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Antivaccine nonsense Bioethics Medicine

The ethics of vaccine refusal: Vaccine refuseniks as freeloaders

Vaccines have saved more lives and prevented more suffering than any medical invention ever conceived by humans. However, to be most effective, a large enough fraction of the population to produce herd immunity needs to be immunized. When the herd immunity threshold is reached, then the chances of anyone carrying a microorganism to cause disease […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

Simon Singh appeals Judge Eady’s bogus libel ruling

Back in May many of us in the skeptical blogosphere were alarmed to learn of what British law blogger Jack of Kent termed “an astonishingly illiberal ruling” by Sir David Eady against science writer Simon Singh. Eady was the judge presiding over another bit of legal thuggery by practitioners whose feelings were hurt when Simon […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Paying the price of vaccine refusal

I’ve warned time and time again what the price will be if the Jenny McCarthy and her fellow arrogantly ignorant band of vaccine “skeptics” continue to get more and more traction. So have many others. It is true that, for the moment, vaccination rates overall remain high in the U.S., but there are numerous troubling […]

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Biology Cancer Evolution Medicine Science

Medicine and evolution, part 12: Using evolution to develop adaptive chemotherapy

Three years ago, I wrote about what I considered to be a fascinating and promising approach to understanding tumor biology. This method involved understanding that tumors are in general made up of a heterogeneous collection of cells. Using this knowledge, it is possible to apply evolutionary principles to cancer, treating a tumor as, in essence, […]

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Bioethics Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery Religion

Daniel Hauser, fundraising, and “health freedom”

Today is a very good day indeed. I say that because Daniel Hauser, the 13-year-old boy with Hodgkin’s lymphoma who ran away with his mother to avoid having to undergo chemotherapy ordered by a judge, who had found that his parents were engaging in medical neglect in not getting him effective treatment, and returned on […]