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Dr David Robert Grimes

@drg.bsky.social
2.8K followers 212 following 235 posts

Cancer researcher, physicist, scoundrel. Author (#TheIrrationalApe / #GoodThinking). Science, Medicine, Foppish hair. Alt socials: linktr.ee/drg1985

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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Self-described healer Barbara O'Neill is banned from giving health advice in her native Australia, but is booked for lucrative events in UK & Ireland next month. Health misinformation kills: we've written to venues elucidating why O'Neill's health fictions harm vulnerable patients ⏬
Letter to venue page 1letter to venue page 2
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Gentle reminder: unless medically directed, you don't need supplements. They are foodstuffs, not medicines, and are cheap - a month's supply of collagen is ~1 euro wholesale. So how are some Irish doctors justifying charging €250 quid A MONTH for them? That's a good bloody question.. a short🧵..
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
As a misinformation researcher, I wish people understood this part better: Disinformation has outsized impact on low information voters with poor media literacy, disinformation is well-funded, social media companies complicit www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...
theguardian.com
Iceland rejects EU accession talks after divisive referendum campaign
Well-funded no camp prevails, winning 52.8% of votes and gaining plaudits from Eurosceptic figures across Europe
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Dolly Parton has died at 80. An incredibly talented woman who didn't only give us music, but funded entire libraries and even vaccine research. Her empathy for her fellow humans is an incredible legacy - one conspicuously absent in tech billionaires.. www.theguardian.com/music/2026/a...
theguardian.com
Dolly Parton, country star, actor and philanthropist, dies aged 80
Songwriter of I Will Always Love You, Jolene and 9 to 5 also invested millions in child literacy, Covid-19 vaccine development and other causes
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
The tragic death of Jason Arday is an awful story. There's been much (often nasty) commentary on Arday's scholarship, with UK redtops pretending now to be concerned bastions of research integrity. Utter nonsense: misconduct in academia is EXTREMELY common, and media rarely cares. Let's review 🧵
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Saskia Mostert this year insinuated to US Senate COVID vaccine harms were being suppressed, citing her paper on excess deaths. That paper has just been retracted, over 2 years since Ariel Karlinsky, @gorskon.bsky.social , myself & others raised alarm it was bad retractionwatch.com/2026/08/11/b...
retractionwatch.com
BMJ Group retracts paper on COVID-19 vaccines and mortality featured in Senate hearing
BMJ Public Health has retracted a paper some — including a witness at a recent U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing — have used to link COVID-19 vaccines to deaths. The action comes more than two years…
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
That a dedicated public servant like Anthony Fauci is before a kangaroo court for doing his job is damning indictment of American politics. Lab leak remains a deeply stupid narrative, beloved of the worst people.. www.instagram.com/reel/DbnGj46...
instagram.com
Instagram
Create an account or log in to Instagram - Share what you're into with the people who get you.
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
As someone who has been targeted both academically and personally by obsessive fringe groups for my academic work and also as someone who investigates scientific integrity concerns, the Jason Arday case is wild.. www.theguardian.com/education/ng...
theguardian.com
Playbooks, plagiarism and a pig’s head: new claims surrounding a star Cambridge professor
Jason Arday was regarded as an academic superstar, but then questions about his work prompted scrutiny of his backstory and counterclaims of racism
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Anthony Fauci is a national hero. Rand Paul is an international embarrassment. It is bizarre to watch a halfwit kangaroo court in real time, do Republicans think history will look favourably on this pathetic fixation? www.nytimes.com/live/2026/07...
nytimes.com
Trump Administration Live Updates: Fauci Pleads Fifth in Senate Hearing on Covid Origins (Gift Article)
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Very sad to hear about tragic death of Glen Hansard. Aside from undeniable musical talent, I've a nice story about his thoughtfulness. In 2017, an anti-fluoride activist got hosts of Irish artistists from Christy Moore to Mary Black to sign a letter demanding the government cease fluoridisation..
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Reposted by Dr David Robert Grimes
Stephan Lewandowsky @lewan.uk · 06/07/2026
1️⃣ 🧵 Our written evidence “Misinformation about childhood vaccinations: evidence & interventions” for UK House of Lords Childhood Vaccinations Committee is now public—led by Sander van der Linden with Kai Ruggeri, @drg.bsky.social, Heidi Larson, Thom & Jon Roozenbeek and me 1/10
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
Donald Trump forcing medical scientists to pander to the half-thought out whims of one time UFC commentator Joe Rogan is a pretty damning indictment of where we are. When future historians write about this period of the idiocracy, the role of halfwit podcasters will be subject of many PhDs..
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
Academics, anyone else noticed a decline in basic editorial standards at major journals? Just had one reject an already accepted manuscript for "duplicated references", turned out to be an AI hallucination in their proofing software. Another asked me review a manuscript I'm author on..
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Finally happened; bike nicked in Dublin 🤨 On Jervis St, under 2 CCTV cams. If anyone sees a suspicious Decathlon 500 folding bike offered for sale, let me know..
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
I didn't think much that RFK Jr does could shock me anymore, but it's difficult to overstate how unethical this is. This isn't a trial, it's a piece of antivaccine theatre that will cause severe harm, and everyone involved is contemptible. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Experts fear ‘unethical’ vaccine trial in Africa is ‘prototype’ for US studies under RFK Jr
Danish researchers whose work on effects of vaccines has been called into question are at center of US vaccine policy
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Uh oh. This appears to be an old moral panic reanimated by modern technology - I've written extensively on "satanic panic" and how leading questions led to false memories of abuse in suggestive populations that never happened. ChatGPT is that on steroids... www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
ChatGPT driving rise in reports of ‘satanic’ organised and ritual abuse, UK experts say
Exclusive: ‘Witchcraft, spirit possession and spiritual abuse’ offending typified by sexual abuse, violence and neglect
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
Elon Musk's content indistinguishable from that of white supremists, surprising no one. Is there a fundamental law that requires those pathetic enough to assert ostensible racial superiority be the most underwhelming specimens imaginable? www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
Elon Musk posted about race almost every day in January
Many social media posts by Tesla CEO on his platform are indiscernible from those of white supremacists, say experts
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Reposted by Dr David Robert Grimes
Timothy Caulfield @caulfieldtim.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Prasad overruled FDA staff to reject Moderna’s flu vaccine application www.statnews.com/2026/02/11/m... via @statnews.com "Vaccine skepticism is emanating into FDA from the top, as health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a known vaccine critic [read: antivaxx zealot]."
statnews.com
Prasad overruled FDA staff to reject Moderna's flu vaccine application
The rejection is the latest instance of Vinay Prasad overruling career FDA scientists to place vaccines under harsher scrutiny.
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Ivermectin is an article of faith in the MAHA gospel, and one of their defining characteristics is deep antipathy towards vaccination. The lauding of ivermectin began in part as an "alternative" to vaccination - this & Moderna rejection are sheer regulatory capture 😐
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
The fact that this comes hours after approval of an "Ivermectin for cancer" trial is a damning indictment of the ideological capture the worst people from the pandemic now have over health in the USA...
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 25/12/2025
Whoever does Santa's logistics is the final boss of the Travelling Salesman Problem
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
This is pathetic by the University of Oklahoma; If you acquiesce like this to obvious hard-right grifters, they will be emboldened to erode things further. Popper's paradox of tolerance strikes again, institutions cannot make the mistake of trying to entertain those who exist to undermine them..
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
The FDA made this assertion without releasing an iota of data to support it or uttering a word about risk-benefit. This is what science by press release looks like, a damning indictment of the ideological capture RFK Jr has enforced www.nytimes.com/2025/11/28/h...
nytimes.com
F.D.A. Attributes 10 Children’s Deaths to Covid Vaccines
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
Happy Thanksgiving for those who celebrate. The perfect opportunity to remember the 1997 Macy's parade, when Barney the dinosaur committed public seppuku and the Cat in the Hat put someone into a Coma.. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Ma...
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
Who the hell was stupid enough to think that giving Robert F Kennedy power over medical scientists would make him listen to them? No - mendacious idealouges like him always abuse that power to force their lies on everyone else. We fucking told you so www.reuters.com/business/hea...
reuters.com
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Hard-right love "Ireland being overrun" narrative on immigration. But as @fotoole13.bsky.social notes, actual numbers small: here's log-plot of raw inward migration [2024-2025] in terms of Croke Park. As @csoireland.bsky.social explain, net immigration falling too.. t.co/lxq09kU7XU
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
"Make America Healthy Again" will make not only America but the entire world sicker. RJK Jr and the MAGA movement are modern Lysenkoists, and the consequences of their anti-science agenda will be severe, as I write in @emboreports.org www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
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...
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
Seems everyone has a James Watson story. I met him when I was 27 in Oxford and he told me to fuck off after a joke at his expense, which admittedly I half deserved 🫠 www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
theguardian.com
James D Watson, who co-discovered DNA’s twisted-ladder structure, dies aged 97
Nobel prize winner shaped medicine, crimefighting and genealogy, but later years marred by racist remarks
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
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...
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
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...
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 26/10/2025
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..
Extract from byline time piece
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
Funny how the reprobates assaulting Garda in #Citywest get so worked up when they think an immigrant may have committed a crime, but don't give a damn otherwise. All this is just a figleaf for the worst people to pretend their racism is justified, or even laudable
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Bizarre in a "free speech" country - that Kirk veered into conspiracy theory & religious cryptofascism is matter of public record. Going after people for this is like the apocryphal words of Galileo after his conviction for heresy "..and yet it moves.." edition.cnn.com/2025/10/14/p...
edition.cnn.com
State Department says it has revoked visas from people who allegedly ‘celebrated’ Charlie Kirk’s murder | CNN Politics
The US State Department said it has revoked visas from at least six individuals who allegedly “celebrated” Charlie Kirk’s murder.
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
Disappointing to see Joe Wicks fearmongering about ultra-processed foods. Aside from fact that data on UPFs is inherently confounded & often reflects things like poverty (an actual killer), this reel by Joshua Hill explains why such nonsense is so deeply harmful www.instagram.com/reel/DPUGquB...
instagram.com
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Reposted by Dr David Robert Grimes
Jack El-Hai @jackelhai.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
"Widespread and on the rise." Today's article pick from Damn History, a free monthly newsletter for readers/writers of #popularhistory. Congrats to writer @drg.bsky.social! Read/subscribe to Damn History: damn-history-16d93f.beehiiv.com/subscribe www.bbc.com/future/artic...
bbc.com
The strange history of the anti-vaccine movement
Vaccine scepticism may seem like a new, growing movement. It’s probably a lot older than you think.
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
Do not mistake this as benign - breaking up MMR into separate shots is inherently antivaccine, as it promotes myth of "vaccine overload" & makes it much more unlikely people will get their children vaccinated. Also, single vaccines aren't available in USA! www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
nbcnews.com
Acting CDC director calls to 'break up' the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine into three shots
Individual vaccines for each virus aren't available in the U.S., and no published scientific evidence shows a benefit to separating the combined vaccine.
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Reposted by Dr David Robert Grimes
Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
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..🧵
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
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..🧵
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Reposted by Dr David Robert Grimes
Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
If you're a clinician or researcher in Ireland feeling a little overwhelmed by statistics, join myself & @cathalwalsh.bsky.social on 11th October in SJH for a 6-credit CPD Essential Medical Statistics, where we'll demystify things together. Tickets here! www.eventbrite.ie/e/essential-...
eventbrite.ie
Essential Medical Statistics and Evidence Appraisal
Learn how to interpret and apply essential medical statistics and evidence in a practical and engaging way at our upcoming event!
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
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...
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Just published: Influencers peddle expensive wares with "proven" benefits, but research quality of red & blue light therapy for skin conditions is terrible, utterly inconsistent, & biologically dubious.. journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
journals.plos.org
Methodological issues in visible LED therapy dermatological research and reporting
Background The advent of mass-market Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) has seen considerable interest in potential dermatological applications of LED light photobiomodulation (PBM) for a range of condition...
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
If you're a clinician or researcher in Ireland feeling a little overwhelmed by statistics, join myself & @cathalwalsh.bsky.social on 11th October in SJH for a 6-credit CPD Essential Medical Statistics, where we'll demystify things together. Tickets here! www.eventbrite.ie/e/essential-...
eventbrite.ie
Essential Medical Statistics and Evidence Appraisal
Learn how to interpret and apply essential medical statistics and evidence in a practical and engaging way at our upcoming event!
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
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..
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
Impressive degree of mendacity to try insist on a Tylenol autism link, given its flatly contradicted by better data, like this study of >2 million Danish kids. There's a grim history of false "causes" for autism, a dogwhistle RFK Jr & Trump blowing.. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
jamanetwork.com
Acetaminophen Use During Pregnancy and Children’s Risk of Autism, ADHD, and Intellectual Disability
This nationwide cohort study with sibling control analysis examines the association of acetaminophen use during pregnancy with children’s risk of autism, ADHD, and intellectual disability.
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
Prediction: After today's announcement, Leucovorin will become the new ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine - an effective drug for one indication forced without evidence onto another condition for which it has no efficacy, ultimately causing harm...
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
Danny Healy Rae's statements about autism today have prompted understandable anger from autism support groups. Rather than stick a boot in, it's worth unpacking his misconceptions because I hear them from parents all the time.. a short thread 🧵 www.thejournal.ie/danny-healy-...
thejournal.ie
TDs write to Ceann Comhairle to ask that Danny Healy Rae withdraw remarks about autism
The comments from Healy Rae have also been criticised as “unhelpful” and “misinformed” by the autism charity AsIAm.
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Reposted by Dr David Robert Grimes
Retraction Watch @retractionwatch.com · 17/09/2025
Why has this microRNA review paper been cited more than 2,000 times? Our Sleuth in Residence @drg.bsky.social digs in
retractionwatch.com
Why has this microRNA review paper been cited more than 2,000 times?
Earlier this year, Marc Halushka, a pathologist at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio,  came across a review titled simply “MicroRNA,” an unusually short title in a big field. Looking deeper into the re…
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
Last week @gorskon.bsky.social worried Charlie Kirk may become the Horst Wessel of MAGA, a propaganda tool to go after opponents. Seems today that JD Vance confirms it. Straight out of autocratic regime playbook, and completely at odds with first ammendment... www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
theguardian.com
JD Vance threatens crackdown on ‘far-left’ groups after Charlie Kirk shooting
Vice-president says White House will pursue those who praise Kirk’s death and groups that ‘promote terrorism’
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