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Antivaccine nonsense Cancer Medicine Quackery

Toni Bark has cancer

Toni Bark is an antivax physician. Recently, she announced that she has cancer. She is also expressing amazement that she could get it, given her supposedly incredibly healthy lifestyle.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Science

Corvelva and “Vaccinegate”: Italian antivaxers produce a dubious “scientific report” on fetal DNA in vaccines

The Italian antivaccine group Corvelva published a really bad “scientific report” claiming fetal DNA in vaccines is dangerous based on a dubious next generation sequencing analysis whose methods are not described. It’s not. To believe its claims, you have to believe that DNA can do anything.

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Bioethics Cancer Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

Kylee Dixon: Oregon intervenes to treat her cancer

Kylee Dixon is a 13-year-old girl with undifferentiated embryonal sarcoma of the liver whose mother stopped chemotherapy and has been treating her with CBD oil. The State of Oregon intervened to see that Kylee undergoes appropriate surgery. Where do “parental rights” end and the child’s rights begin?

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Announcements Blog housekeeping

Off to NECSS

There will be no new material today and probably not Monday either. I’m in New York attending the Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism (NECSS). I’ll be giving a talk this afternoon, “Cancer Quackery and Fake News: Targeting the Most Vulnerable.” I’ll be back Tuesday or Wednesday.

Categories
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 […]