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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery

Bernard and Lisa Selz (and Albert Dwoskin): Name and shame wealthy donors funding antivaxers

The Washington Post reported that Bernard and Lisa Selz have donated heavily to antivaccine causes. Will naming and shaming stop them? The Daily Beast reported that Albert Dwoskin is distancing himself from his ex-wife’s antivaccine foundation; so there’s hope.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Computers and social media Quackery

Generation Rescue: Rebranding in service of autism grift?

When it comes to pseudoscience, conspiracy theories, quackery, and antivaccine nonsense, remember that, very frequently, it’s all about the grift. Even when it’s not, the grift inevitably takes over.

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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Politics Skepticism/critical thinking

Accelerated approval for cancer drugs: The FDA failing to protect patients

There is a tension inherent in the drug approval process between the desire to approve new drugs rapidly in order to treat suffering people and the need to be cautious, to make sure that new drugs are safe and effective before they are approved for sale. This weighing of the risks of too-rapid approval of […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Computers and social media Medicine Politics Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery

Jessica Biel: The latest celebrity antivaxer comes out

Actress Jessica Biel Joined Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to lobby California lawmakers to reject SB 276, a bill to stop bogus vaccine exemptions. Despite her claims that she’s “not antivax,” lobbying with a long time antivax crank like RFK, Jr. and expressing to legislators your belief that vaccines are both dangerous and ineffective are pretty much the definition of antivax.

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Autism Bad science Popular culture Quackery

William Shatner: New celebrity pitch man for dubious anti-aging stem cell treatments?

A week ago, William Shatner Tweeted that he had received an anti-aging stem cell therapy. Perusal of the website of the clinic where he got the cells reveals yet another for-profit dubious stem cell clinic. Is
William Shatner the new stem cell clinic pitchman?