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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Evolution History Surgery

An antivaxxer abuses evolution to go full transphobe

Antivaxxer James Lyons-Weiler, like so many antivaxxers, just let his transphobe freak flag fly high. Does he have to abuse evolution too?

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Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking Surgery

Dr. Charlie Teo is back in the news

I wrote about neurosurgeon Dr. Charlie Teo and his supposedly near-miraculous resections of “inoperable” brain tumors. He’s back, and it turns out that I was likely way too easy on him a decade ago.

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Bad science Bioethics Clinical trials Medicine Surgery

Olfactory mucosa tumors: Another complication of stem cell treatments

A recent case report of a spinal mass in a patient with spinal cord injury who received an olfactory mucosa implant shows that stem cells are not risk-free, even when done at a reputable hospital rather than at a for-profit quack stem cell clinics.

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Cancer Medicine Quackery Surgery

Ranjana Srivastava: When cancer patients want quackery

Regular readers will have noticed that I haven’t been blogging nearly as much as usual. All I can say is that a combination of personal and professional issues and obligations have gotten in the way. Also, I have been a bit under the weather, as hard as it is to believe that a Tarial cell-driven […]

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Medicine Popular culture Science Skepticism/critical thinking Surgery

Do medical errors really kill a quarter of a million people a year in the US? (2019 edition)

The claim that medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the US has always rested on very shaky evidence; yet it’s become common wisdom that is cited as though everyone accepts it. But if estimates of 250,000 to 400,000 deaths due to medical error are way too high, what is the real number? A study published last month suggests that it’s almost certainly a lot lower and has been modestly decreasing since 1990.