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Antivaccine nonsense Computers and social media Medicine Politics Quackery

Hacker X: How Mike Adams expanded his quack empire to politics

Ars Technica recently published a story about Hacker X, who helped Mike Adams expand his online empire of health fraud into an empire of fake news and political disinformation, thus intertwining health and political misinformation into the deadly combination we see now.

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Bad science Bioethics Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Looking back on 2020: Too many physicians behaving badly

Looking back on 2020, if there’s one thing that the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us, it’s that crises reveal character. Unfortunately, even as many doctors bravely risked their lives taking care of COVID-19 patients, the character of too many other physicians was been found wanting, as they spent 2020 denying the pandemic and spreading misinformation. What can be done?

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Medicine Politics Quackery

Antivaccine legislator Sen. Paul Boyer is doing his best to make measles great again in Arizona

Arizona state Senator Paul Boyer introduced a bill that would “make measles great again” under the guise of “informed consent.” It is in reality “misinformed consent.” Isn’t it great to have antivaxers trying to inflict disease on children?

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Bad science Cancer Medicine Naturopathy Quackery

The quackademic avalanche: Is it too late for the pebbles to vote?

I’ve documented the infiltration of quackery into academic medicine through the “integration” of mystical and prescientific treatment modalities into medicine. Here, I look at a seemingly small incident, a veritable pebble in the quackademic avalanche. Is it too late for the pebbles to vote?

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Bad science Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Paddison Program: Dietary quackery for rheumatoid arthritis

Clint Paddison is an Australian comedian with a science degree who developed rheumatoid arthritis at age 31. He now claims to have controlled it with a diet he developed to alter the gut microbiome. How plausible is his story, and does his “Paddison Program” work? Answer: Not very and almost certainly no.