Category: Popular culture

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Popular culture Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Cancer charlatan Belle Gibson: Con artist or delusional?

Cancer huckster Belle Gibson was recently fined for deceiving the public by claiming that she had brain cancer, a story that she used to sell all manner of dubious treatments. Was she delusional or a run-of-the-mill con artist? Does it matter?

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Popular culture Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

It’s a strange world, after all: Orac vs. The Shat and fake news over…Autism Speaks?

How Orac imagines William Shatner as appearing when he's Tweeting.

Orac is attacked by Capt. Kirk using fake news over the course of several days. Truly, it is a strange world.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Popular culture Quackery

Make measles great again? Our Michigan legislature is doing its best to bring back epidemics of vaccine-preventable diseases.

The depths of stupidity to which the Michigan state legislature will stoop never cease to amaze me. This time, legislators are doing their damnedest to make measles great again.

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

Antivaxers marched on Washington last week. It was less than impressive.

The mass of antivaxers yearning to be free to let their children suffer from vaccine-preventable diseases descends upon the White House.

A few dozen antivaccine activists descended upon Washington, DC to protest and lobby their legislators. The protest itself was not impressive, but pro-science advocates shouldn’t let this pathetic march lead them to be complacent. Antivaxers are meeting with legislators, and President Trump is sympathetic to their aims.

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Biology Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Popular culture Skepticism/critical thinking

Saunas and longevity: Another example of putting the preclinical cart before the horse

No, contrary to what Dr. Gottfried says, this will probably not make you live longer.

Dr. Sara Gottfried, MD, wants you to know she is a doctor. She also wants you to know that you can “reset” your hormones and genes with food and saunas. In the case of the saunas, she’s put the preclinical cart before the clinical horse and extrapolated animal and early molecular epidemiological data off of a cliff.