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

The cult of anti-GMO: A lot like the cult of antivaccine

Over the years I’ve been studying science versus pseudoscience, medicine vs. quackery, reason versus crankery, I’ve noticed one thing. The cranks, pseudoscientists, and quacks of the world have a hard time dealing with legitimate criticism. Now, I know I sometimes get a bit—shall we say?—frisky with my criticisms. OK, obnoxious. I have, however, mellowed considerably […]

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Cancer Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

The Center for Inquiry weighs in on Stanislaw Burzynski

Our regularly scheduled post will go live later this morning. In the meantime, this is a public service announcement…with GUITAR! (Oh, wait.) As you recall, last week, the FDA inexplicably decided to lift the partial clinical hold on Stanislaw Burzynski’s bogus clinical trials of antineoplastons, which he’s used since the 1990s as a pretext to […]

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Bioethics Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Politics

The FDA really caves: Stanislaw Burzynski can do clinical trials again

It’s hard for me to believe that it’s been almost three years since I first started taking an interest in the Houston cancer doctor and Polish expat Stanislaw Burzynski. Three long years, but that’s less than one-twelfth the time that Burzynski has been actually been administering an unproven cancer treatment known as antineoplastons (ANPs), a […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Politics Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

An astoundingly dumb bit of CAM apologia from thousands of miles away

One of the benefits of blogging is that it’s broadened my horizons. Although the vast majority of what I write about happens in my very own country, the United States, nonetheless I frequently learn about things happening in many other countries, some that I wouldn’t necessarily pay a lot of attention to. But when something […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics

The Daily Show: Hilarious segment about vaccines, not so hilariously wrong about the politics of vaccine denialism

Not surprisingly, being a guy who leans mildly left, I like The Daily Show. Jon Stewart and his writers are incredibly adept at skewering all manner of bovine excrement, be it political, scientific, or otherwise. In particular, the way Stewart and company skewered the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) for its promotion of […]