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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

One more example of the price of refusing science-based cancer therapy

Another year, another Breast Cancer Awareness Month. While most people who have either been touched by breast cancer or who have a professional interest in it, the significance of Breast Cancer Awareness Month is that it is a time, well, to increase awareness and to promote breast cancer research. There is another side to Breast […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Why it’s not a good idea to respond to cranks, quacks, or pseudoscientists

One of the hazards of standing up for science and science-based medicine (and against cranks) is that some of these cranks will try to contact you at work. That’s why I have a policy about blog-related e-mails sent to me work address, and that policy is that I usually ignore them, whereas I might actually […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Using the lie that shaken baby syndrome is a misdiagnosis for vaccine injury to try to exonerate another accused child abuser (one last word)

On Friday, I wrote about the sort of case that outrages me every bit as much as cases of cancer quackery that lead to the death of patients. I’m referring to the case of Amanda Sadowsky, a four month old infant who died after suffering traumatic brain injuries that appeared consistent with shaken baby syndrome […]

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Medicine Surgery

Science-based medicine and what patients want

I’ve frequently discussed the difference between what has come to be known as “evidence-based medicine” (EBM) and “science-based medicine” (SBM). Basically, SBM is EBM in which prior probability and plausibility of proposed medical and surgical therapies are considered along with clinical trial evidence. I don’t plan on getting into that specific issue in detail right […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Popular culture

“Genetically modified” vaccines and GMOs: Sapping and impurifying all our precious bodily fluids?

About a week ago, I wrote one of my usual meandering posts in which I pointed out the similarities between two different anti-science movements. On the one hand, there are anti-vaccinationists, who fetishize the naturalistic fallacy (i.e., the belief that anything “natural” is better and that anything human made or altered by science is dangerous) […]