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Autism Bad science Bioethics Clinical trials Medicine

Pay-to-play stem cell clinical trials: Abuse of the clinical trial process

Stem cell therapies show great promise, but as yet the vast majority of that promise has not been validated in rigorous clinical trials. Unfortunately, for-profit stem cell clinics are running clinical trials that require patients to pay to be part of them (“pay-to-play”). These trials are not rigorous. Even more unfortunately, it appears that some universities are also running “pay-to-play” clinical trials that bear an uncomfortable resemblance to those run by for-profit clinics.

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Complementary and alternative medicine Computers and social media Integrative medicine Medicine Popular culture Quackery

Facebook joins Google in deprioritizing medical misinformation: Are social media companies finally “getting it”?

Yesterday, social media giant Facebook announced that it was acting against medical misinformation by using keyphrases to deprioritize results promoting misinformation and scams? Is it enough, and is it too late?

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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Politics

For-profit stem cell clinics are turning ClinicalTrials.gov into a marketing tool

A fairly frequent topic on Science-Based Medicine is the issue of for-profit stem cell clinics selling unsupported stem cell-based treatments with little or no evidence to support them for huge amounts of money. I make no bones about it. In my estimation, every for-profit stem cell clinic is a quack clinic bilking patients with promises […]

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Bad science Medicine Naturopathy Pseudoscience Quackery

Chronic Lyme disease: Fake diagnosis or pseudo-diagnosis, NOT fake disease

For once, Twitter actually changed Orac’s mind. Chronic Lyme disease is not a fake disease. Rather, it is a fake diagnosis or pseudodiagnosis disconnected from what is really going on physiologically. That’s why only quacks use the diagnosis.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Popular culture

Antivaccine physicians like Dr. Lawrence Palevsky should all lose their medical licenses

Dr. Larry Palevsky is an antivaccine pediatrician who thinks vaccines don’t work and cause autism. Most recently, he spoke to a large audience of Orthodox Jews in Rockland County, NY, where there is a major measles outbreak that his misinformation didn’t help. What can be done about antivax doctors?