Opinion | ‘It’s Total Charlatanism’: What We Heard This Week

“It’s total charlatanism.” — Thomas Albini, MD, of the University of Miami in Florida, discussing eye injuries from unproven stem cell treatments claiming to treat eye and neurological conditions.

“To see something like this in my lifetime is pretty impressive.” — Carel Le Roux, PhD, of University College Dublin in Ireland, on how investigational retatrutide induced the biggest weight loss yet recorded in an obesity trial.

“There is a non-small percentage of people who absolutely, really feel horrible on these medications.” — Jody Dushay, MD, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, explaining side effects of semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy).

“Why wouldn’t MS severity be affected by genetic factors?” — Gavin Giovannoni, MBBCh, PhD, of Queen Mary University of London in England, about the discovery of the first genetic variant associated with faster disease progression in multiple sclerosis.

“I have been doing cardiovascular trials for 30 years, and I can tell you we have never seen a hazard ratio as favorable as this.” — Steven Nissen, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, on the effect of bempedoic acid (Nexletol) cardiovascular events in high-risk, statin-intolerant patients.

“We’ve seen this before.” — David Sullivan Jr., MD, of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute in Baltimore, on locally acquired malaria cases reported in the U.S.

“If you look who is the closest friend of the gut, that’s the liver.” — Aleksander Krag, MD, PhD, MBA, of Odense University Hospital in Denmark, discussing fecal microbiota transplants in patients with cirrhosis.

“The average doctor is not really much affected by the changes that are hitting Twitter.” — Greg Matthews, CEO of HealthQuant, on physicians using Twitter after Elon Musk purchased the platform.

“So far, it’s nothing that we’ve seen to [be the] cause for concern or alarm.” — Kelly Oakeson, PhD, of the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, on the newest COVID variants hitting the U.S.