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Antivaccine nonsense Cancer Medicine Popular culture Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop double down on quackery by featuring an HIV/AIDS denialist and antivaccine quack at its upcoming Goop Summit

Earlier this year, Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop held a quackfest in New York City. Well, the second in Goop Health quackfest is coming in January, and Goop is doubling down on the quackery by featuring Dr. Kelly Brogan, HIV/AIDS denialist and antivaccine and anti-psychiatry quack.

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Religion Skepticism/critical thinking

Contamination requiring ritual purification: Superstitious concepts at the heart of antivaccine beliefs

Much of the belief system that undergirds antivaccine views is rooted in superstition. That’s why it’s not a coincidence that antivaxers frequently speak in terms of contamination due to vaccines as a cause of autism and all the other conditions for which antivaxers blame vaccines and ritual purification in the form of “detoxification” as the treatment. These beliefs very much resemble religious beliefs, and antivaxers project them onto pro-science advocates.

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Biology Cancer Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Does chemotherapy work? Chemotherapy vs. “spreading” cancer.

Earlier this month, cancer quacks everywhere were touting a study that suggests that chemotherapy administered before breast cancer treatment can stimulate the spread of cancer, pointing to it as evidence that chemotherapy doesn’t work and even makes cancer worse. In reality, the study was far more nuanced. It didn’t show that chemotherapy doesn’t work (quite the contrary) but does point to ways we can make chemotherapy more effective.

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

The check must have finally cleared, or: Mawson’s incompetent “vaxed/unvaxed” study is back online

Two badly designed, incompetently performed “studies” that claimed to show that unvaccinated children are healthier than unvaccinated children were briefly published by a bottom feeding, predatory “open access” journal, and then they disappeared, having apparently been retracted. Now they’re back, like Freddie Krueger, Jason, or Michael Myers, and antivaxers are rejoicing. I guess the check must have finally cleared.

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Antivaccine nonsense Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

The Mawson “vaxed/unvaxed” study retraction: The antivaccine movement reacts with tears of unfathomable sadness

In the course of just a couple days, a pair of atrociously incompetent studies by Andrew Wakefield fanboy Anthony Mawson were published and retracted by a predatory open access publisher. Surveying the reactions of antivaccine activists, I can’t help but conclude that their tears of unfathomable sadness are delicious.