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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 […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Superstition ain’t the way

An excellent op-ed article by Michael Fitzpatrick characterizes quite well the hysterical fear based on no evidence that Andrew Wakefield and his accomplices started in the U.K. over the MMR vaccine and the unfounded claim that it causes autism and bowel disorders: The rise of a combination of extreme scepticism towards established sources of authority […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

Andrew Wakefield’s legacy

I hadn’t been planning on doing any serious pieces to intersperse within the reruns of old posts while on vacation. Despite the impression some have gotten from my Random Observations posts about London and Britain, we’ve had an absolutely wonderful time the last week and are sorry to see it end. (Although I understand that […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

If you think it’s just about mercury when it comes to vaccines, you’re wrong

Vacation time! While Orac is off in London recharging his circuits and contemplating the linguistic tricks of limericks and jokes or the glory of black holes, he’s rerunning some old stuff from his original Blogspot blog. This particular post first appeared on July 20, 2005. This one seems downright prescient as I read it again. […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bioethics Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Argh! Chelationists are mailing pitches to my office!

Vacation time! While Orac is off in London recharging his circuits and contemplating the linguistic tricks of limericks and jokes or the glory of black holes, he’s rerunning some old stuff from his original Blogspot blog. This particular post first appeared on February 10, 2005. Enjoy! A few days ago, I had been thinking that […]