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Antivaccine nonsense Homeopathy Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Dr. David Brownstein fought Shingrix, and Shingrix won

Dr. David Brownstein is a “holistic” family practice physician in my area. Consistent with being “holistic,” he is antivaccine to the core. That’s why he’s unhappy with the recent CDC recommendation that adults over 50 receive the new shingles vaccine. He thinks he’s found a clever argument to show it doesn’t work. Unfortunately, his argument only reveals his bias and misunderstanding.

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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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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Politics

The cruel sham that is “right-to-try” is one big step closer to being federal law

So-called “right-to-try” is a cruel sham that holds out the mostly false hope of survival to terminally ill patients and their families. In return, all they have to give up is patient protections and agree to pay to be guinea pigs to test a drug company’s product. The product of an ideology that uses the terminally ill as shields to hide the ideological motives behind the law, which are to hobble the FDA, right-to-try is a terrible idea. It’s bad for patients, but it just passed the Senate and could well become the law of the land when the House reconvenes in September if it isn’t stopped.

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

Mea culpa! Orac praised the new CDC director for her pro-vaccine views, but missed the quackery in her past.

When HHS Secretary Dr. Tom Price announced that Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald would be the new CDC Director, he breathed a sigh of relief because in her previous job as Georgia Commissioner of Public Health she was suitably pro-vaccine and pro-science. He should have looked a bit closer and gone a few years further back.

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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

Congress is back in session, and sneaking the cruel sham that is right-to-try in a must-pass bill Is on the agenda

Ill-advised right-to-try bills are spreading like kudzu through state legislatures. Now federal legislators want to insert right-to-try language into the bill that funds FDA drug approval. Given the support of powerful Republicans for right-to-try, is it too late to stop this juggernaut and protect patients?