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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Quackery

Noooo! Antivaccination nonsense in Michigan!

You know, I keep trying to get away from this topic for a while. But, as Michael Corleone said in The Godfather, Part III, “Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in.” I suppose it is unfortunately a measure of the success that antivaccinationists have been having with their public relations […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Epi Wonk versus the Geiers, part II

Epi Wonk has completed part II of her deconstruction of the latest abuse of epidemiology and statistics by those pseudoscientists for the mercury militia, Mark and David Geier. (I commented on part I here): Pretty steep slopes and, therefore, apparently strong associations. But there’s no attempt to control for, or adjust for, the confounding effect […]

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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Alternative medicine: Changing the rules after the game has started

Damn Steve Novella. Well, not really, but I always get annoyed when someone comes up with an analogy or description of a phenomenon that I should have thought of first. I don’t really get annoyed at the person who came up with such ideas, but rather at myself for not thinking of something so obvious […]

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Entertainment/culture Movies

The obligatory holiday weekend Indiana Jones open thread

It’s Memorial Day weekend here in the States. For those of us lucky enough not to be on call, working retail, or otherwise being forced to go to work, it means three days away from work. Although I’ll be working a bit on various protocols and papers, it nonetheless means three days away from the […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Beware and get ready, my U.K. readers, part 2: David Kirby to speak at the Houses of Parliament in London on June 4?

My British readers, say it ain’t so! Hot on the heels of learning that, bankrolled by antivaccinationists, David Kirby is planning a trip to the U.K. in early June, I find out something even more disturbing. A reader forwarded this press release to me: