Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

If you think it’s just about mercury in vaccines, you’re wrong

While I am on vacation, I’m reprinting a number of “Classic Insolence” posts to keep the blog active while I’m gone. (It also has the salutory effect of allowing me to move some of my favorite posts from the old blog over to the new blog, and I’m guessing that quite a few of my […]

Categories
Friday Woo Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking Surgery

What a wonderful gift for Christmas

This one’s too good for me to ignore even on vacation. It’s the perfect gift for the skeptical. Remember the Friday Dose of Woo in which I had a little fun with the whole concept of trepanning (drilling a hole in your head to “improve blood flow”)? Well guess what? The trepanation guy (Randall W. […]

Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Friday Woo Medicine Quackery

Your Friday Dose of Woo: Stringing you along

Another week in the can. It’s been an eventful one, with prizes won, memories revived, and a couple of pesky Holocaust deniers descending to spew their bile. Hard as it is to believe, the year’s almost over and the holidays are upon us. You’re probably like me, tired of the Christmas carols, commercials urging you […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Flea talks reason, and the antivax hordes descend

Dr. Flea’s a guy after my own heart. He’s been blogging about vaccines, and now he’s getting into specific diseases. He’s posted an installment about the vaccine against Haemophilus influenza type B: The first American children to receive the Hib vaccine are turning 20 years old this year. Flea wasn’t practicing medicine in the pre-Hib […]

Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

FAQ: Woo versus non-woo

I don’t think I could have done it much better, if at all. Dr. R.W. presents, in FAQ-form, a primer on the difference between woo and conventional medicine, even conventional modalities that are weakly grounded in evidence. A couple of examples: Many of mainstream medicine’s conventional treatments are not evidence based. Aren’t they a form […]