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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery

Bernard and Lisa Selz (and Albert Dwoskin): Name and shame wealthy donors funding antivaxers

The Washington Post reported that Bernard and Lisa Selz have donated heavily to antivaccine causes. Will naming and shaming stop them? The Daily Beast reported that Albert Dwoskin is distancing himself from his ex-wife’s antivaccine foundation; so there’s hope.

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Antivaccine nonsense Computers and social media Medicine Politics Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery

Jessica Biel: The latest celebrity antivaxer comes out

Actress Jessica Biel Joined Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to lobby California lawmakers to reject SB 276, a bill to stop bogus vaccine exemptions. Despite her claims that she’s “not antivax,” lobbying with a long time antivax crank like RFK, Jr. and expressing to legislators your belief that vaccines are both dangerous and ineffective are pretty much the definition of antivax.

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Bad science Medicine Naturopathy Pseudoscience Quackery

Chronic Lyme disease: Fake diagnosis or pseudo-diagnosis, NOT fake disease

For once, Twitter actually changed Orac’s mind. Chronic Lyme disease is not a fake disease. Rather, it is a fake diagnosis or pseudodiagnosis disconnected from what is really going on physiologically. That’s why only quacks use the diagnosis.

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Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery

Mao triumphant: The World Health Organization officially embraces traditional Chinese medicine quackery

Seven decades ago, Chairman Mao Zedong began promoting traditional Chinese medicine and its “integration” with science-based medicine. His long game has paid off, and he has triumphed, thanks to WHO, which has formally approved integrating mystical and pseudoscientific TCM codes to the new ICD-11.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery

The violent rhetoric of the antivaccine movement intensifies

Violent rhetoric has always been part of the antivaccine movement.Leaders of the antivax movement, like Del Bigtree, use apocalyptic and violent rhetoric, and then deny that they’ve done so. Unfortunately, it seems to be getting worse, and I fear violence.