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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine

David Kirby’s “logic”: The hepatitis B vaccine may increase the risk of multiple sclerosis, so it’s obvious that vaccines cause autism

It’s really hard to take David Kirby seriously any more. Well, actually, it’s been hard to take him seriously for at nearly four years now, ever since he wrote his paean to antivaccinationists, Evidence of Harm, in which no conspiracy-mongering related to mercury as an alleged cause of autism was too out there, too ridiculous, […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

And I thought I was exaggerating when I discussed “battlefield” acupuncture

Ten months ago, I thought I was joking. I really did. Regular readers may (or may not) remember back in March, when, in one of my usual flights of fancy, I decided that I could write a short fictional interlude, a combat scene. True, I didn’t do it because I wanted actually to write a […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

Dr. Jay Gordon: Get away from my alma mater!

I’m pretty sure that I’ve mentioned this before at least a couple of times, but I am an alumnus of the University of Michigan twice over. I completed a B.S. in Chemistry with Honors there and then I stayed on to do obtain my M.D. Several of my longtime friendships were forged or solidified during […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Humor Medicine Music Paranormal Pseudoscience Quackery Religion Skepticism/critical thinking

Tim Minchin on confronting alternative medicine, postmodernism, and the paranormal

I love Tim Minchin. I also totally understand where he’s coming from when it comes to confronting woo, though, as I’ve described here. In any case, see Tim in action (parts may be NSFW due to profanity): Enjoy, as I’m running a bit late in producing my usual content for Monday. Fear not, it’s coming […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Humor Medicine

Should I go to this “medical” conference? Or, sometimes the universe laughs at me.

Sometimes, coincidence is a strange thing indeed. Friday, I wrote this post about yet another meta-analysis whose results are completely consistent with acupuncture being nothing more than an elaborate placebo. Later that day, less than four hours after my post went live, I received this e-mail sent, not to my work account or my other […]