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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

Congress is back in session, and sneaking the cruel sham that is right-to-try in a must-pass bill Is on the agenda

Ill-advised right-to-try bills are spreading like kudzu through state legislatures. Now federal legislators want to insert right-to-try language into the bill that funds FDA drug approval. Given the support of powerful Republicans for right-to-try, is it too late to stop this juggernaut and protect patients?

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Antivaccine nonsense Cancer Clinical trials Politics Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Federal biomedical science policy under Donald Trump, nearly 100 days in

In less than two weeks, the Trump administration will have passed that magical “first 100 days” marker. Let’s check in and see how Donald Trump is shaping federal biomedical policy thus far. Hint: It’s deregulation über alles.

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Biology Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Popular culture Skepticism/critical thinking

Saunas and longevity: Another example of putting the preclinical cart before the horse

Dr. Sara Gottfried, MD, wants you to know she is a doctor. She also wants you to know that you can “reset” your hormones and genes with food and saunas. In the case of the saunas, she’s put the preclinical cart before the clinical horse and extrapolated animal and early molecular epidemiological data off of a cliff.

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Antivaccine nonsense Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Hallelujah! The mainstream press finally notices quackademic medicine!

I’ve been writing a long time about a phenomenon that I like to refer to as “quackademic medicine,” defined as the infiltration into academic medical centers and medical school of unscientific and pseudoscientific treatment modalities that are unproven or disproven. Few seem to listen. That’s why it’s reassuring to see a mainstream news publication get it (mostly) right about this phenomenon.

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Cancer Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

As feared, Houston cancer quack Stanislaw Burzynski (mostly) slithers away from justice again

I’ve been blogging fairly regularly about Houston cancer quack Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski since 2011, and now the story is over…sort of. Unfortunately, as you will see, the ending is far from ideal. It is, however, somewhat better than I had feared it might be. What I’m referring to, of course, is the final ruling of […]