Categories
Clinical trials Computers and social media Medicine Popular culture

Crowdfunding to pay to be a research subject in a clinical trial: The case of Lily Wythe [UPDATED 1/23/2020—see addendum]

Lily Wythe and pay-to-play clinical trials

Lily Wythe is a teenaged girl with a deadly brainstem cancer whose case has made international news because of her family’s crowdfunding to get her into a clinical trial. Should investigators be allowed to fund trials this way?

Categories
Cancer Medicine

Mortality from cancer continues to decline, contrary to the claims of quacks

Mortality from these nasties continues to decline

Recently published 2020 American Cancer Society statistics show that overall cancer mortality continues to decline. In fact, it’s declining faster than ever, thanks to science-based medicine and public health.

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Medicine Music News of the Weird Quackery

Chiropractic quackery, power metal edition: The Hootsman laid low

The Hootsman, felled by a chiropractor

James Cartwright, otherwise known as the Hollywood Hootsman, bassist of my favorite power metal band Gloryhammer, announced on Facebook and Instagram that he had been felled by a chiropractor.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Politics Popular culture Pseudoscience

Andy Serwer: Giving RFK, Jr. an unopposed platform to spread antivaccine propaganda on Yahoo! Finance

Andy Serwer screwed up

Andy Serwer of Yahoo! Finance interviewed Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. It did not go well. Serwer allowed RFK, Jr. to spew his antivax propaganda largely unquestioned.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

No, WHO scientists did not “question the safety of vaccines” at the Global Vaccine Safety Summit

Del lies about the Global Vaccine Safety Summit

The World Health Organization recently held its Global Vaccine Safety Summit. Antivaccine propagandist Del Bigtree cherry picked quotes to make it seem as though WHO scientists were questioning vaccine safety and made a video. Unfortunately, that video went viral. Fortunately, even those cherry picked quotes weren’t very convincing.