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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Quackery

The Chicago Tribune: Telling it like it is about the antivaccine autism “biomed” movement

There are times when I look back, and I can’t believe I’ve been at it this long. It’s not just the blogging, the fifth anniversary of which is rapidly approaching for me. Hard as it is to believe, not only have I become a “venerable” medical and skeptical blogger, but there are actually a lot […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery Religion

It’s more than just Senator Tom Harkin and woo: Christian Science and faith healing in health care reform

Every so often, as the health care reform initiative spearheaded by the Obama Administration wends its way through Congress (or, more precisely, wend their ways through Congress, given that there are multiple bills coming from multiple committees in both Houses), I’ve warned about various chicanery from woo-friendly legislators trying to legitimize by legislation where they’ve […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

CAM usage and vaccination status

I’ve often discussed how potentially misleading anecdotal evidence and experience can be. Indeed, I’ve managed to get into quite a few–shall we say?–heated discussions with a certain woo-friendly pediatrician, who, so confident in his own clinical judgment, just can’t accept that his own personal clinical observations could be wrong or even horribly mislead him. Sadly, […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

After all this time, Dr. Bob Sears finally tips his hand on vaccines, part III

Dr. Robert Sears (a.k.a. “Dr. Bob), author of The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child, is definitely antivaccine. His mouth may say, “No, I’m not antivaccine,” but his actions say, “Yes, yes, yes!” There, I finally said it. I’ve been flirting with saying it that bluntly for some time now, but have […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

The British Chiropractic Association: Beware the Spinal Trap

A while back, I wrote about the grievous miscarriage of justice that occurred to Simon Singh in the form of a ruling against him in the libel suit brought against him by the British Chiropractic Association. Suffice it to say, that the BCA is using the U.K.’s exceedingly plaintiff-friendly libel laws to silence legitimate criticism […]