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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience

Blaming the flu vaccine for the COVID-19 outbreak: The latest antivaccine misinformation

Antivaccine activists are blaming the coronavirus outbreak in China on—what else?—the flu vaccine, because of course they are. All they have to do is to deceptively invoke “virus interference.” So science-y!

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Autism Bioethics Cancer Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Integrative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

dōTERRA Center for Integrative Oncology: St. Elizabeth Healthcare sells out to an MLM company hawking essential oils

St. Elizabeth Healthcare in Cincinnati recently accepted $5 million from dōTERRA, an MLM company selling essential oils based on dubious claims. This is most definitely not a good look.

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Clinical trials Computers and social media Medicine Popular culture

Crowdfunding to pay to be a research subject in a clinical trial: The case of Lily Wythe [UPDATED 1/23/2020—see addendum]

Lily Wythe is a teenaged girl with a deadly brainstem cancer whose case has made international news because of her family’s crowdfunding to get her into a clinical trial. Should investigators be allowed to fund trials this way?

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Politics Popular culture Pseudoscience

Andy Serwer: Giving RFK, Jr. an unopposed platform to spread antivaccine propaganda on Yahoo! Finance

Andy Serwer of Yahoo! Finance interviewed Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. It did not go well. Serwer allowed RFK, Jr. to spew his antivax propaganda largely unquestioned.

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Integrative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Acupuncture does not work for chronic pain

A newly published systematic review of systematic reviews tells us what we’ve known. Acupuncture doesn’t work for chronic pain.