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Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Quackery Television

The Great and Powerful Dr. Oz: Humbled by Senator Claire McCaskill

I almost feel sorry for “America’s Quack,” Dr. Mehmet Oz. Well, not really. Remember last week when I took note of an upcoming Senate hearing, specifically a hearing on weight loss scams in front of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance, which is chaired by Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO). At the time, […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. parties like it’s 1999 over thimerosal and autism

It was just over a year ago that I had my last bit to say about a man who can arguably called the antivaccine activist who gave Orac his start. I’m referring, of course, to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Indeed, my first deconstruction of the nonsense about vaccines that Kennedy laid down in 2005 in […]

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Biology Complementary and alternative medicine Evolution Intelligent design/creationism Medicine Paranormal Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Deepak Chopra issues a hilarious “challenge” to James Randi over consciousness

Deepak Chopra isn’t very happy right now. In fact, he appears downright pissed off right now, particularly at skeptics, so much so that he’s issued a hilariously fatuous “challenge” to James Randi (a.k.a.) The Amazing Randi on You Tube entitled Deepak Chopra’s One Million Dollar Challenge to Skeptics: Yes, apparently with The Amazing Meeting (a.k.a. […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Back to the future with the healing energy of reiki

Over the last two days, both Mark Crislip and Jann Bellamy wrote great pieces over at Science-Based Medicine about reiki. In particular, Jann Bellamy discussed reiki starting with an example that I’ve been citing in my talks about the infiltration of quackademic medicine into medical academia for at least four or five years now: The […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Tactics and tropes of the antivaccine movement (2014 edition)

With very few exceptions, antivaccinationists labor under the delusion that they are not antivaccine. The reason is simple. Deep down, at some level, even the most dedicated antivaccine advocate knows that society quite rightly views it as a bad thing to be against a preventative intervention that has arguably saved more lives than any other […]