Viral BS: Medical Myths and Why We Fall for Them

This book goes into some of the most notable and notorious and sometimes falsely innocuous myths in medicine and popular pseudoscience. From vaccines scares to cancer fear-mongering, author Seema Yasmin (a doctor, professor, and CDC disease detective) reveals the many hoaxes that many people around the globe have fallen to. Health misinformation is at an all time high, with many thanks to the internet and the speed by which information gets transmitted. The chapters inside are meant to be accessible and each cover a myth, ranging from longtime falsities to more recent headlining hoaxes. Ultimately, this book is meant to inform the readers on the health misinformation that they may have encountered but also encourages how to be more discerning of information that comes our way—featuring what the book calls a BS Detection Kit.