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Antivaccine nonsense Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

What makes a physician become an antivaxer? (Part 2)

Orac contemplates a reason why doctors become antivaccine that he missed the last time he discussed this topic.

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Cancer Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

The “war on cancer”: We’re doing better than commonly portrayed

If you were to rely on much of what you see in the mainstream media and on social media, you probably have the impression that we are not doing very well against cancer. Indeed, a common trope I see in a lot of articles is that we are somehow “losing” the war on cancer. Just […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Popular culture Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Cancer charlatan Belle Gibson: Con artist or delusional?

Cancer huckster Belle Gibson was recently fined for deceiving the public by claiming that she had brain cancer, a story that she used to sell all manner of dubious treatments. Was she delusional or a run-of-the-mill con artist? Does it matter?

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Did cannabis oil save Deryn Blackwell’s life?

In a forthcoming book The Boy in 7 Billion, Callie Blackwell claims that cannabis oil, which she had started giving her son Deryn to relieve his symptoms during a bone marrow transplant for two cancers, actually saved his life when the bone marrow transplant appeared to be failing. Unfortunately, her story appears to be another testimonial that confuses correlation with causation.

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Naturopathy Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

An as yet unidentified “holistic” practitioner negligently kills a young woman with IV turmeric (yes, intravenous)

Out of southern California, comes a lesson that something as seemingly benign as turmeric can kill when weaponized in the hands of a quack.