where gravity is a whopping 3% lower than on earth. Hollow PR for yet another billionaire with rocketery phallic compensation issues. A hugely polluting waste with zero value to anyone but Jeff Bezos..
Despite what the NYT seem to think, there's no evidence we were mislead about origins of COVID, & #lableak narratives remain unevidenced, underwhelming conjecture - but the abuse of scientists is very real, as I write in
@irishtimes.com today:
www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...
@irishtimes.com today:
www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...
March 27, 2025 at 8:25 AM
Despite what the NYT seem to think, there's no evidence we were mislead about origins of COVID, & #lableak narratives remain unevidenced, underwhelming conjecture - but the abuse of scientists is very real, as I write in
@irishtimes.com today:
www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...
@irishtimes.com today:
www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...
Why people people fall for conspiracy theories, and how do we get people out of them? Spoke to @johnyangtv.bsky.social on @pbs.org about this, and why discussion is always better than debate when it comes to getting people out of rabbit holes..
www.youtube.com/watch?v=esaV...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=esaV...
March 26, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Why people people fall for conspiracy theories, and how do we get people out of them? Spoke to @johnyangtv.bsky.social on @pbs.org about this, and why discussion is always better than debate when it comes to getting people out of rabbit holes..
www.youtube.com/watch?v=esaV...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=esaV...
Either Trump's Whitehouse dont understand how statistics work or Americans are illegally crossing en masse into Mexico & Canada now.. 🙃
March 11, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Either Trump's Whitehouse dont understand how statistics work or Americans are illegally crossing en masse into Mexico & Canada now.. 🙃
For once, RFK Jr entirely correct. Shame he's spent years pushing, funding, & profiteering from antivaccine propaganda and conspiracy theories that have led to this deadly renaissance of a disease declared eliminated in the USA over two decades ago..
March 3, 2025 at 8:17 AM
For once, RFK Jr entirely correct. Shame he's spent years pushing, funding, & profiteering from antivaccine propaganda and conspiracy theories that have led to this deadly renaissance of a disease declared eliminated in the USA over two decades ago..
RFK Jr senate questioning showcases his breath-taking mendacity. Half-cocked conspiracy theorist, major pusher of antivaccine propaganda who profits massively off it, & perversely unsuited to oversee health policy. Voting for him is unconscionable if you cares about public well-being..
January 30, 2025 at 9:57 AM
RFK Jr senate questioning showcases his breath-taking mendacity. Half-cocked conspiracy theorist, major pusher of antivaccine propaganda who profits massively off it, & perversely unsuited to oversee health policy. Voting for him is unconscionable if you cares about public well-being..
High profile papers claiming to have found harms in COVID mRNA and HPV vaccines clinical trials are likely erroneous - in new paper, I look at how if you start with a conclusion, you can torture false confessions with dodgy statistical choices..
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
December 27, 2024 at 9:12 AM
High profile papers claiming to have found harms in COVID mRNA and HPV vaccines clinical trials are likely erroneous - in new paper, I look at how if you start with a conclusion, you can torture false confessions with dodgy statistical choices..
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
"Make America Healthy Again" influencers would rather ascribe all their systemic problems to food-dye & WiFi than risk learning anything about the socioeconomic determinants of health or the basic tenets of evidence-based medicine..
December 3, 2024 at 10:00 AM
"Make America Healthy Again" influencers would rather ascribe all their systemic problems to food-dye & WiFi than risk learning anything about the socioeconomic determinants of health or the basic tenets of evidence-based medicine..