Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Biology Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Religion Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Religious fundamentalists try to prove fetal DNA in vaccines causes autism and fail

There are some myths, bits of misinformation, or lies about medicine that I like to refer to zombie quackery. The reasons are obvious. Like at the end of a horror movie, just when you think the myth is finally dead, its rotting hand rises out of the dirt to grab your leg and drag you […]

Categories
Cancer Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Vitamin C for cancer: Trying to rise from the grave once again

There are certain things that can happen that are the equivalent of the Bat Signal to me; that is, if you can swallow the idea of me being in any way like Bruce Wayne. Call them the Cancer Signal, if you will. When I see the Cancer Signal, I know that I have to head […]

Categories
Cancer Popular culture

Once again caring more about “parental rights” than the rights of the child being subjected to quackery

When last I wrote about the sad saga of Sarah Hershberger, the 12-year-old Amish girl from northeastern Ohio with lymphoblastic lymphoma whose parents, Andy and Anna Hershberger, decided to stop her chemotherapy resulting in legal action by Akron children’s Hospital to have a medical guardian appointed to make sure that Sarah continues effective science-based therapy […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

A bit of antivaccine misinformation from the left and the right

Thanks, Daily Kos. Well, not really. You’ll see why in a minute, but first here’s the background. There’s a general impression out there that the political right is associated with the antiscience that includes anthropogenic global warming denialism, denial of evolution, and denial of aspects of reproductive biology that don’t jibe with their religious beliefs, […]

Categories
Bioethics Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Quackery

The family of the Amish girl with cancer who needs chemotherapy flee the country and claim natural healing has “cured” her

A couple of weeks ago, I commented on the story of 10 year old Amish girl in northeast Ohio with cancer whose parents, alarmed by the side effects of chemotherapy, had decided to stop the chemotherapy and treat their daughter with folk medicine instead. As a result, alarmed at the likelihood that Sarah Hershberger would […]