Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Integrative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

Orac basks in the adoration of Gary Null

Orac loves to bask in the adulation of his “fans.” This time around, one of the old men of quackery, Gary Null, has decided that he really, really doesn’t like science-based medicine. That includes Steve Novella, Susan Gerbic, and…Orac.

Categories
Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

The dubious cancer “virotherapy” Rigvir returns with an equally dubious case report

Rigvir is a “virotherapy” from Latvia promoted by the International Virotherapy Center and, increasingly, by alternative cancer clinics. There is no convincing scientific evidence for its efficacy. That didn’t stop its advocates from presenting a case report. Not surprisingly, the case report isn’t convincing either.

Categories
Bioethics Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

How quacks sell dubious stem cell therapies

More and more, alternative medicine practitioners are offering unproven, almost certainly ineffective, and potentially dangerous stem cell therapies. How are they doing it?

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Antivaccine nonsense Cancer Medicine Movies Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Death by Gardasil? Not so fast… (2018 edition)

There is a type of “vaccine injury” story promoted by the antivaccine movement that is particularly pernicious, a narrative I call “death by Gardasil.” The stories, which use tenuous connections between vaccination against HPV to prevent cervical cancer and the unexpected death of a teen or young adult, are always tragic, and you can’t help but feel incredible empathy for the parents. However, none of these stories constitute compelling evidence that Gardasil kills young people. Basically, antivaxers exploit the grief of these parents and their understandable desire to find a cause for their child’s demise to demonize HPV vaccinations as dangerous and deadly.

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

How “they” view “us”: Colton Berrett edition

Colton Berrett developed transverse myelitis at age 13 and as a result was left permanently disabled, with significant paralsysis. Four years later, he died, apparently by suicide. Polly Tommy and the VAXXED crew have been promoting the message that it was Gardasil that caused Colton’s disease and therefore killed him. When I explained why Gardasil almost certainly had nothing to do with Colton’s disease and death, I learned once again how “they” view “us.”