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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

More arrogance of ignorance in the antivaccine movement

After a digression yesterday, it’s time to get back to business. Don’t get me wrong. Yesterday’s post was business. It was definitely something important (to me) that needed to be said, in my not-so-humble pseudonymous opinion. It just wasn’t the usual business I engage in on this blog. I’ve often referred to what I (and […]

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Blogging Medicine Science Skepticism/critical thinking

On “Orac,” Isis, pseudonymity, and anonymity

And now for something completely different. There was a time when, as a blogger, I would have been instantly aware of an incident like the one I’m about to discuss, instantly aware of it and all over it within a day. That it’s been a few days since this happened, and I remained blissfully unaware […]

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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine

Stanislaw Burzynski and the cynical use of cancer patients as shields and weapons against the FDA

I realize that I just wrote about infamous cancer doctor Stanislaw Burzynski yesterday. (Note how I refuse to call him an “oncologist,” mainly because he isn’t one, having never completed an oncology fellowship—or even an internal medicine residency, the usual prerequisite to do an oncology fellowship.) However, there’s a bit more that I wanted to […]

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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Politics

Stanislaw Burzynski’s counteroffensive against the FDA and Texas Medical Board continues

The year 2013 finished with serious setbacks for Stanislaw Burzynski and his unproven cancer treatment that he dubbed “antineoplastons” (ANPs) way back in the early 1970s. As you might recall, in November, two things happened. First, the FDA released its initial reports on its inspection of the Burzynski Clinic and Burzynski Research Institute (BRI) carried […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Science

More examples of how influenza still kills

The flu season continues apace around my part of the country. I wrote about it about a week and a half ago, in particular how people don’t get their flu shots because they don’t think they need them, because they don’t think the flu is a serious disease. Two more stories illustrate this disconnect. For […]