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Antivaccine nonsense Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Thomas Cowles twisting in the wind defending the “cancer boy” urban legend

I’m rather amused. No, I’m very amused. Yesterday, as you may recall, I discussed a seemingly alarming e-mail that’s going around about a 17-year-old boy with melanoma whom the State of California had allegedly removed from the custody of his mother because she and he had wanted to use “advanced natural medicine” to treat his […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Kev asks: Why aren’t you scared to death?

Regarding Dan Olmsted’s latest foray into autism pseudoscience at Rescue Post, Kev asks, “Why aren’t you scared to death?” Olmsted’s latest happened to appear while I was on vacation a couple of weeks ago, and there’s so much other interesting stuff out there to blog about since I got back that I never got around […]

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Announcements Antivaccine nonsense Autism Blogging Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

A photon has moved

Way back when I first started my blog, one of my favorite blogs was A Photon in the Darkness, in which Prometheus regularly demolished quackery, particularly autism-related quackery. Sadly, Prometheus’ blogging has become more and more sporadic over the last year or so, with gaps sometimes longer than a month between posts. I was worried […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Send a message to Andrew Wakefield

Kevin Leitch informs me that DAN/ARI are asking people to leave a message for Andrew Wakefield. Yes, that Andrew Wakefield, the man who almost single-handedly started a scare over the MMR vaccine, the man who was paid by lawyers and was either so clueless, careless, and/or dishonest (take your pick) that the lab where he […]

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

An embarrassing critique of “The Enemies of Reason”

A couple of weeks ago, before I went on vacation, the BBC aired a two-part documentary by Richard Dawkins entitled The Enemies of Reason. Part One dealt primarily with the paranormal and various New Age phenomena, while Part Two, which aired mere days before my London trip, dealt squarely with alternative medicine in an uncompromising […]