David and Collet Stephan were convicted in 2016 for failure to provide the necessities of life for their son Ezekiel Stephan, who died of bacterial meningitis after his parents treated him with natural remedies, supplements, and naturopathy. Unfortunately, as a result of their appeal, the Canadian Supreme Court has granted them a new trial. Predictably, they are claiming vindication. The verdict is nothing of the sort. The Stephans got off on a technicality, but this ruling will serve as propaganda for quacks for years to come.
Category: Popular culture
With the rise of quack stem cell clinics, there has been a rise of crowdfunding campaigns to assist patients in paying for expensive stem cell treatments of unproven efficacy. Unfortunately, as a recent study shows, these crowdfunding campaigns nearly always oversell efficacy and ignore potential risks of the treatments, while making powerful emotional appeals.
As it does every two years, the CDC has issued its 2018 report on autism prevalence. As in years past, autism prevalence has ticked upward. As in years past, antivaxers have tried to blame it on vaccines. As in years past, they’re wrong. Vaccines are not responsible for increased autism prevalence.
Earlier this week, I wrote about the tragic story of Demi Knight, and 11-year-old girl in the UK with medulloblastoma with only a few months to live. I wondered how cancer quack Stanislaw Burzynski could still be taking advantage of such patients in 2018. Here, I note the role of the press.
Homeopathy is The One Quackery To Rule Them All. The same is true all over the world. It’s also true that the preferred tactic of homeopaths and other quacks is to try to suppress criticism of their quackery, not to answer it with science. During Homeopathy Awareness Week, I present an example of this in France.