The Reality Check Episode 40

Children's Cold Medicine + Ad Hominem + Pool Urine Dye

Part 1: 

The controversy around cold old medicine for children, because there were a few reports that came out that said these cold medicines don't work at all. 

Cough and cold products have been sold for decades, and there wasn't much proof needed before. Consequently, the studies that support these medicines are generally of poor quality. So, when you look at these studies, you can see the studies of children is much worse than the studies of adults. 

There are several products of course that are completely safe. Which are: 

Antihistamines: Which is a treatment for a lot of allergies. They don't really have effects on colds though. 

Sudafed: They are said to cure running noses by opening up air ways. 

There are a lot more of course, but I'll just list these, because I just don't know how to spell the others.

Of course, reports showed that there is no evidence at all that these medications work on children under 12. There are also side effects as well we have to be careful about. 

Part 2:

What is Ad Hominem? It came from the Latin term: to the man. It is also known as argumentum ad hominem, is an attempt to link the validity of a premise to a characteristic or belief of the person advocating the premise. The ad hominem is a classic logical fallacy. The ad hominem is not always fallacious, for in some instances questions of personal conduct, character, motives, etc., are legitimate and relevant to the issue. It's not just a personal attack, it's a personal attack in response to an argument. 

There are many different types of ad hominems:

1: Ad hominem abuse: usually involves insulting or belittling one's opponent in order to invalidate his or her argument, but can also involve pointing out factual but ostensible character flaws or actions which are irrelevant to the opponent's argument.

2: Ad hominem circumstantial: This just points out that someone is in circumstances such that he is disposed to take a particular position. 

Science Myth of the Week:

Will the special pool dye turn urine red? Is this true?

This simply just doesn't exist, but of course the concept is possible, but we don't have such chemicals in the pool now. 

So, where does this myth comes from?

It probably just came from someone who didn't want the kids to pee in the pool.