Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Why people ignore vaccine denialists

A lesson that’s worth learning. Of course, I only wish people ignored vaccine denialists; unfortunately, enough people don’t that vaccines are a frequent blog topic for me:

Categories
Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Politics

“Obama’s fixin’ death panels for your mama”: The USPSTF recommendations for mammography used as a political weapon

As I discussed in detail when I analyzed them, the new USPSTF recommendations for screening mammography for breast cancer have sparked a debate that has degenerated from a scientific and public policy debate into pure emotional rhetoric. When last I visited this topic, yesterday, I had intended it to be my last post for a […]

Categories
Cancer Medicine

“Obama’s fixin’ death panels for your mama,” the misogyny gambit, and other idiotic responses to the updated USPSTF mammography recommendations

I knew when I first heard about them that the new United States Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations on breast cancer screening would be controversial. I tried to discuss these guidelines and the issues involved in a calm and rational way, relatively devoid of Insolence, Respectful or not-so-Respectful, yesterday, pointing out that screening guidelines […]

Categories
Cancer Clinical trials Medicine

Really rethinking breast cancer screening

“Early detection saves lives.” Remember how I started a post a year and a half ago saying just this? I did it because that is the default assumption and has been so for quite a while. It’s an eminently reasonable-sounding concept that just makes sense. As I pointed out a year and a half ago, […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine

A dose of H1N1 flu anti-woo

If you want a dose of science and rationality about the H1N1 flu pandemic, and you need it now, check out The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe. Led by Steve Novella, the discussion involves more than one friend of the blog, if you know what I mean and can be downloaded here.