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Cancer Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Quackery

Crank spin versus science on mammography

Sometimes when a study comes out that I’m very interested in blogging about, I don’t get around to it right away. In the blogging biz, this sort of delay is often considered a bad thing, because blogging tends to be very immediate, about being the firstest with the mostest, and the moment to strike and […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Naturopathy Quackery

Evidence-based medicine: More than a “coin flip”

One characteristic of cranks, quacks, and pseudoscience boosters is a love-hate relationship with science. They desperately crave the respectability and validation that science confers. In the case of medicine, they want to be seen as evidence- and science-based. On the other hand, they hate science because it just won’t given them what they want: Confirmation […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Quackery

The “toxin gambit,” resurrected

Well, I’m here. That’s right. As I mentioned yesterday, I’m at CSICon. As is the case when I’m at conferences, be they skeptical conferences or professional conferences, it’s hard to predict the blogging time available. It could be a lot; it could be a little. Or it could be none. (Well, obviously it’s not none, […]

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Medicine Politics Skepticism/critical thinking

Mitt Romney, health insurance, and the myth that no one ever dies because of lack of health insurance

The 2012 election campaign is in full swing, and, for better or worse, health care is one of the major defining issues of the election. How can it not be, given the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), also colloquially known as “Obamacare,” was one of the Obama administration’s major accomplishments […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Popular culture Quackery Television

NBC chief medical correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman embraces quackery

I take back all those nice things I used to say about Nancy Snyderman. There’s no doubt that she “gets it” about vaccines and, for the most part, even though she does occasionally go overboard, and her understanding of the issues involved in the use of various vaccines is anything but nuanced. I used to […]