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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics

Richard Jaffe brings the antivax legal assault on state medical boards to California

Cancer quack Stanislaw Burzynski’s former lawyer Richard Jaffe is suing the Medical Board of California for disciplining Dr. Douglas Mackenzie for spreading COVID-19 misinformation. The antivax assault on state medical boards with legal thuggery continues apace.

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Medicine Naturopathy Politics Religion Science

What do licensing naturopaths and banning abortion have in common?

The Supreme Court’s striking down Roe v. Wade and the subsequent abortion bans it enabled remind me very much of naturopathic licensure laws. They’re both based on pseudoscience and ideology.

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Clinical trials Medicine Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Here we go again: Is evidence-based medicine an “illusion”?

Every so few years, someone writes in a reputable journal that evidence-based medicine is corrupt or an “illusion.” Here we go again, this time in The BMJ, and antivaxxers are going wild.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

How can germ theory denial explain contagion?

Germ theory denial has always had a hard time explaining the contagiousness of infectious diseases—until now, apparently. According to “Dr.” Melissa Sell, it’s all about the vibes, ma-an!

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Bad science Medicine Quackery

Black Oxygen Organics (a.k.a. BOO): Magic dirt quackery to treat COVID-19

“BOO” stands for Black Oxygen Organics, a “cure” for COVID-19 that got the attention of regulators last week. Basically, it’s dirt billed by its believers as “magic dirt” that sells for $110 a bag (plus shipping) through a multilevel marketing sales model. What can this latest COVID cure tell us about the relationship between alternative medicine and COVID-19 denial?