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Bioethics Cancer Medicine

Doctors avoiding their duty to terminally ill patients

She was thin, white skin stretched over bones like worn parchment over old sticks being rhythmically blown in the wind as her chest rose and fell, each time with what seemed like a major effort. Incongruous with the rest of her body, her abdomen was distended, a balloon that looked dangerously close to popping, also […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

One last time: The latest Geier & Geier paper is not evidence that thimerosal causes autism, part 2

The other day, in response to several e-mails asking me about the latest bit of bad science and epidemiology purporting to support the idea that mercury in the thimerosal preservative that used to be in many childhood vaccines is a major cause of autism, I posted links to EpiWonk’s thee-part (so far) takedown of this […]

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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Naturopathy

Giving credit where credit is due to naturopaths…

…is one of my favorite surgeon-bloggers Sid Schwab when he discusses what happens when naturopaths actually subject their “healing art” to scientific examination. In the wake of the rather–shall we say–vigorous discussion that ensued after my post last week about the recently passed law in the State of Minnesota to license and regulate naturopaths, today […]

Categories
Autism Medicine Paranormal Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

Good for a giggle on a Sunday afternoon: The cause of autism explained

John Le Sainte apparently has a rather inflated view of himself. You see, he seems to think that he’s the heir to Nostradamus. Ever worth a giggle on a Sunday afternoon (or any other time, for that matter), he seems to think that, channeling Nostradamus in some fashion, he’s predicted what will be discovered to […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

One last time: The latest Geier & Geier paper is not evidence that thimerosal causes autism

Several people have been sending me either links to this paper or even the paper itself: Young HA, Geier DA, Geier MR. (2008). Thimerosal exposure in infants and neurodevelopmental disorders: An assessment of computerized medical records in the Vaccine Safety Datalink. J Neurol Sci. 2008 May 14 [Epub ahead of print]. (Full text here.) Some […]