Dr Justus Apffelstaedt: WHO alarmism, alcohol science and the lamppost problem
Wine Mag | 22.01.2026 11:00
In 2018, a much-quoted research paper on alcohol burden appeared in one of the most influential medical journals, The Lancet. It formed the basis of the WHO’s rather alarmist statement that there is “no safe level of alcohol use”. The research was performed by an independent population health research organization based at the University of Washington School of Medicine, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) as part of the Global Burden of Disease study which is regularly updated and informs health policy world-wide. Eight authors are listed, but the list of collaborators and their affiliations is several pages long.
