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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

“Vaccine Awareness Week”: Barbara Loe Fisher dupes Delta Airlines into running an anti-vaccine PSA

The nearest major airport to me happens to be a Delta Airlines hub. Consequently, nine times out of ten, whenever I have to fly anywhere I’m usually stuck using Delta Airlines. It’s actually not too bad, as major airlines go, better than some but about the same as most. Unfortunately, during the month of November, […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Using language to achieve the appearance of legitimacy for quacks

The whole concept of “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) and “integrative medicine” (IM), the former of which “complements” science-based medicine with quackery and the latter of which “integrates” pseudoscience-based with science-based medicine. The reason I start out by saying this is to emphasize that CAM/IM is all about using language to persuade that pseudoscience is […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

“Consumer warnings” about Adya Clarity: Has Mike Adams had a sudden attack of conscience?

I’ve been blogging about alternative medicine for nearly seven years and writing about it, either on Usenet or in other forums for several years before. As a result, there are times when I start to think that maybe I’ve seen it all. And almost every time I start thinking that, I come across something that […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Computers and social media Medicine Quackery

“Just one more thing”

I’ve written quite a bit about Steve Jobs’ battle with pancreatic cancer over the years and, more recently, in the wake of his death nearly four weeks ago. The reason, of course, is that the course of his cancer was of intense interest after it became public knowledge that he had cancer. In particular, what […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Naturopathy Quackery

“Naturopathic obstetrics”? Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Despite having found my niche long ago in the medical blogosphere as a skeptic and supporter of science-based medicine, not to mention a scourge of quacks and anti-vaccine activists (no little ego mine!), I rarely, if ever, write about obstetrics. It’s always been one area of medicine that I’ve felt least comfortable with. True, there […]