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Autism Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

The facilitated communication empire strikes back over the Midwest Summer Institute

Earlier this week, the University of Northern Iowa faced severe criticism for hosting the Midwest Summer Institute, a conference on facilitated communication. Yesterday, FC advocates struck back.

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Autism Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Television

The University of Northern Iowa promotes facilitated communication quackery

The University of Northern Iowa is hosting a conference on facilitated communication, despite multiple warnings from academics that it’s quackery and overwhelming evidence that it is the “facilitators” who are actually producing the claimed “communication” from nonverbal people and a history of producing false cases of child abuse. Why is UNI being so dangerously irresponsible?

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Cancer Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

A dumpster fire of a study about HPV vaccination and female fertility, courtesy of Gayle Delong

Gayle Delong is an economist who thinks she’s an epidemiologist. Consistent with that delusion, her latest study of HPV vaccination is all amateurs hour, in which she misses a major potential confounder on her way to “proving” that HPV vaccination could be associated with decreased fertility in young women.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Religion

Michigan Senate Bill 1055: Antivaccine fear mongering masquerading as “informed consent” about “fetal parts” in vaccines

Antivaxers frequently try to appeal to antiabortion activists by claiming “fetal parts” are used in vaccines. In Michigan, they’re trying to enshrine such deceptive efforts into law in Michigan Senate Bill 1055, which would mandate “informed consent” regarding vaccines for which fetal cell lines are used to grow the virus. In reality, this would be misinformed consent and a strategy to frighten parents out of vaccinating.

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Bad science Bioethics Medicine Politics Popular culture Quackery

The cruel sham that is federal right-to-try has passed. Let patients beware!

“Right-to-try” laws are a cruel sham that purport to allow terminally ill patients access to promising experimental drugs. In reality, they strip away many protections and leave vulnerable patients on their own. After four years and a number of toothless state laws, a federal version of “right-to-try” has passed Congress and is poised to become law. Once President Trump signs the bill this week, this federal version of “right-to-try” will leave terminally ill patients on their own and will likely be the first step in returning the FDA to its pre-thalidomide state, in which it only required evidence of safety, not efficacy, to approve drugs.