Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Religion Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Just in time for April Fools’ Day…Dr. Oz and the Pigasus Awards!

Ah, April Fools’ Day! I had thought of trying to do a typical April Fools’ Day post, you know, something like trying to write something but the last time I tried to do that it fell really flat, so flat that I’m not even going to link to it. It’s better not to remind my […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Medicine

Turning the informed consent tables on the anti-vaccine movement

One of the major tactics of the anti-vaccine movement has been a disingenuous demand for more “informed consent.” Of course, their idea of “informed consent” is anything but informed. Indeed, I have referred to it as “misinformed consent,” because what the anti-vaccine movement does is a pathetic parody of the “informed” part of informed consent. […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine

For the anti-vaccinationists out there: The results of a real “vaxed versus unvaxed” study

In many ways, the anti-vaccine movement is highly mutable. However, this mutability is firmly based around keeping one thing utterly constant, and that one thing is vaccines. No matter what the evidence, no matter what the science, no matter how much observational, scientific, and epidemiological evidence is arrayed against them, to the relentlessly self-confident members […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Quackery

Society of Homeopaths director and MMR solicitor Richard Barr: Using British libel law to silence Paul Offit

Over the years, I’ve pointed out just how horrible British libel laws are. If there is a set of laws more designed to be used and abused by the wealthy to silence criticism, it’s British libel laws. Indeed, I was pointing out the travesty that is British libel law in the context of David Irving’s […]

Categories
Blogging Complementary and alternative medicine Evolution Medicine Science

On teaching the controversy in medicine

Dr. Kevin Pho responded to a recent post by Orac criticizing a post on KevinMD that was overly credulous about alternative medicine. His response was…disappointing. Since he seems to want to teach the controversy, I thought: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. And then I came up with some ideas for other controversies to “teach.”