Vinay Prasad

Portland

Writer at Sensible Medicine Newsletter

Writer at Vinay Prasad's Observations and Thoughts

These posts were issued before my FDA employment and do not necessarily represent the views of the FDA or the United States. The account is now inactive.

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Articles

How Not to Get Fooled by the Medical Literature - Part 3 : Bad Observational Epi & a Flawed Randomized Trial

1 week ago | sensible-med.com | Vinay Prasad |Adam Cifu |John Mandrola

The most common question we get asked is: is there a course on how to become better at critically reading medical research. Here it is!This is the third of 9 videos that we recorded as part of a course on clinical appraisal, and there will be many more to come. This and future videos will be made available as a thank you to paid subscribers.
Ask Us Anything

3 weeks ago | sensible-med.com | Vinay Prasad |Adam Cifu |John Mandrola

This is a long one! 83 minutes. This is the second podcast in which we answer questions from a our “ask us anything” post. We recorded this one before our most recent podcast — kind of like Abbey Road and Let it Be — so we were still graced by Vinay’s presence. In fact, we recorded it in his studio. We still have about a half dozen questions to answer; we will cover those on an upcoming podcast. Enjoy.
How Not to Get Fooled by the Medical Literature - Part 2: Observational Studies

3 weeks ago | sensible-med.com | Vinay Prasad |Adam Cifu |John Mandrola

The most common question we get asked is: is there a course on how to become better at critically reading medical research. Here it is!This is the second of 9 videos that we recorded as part of a course on clinical appraisal, and there will be many more to come. This and future videos will be made available as a thank you to paid subscribers.
The Perfect Film

1 month ago | drvinayprasad.com | Vinay Prasad

Every scene of Wim Wenders Perfect Days (2023) is art. The framing, composition and light. The screen print interludes in black and white. And, of course, the stunning performance of the lead actor. The film depicts two weeks in the life of Hirayama, a toilet cleaner in Tokyo, who indeed lives Perfect Days. Koji Yakusho’s near silent performance is deserving of all the accolades it has received and more.
A users guide to the media coverage of health and science in 2025

1 month ago | drvinayprasad.com | Vinay Prasad

The media coverage of science and medicine has hit rock bottom. As one person puts it. Here are my tips for how to read news stories in the era of biased and weak reporting. Step 1. Fact check the source material. If you read an article that says Jay Bhattacharya supported the use of Ivermectin, locate the raw video or audio. You will find the article is factually wrong. Jay supported conducting randomized trials of ivermectin.
How Not to Get Fooled by the Medical Literature - Part 1 - Course Introduction

1 month ago | sensible-med.com | Vinay Prasad |Adam Cifu |John Mandrola

The most common question we get asked is: is there a course on how to become better at critically reading medical research. Well, now there is!This is the first of 9 videos that we recorded as part of a course on clinical appraisal, and there will be many more to come. We call our class: How Not to Get Fooled by the Medical Literature. These are topics that each of us teaches separately, but, here, for the first time, we teach them together, and the whole is more than the sum of the parts.
5 reasons why the COVID-19 vaccine needs clinical trials before approval

1 month ago | drvinayprasad.com | Vinay Prasad

I couldn’t help but notice that the mainstream media is upset that going forward the fall COVID 19 booster might require randomized trials measuring clinical endpoints, rather than allowing Peter Marks to pick a variant target (based on an analogy to him buying milk) and then generate antibodies against the target. Helen Branswell from Stat, however, says that trials are not feasible. Is this true? Here are 5 reasons why COVID-19 shots should require trials.
Kennedy might pull the COVID shot for kids: Good!!!

1 month ago | drvinayprasad.com | Vinay Prasad

The media coverage of changes around COVID-19 vaccination speaks poorly of the media. First make no mistake: the CDC should ABSOLUTELY remove COVID-19 from the Childhood Immunization schedule. It if stays, it shows the United States is a corrupt country: because there is no randomized evidence that kids ever benefit (in terms of real clinical outcomes) from this shot, and no evidence of any sort that a kid born today will need one in the future, and this shot earns some companies money.
Ask Us Anything: Chapter 2

1 month ago | sensible-med.com | Adam Cifu |Vinay Prasad |John Mandrola

In the coming weeks Vinay, John, and I (Adam) will be getting together in person. We are meeting to work on what we think will be some really valuable Sensible Medicine content. Since we will have some time together, we thought it would be a good time to gather some more questions to answer. Same rules as last time: the comments are open to all paid subscribers to pose questions. Ask anything and we promise to take a swing at any and all questions. Photo Credit: Ilkka Kärkkäinen
When Democrat presidents want universities to do something, they just call and ask

1 month ago | drvinayprasad.com | Vinay Prasad

There is no rule that says universities have to accept public funds and some do not. But, if you accept public funding, then the federal government can make you do things. Those can be big things like title IX, but also small things. There are dozens of federal rules that must be met to receive funds. I am told some of the stupid annual modules I do are to sate these rules. The Trump administration wants universities to do some things. Ban masks so protesters can be identified.