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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Naturopathy Popular culture Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Antivaxers lobbying Rep. Jason Chaffetz to investigate the CDC fawn over parents who let their child with bacterial meningitis die of medical neglect

Yesterday, I took note of a meeting of advocates and lawyers with Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), the chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (OGR), which makes him a very powerful Congressman. The group that met with him included Del Bigtree, the producer of Andrew Wakefield’s antivaccine propagandafest of a “documentary” VAXXED: […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

When alternative medicine cancer cures fail, it’s always the patient’s fault. Always.

After a trilogy of posts on the lamentably bad decision on the part of the Tribeca Film Festival to screen a pseudoscience- and misinformation-filled documentary by hero to the antivaccine movement, Andrew Wakefield, that is basically one long conspiracy theory, I thought it was time for a change. I had briefly toyed with the idea […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Movies Quackery

What’s going on here? Andrew Wakefield’s antivaccine propaganda film to be screened at the Tribeca Film Festival

When last we left Andrew Wakefield, hero to the antivaccine movement, he was a headliner on the Conspira-Sea Cruise, a cruise filled with conspiracy theorists, crop circle chasers, cranks, quacks, and antivaccine activists. It was a huge come down from his formerly exalted position as chief spokesman and “scientist” for the antivaccine movement, a position […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Naturopathy Quackery

Bad news continues to accumulate for “pH Miracle Living” quack Robert O. Young

Last night was one of those nights where, for whatever reason, I ran out of steam. Whether it was residual effects from the change to daylight savings time this weekend or just a day in the operating room, I don’t know, but I crashed on the couch hard, at least until lighting and thunder from […]

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

An alternative cancer cure testimonial, mistletoe, and Johns Hopkins University

Ever since the beginning of this blog, there’s one topic I’ve explored many, many times, mainly because of its direct relationship to my profession as a cancer surgeon. That topic is, of course, the question of why people fall for alternative medicine cancer “cures.” It started with one of my very earliest posts and continued […]