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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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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

“Cat-upuncture”? What did those poor cats ever do to deserve this?

Acupuncture is quackery. As with naturopathy (a medical pseudo-“specialty” that embraces acupuncture and other so-called traditional Chinese medicine), when I write about acupuncture I like to start out with a provocative statement, a statement of—dare I say it?—judgment in order to shock new readers and let them know exactly where I’m coming from. Why I […]

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

An antivaccine mother asks for advice on Reddit about how to convince the baby’s father not to vaccinate. It doesn’t go well.

Well, I’m here. Yes, last night I arrived in Boston for the Society of Surgical Oncology meeting down at the convention center. For any skeptics who might be so inclined the Boston Skeptics are planning a meetup on Saturday, details firming up. No talk this time, but at least we can hang out for a […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Quackademic medicine: “Wildly successful” at the Cleveland Clinic?

It’s no secret that my odds of ever landing a job at the Cleveland Clinic are probably slim and none, at least if anyone there ever Googles my name, particularly if they Google it with the words “Cleveland Clinic” added. The reason, of course, is that I’ve been very critical of the Cleveland Clinic’s wholesale […]