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Bioethics Medicine Science

Steven Best and “Negotiation Is Over”: Closer than Best wants you to know

I’ve made no secret of my opinion of the animal rights movement, in particular Jerry Vlasak, a trauma surgeon who has openly advocated the murder of researchers who use animals while–wink, wink, nudge, nudge–denying that he’s advocating anything. Another animal rights activist who is equally despicable is Stephen Best, who is affiliated with the even […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine

A lesson in communicating vaccine science to the public

After yesterday’s video and the video from the day before demonstrating just what “antivaccine” means, I thought you’d all need a little something to cleanse the palate after having swallowed so much crazy. Fortunately, Paul Offit provides just the thing, a lecture at the NIH in which he discusses on vaccines and how to educate […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

One more lesson on what “antivaccine” means

Yesterday, I discussed the meaning of the word “antivaccine,” using the example of Dr. Suzanne Humphries, an MD-turned-homeopath, as an example of why I refer to people like Humphries as “antivaccine.” She really laid down the crazy, too, repeatedly calling vaccines the injection of “disease matter” and “unnatural,” while piling conspiracy theory on top of […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine

Quoth Dr. Suzanne Humphries: Vaccines are “disease matter”

Every so often, someone will take a great deal of umbrage at my use of the term “antivaccine.” The assumption behind criticism directed at me (and others) when we use such terms is that we throw the term about without a care, using it as a weapon unjustly and incorrectly to smear parents who are […]

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Cancer Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

Dr. Burzynski and the cult of personality of the “brave maverick cancer doctor”

I thought I’d be leaving the topic of Dr. Stanislaw Burzysnki and his combination of Personalized Cancer Therapy for Dummies-level “personalized, gene-targeted cancer therapy” coupled with his “cancer-curing” antineoplastons, which have morphed into an orphan HDAC inhibitor used off-label as part of his pricey everything-but-the-kitchen-sink” combination of targeted therapies and old-fashioned chemotherapy. After all I […]