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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Politics

Stanislaw Burzynski and the cynical use of cancer patients as shields and weapons against the FDA: Yes, the FDA has caved.

As I sat down to write this bit of Insolence, I had at least two ideas for what I thought would be informative, entertaining, and timely posts. I also didn’t want to have to write about Stanislaw Burzynski again after having just done so on Friday, having to note that the FDA caved, granting compassionate […]

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Anti-Semitism Antivaccine nonsense Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Conspiracy theories: The dark heart of alternative medicine

If there’s one thing a budding skeptic quickly learns is that at the core of any good woo almost invariably lurks at least one conspiracy theory. At the risk of flirting a little too close to Godwin territory, this simple fact about pseudoscience, pseudohistory, and other non-evidence-based belief systems was first driven home to me […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Mike Adams issues a challenge over vaccines to Neil deGrasse Tyson, and hilarity ensues

I’m sure that a lot of you, like me, are watching the rebooted version of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, with Neil deGrasse Tyson taking over the hosting duties originally handled so ably over 30 years ago by Carl Sagan. I definitely enjoyed the first episode and am looking forward to additional episodes. The only thing […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

My response to David Lauser re: Liza Cozad, Stanislaw Burzynski, and antineoplastons

Amidst all the sturm und drang after a recent post, I was reminded elsewhere on the blog why I do what I do. So I’m going to do more of it today. You might recall Liza Cozad, wife of David Lauser, who is the drummer in Sammy Hagar’s band. She has an inoperable brain tumor […]

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Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Autism clusters and "toxins"

Time to get back to business after yesterday’s festivities. One of the items of Gospel Truth among the “autism biomed” movement, which consists of people who fervently believe that autism is caused by some sort of external “toxin,” infection, or vaccines and that subjecting children to various forms of quackery designed either to “detoxify” or […]