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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine

Dystonia from a flu vaccine? Almost certainly not.

Several of my readers have been writing in with links and stories about the case of Desiree Jennings, a 28-year-old cheerleader who was apparently healthy until sometime in August, when she received the seasonal flu vaccine. A typical news story on Jennings can be seen here: I’m not a neurologist, which made me reluctant to […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Entertainment/culture Medicine Movies Television

Data weeps: Does Brent Spiner have anti-vaccine proclivities?

Unfortunately, Brent Spiner is not living up to Commander Data’s portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. Say it ain’t so, Data! Say it ain’t so! Last night, I decided for the heck of it to check my Twitter account, something I only tend to do sporadically, although I do keep a constant stream of links to the […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Friday Woo Humor Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Your Friday Dose of Woo (on Wednesday): A homeopath “explains” energy

Damn you, PZ! Not only are you muscling into my territory (what, aren’t creationism and atheism enough?), but you had to subject me to the most mind-numbing example of why homeopaths are the most clueless purveyors of pseudoscience there are! Behold, Dr. Charlene Werner, an optometrist (apparently) and a homeopath. I warn you, however. If […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Requiem for a quack, part II: Hulda Clark, author of The Cure for All Cancers, died of cancer

About a month and half ago, we learned that über-quack Hulda Clark, the woman who said that she had the Cure for All Cancers, had died on September 3, 2009. I was criticized for entitling my post Requiem for a Quack, but, given how Clark’s quackery had contributed to the suffering and deaths of an […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics

Vaccination for H1N1 “swine” flu: Do The Atlantic, Shannon Brownlee, and Jeanne Lenzer matter?

I had meant to address this topic last week, but the whole Suzanne Somers thing bubbled up and overwhelmed my blogging attention. Regular readers of this blog probably realize that I tend to live and die as a blogger by the maxim that if some is good more must be better. So I clobbered the […]