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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Homeopathy Medicine Popular culture Skepticism/critical thinking

Whole Foods: Still a haven for quackery and antivaccine nonsense under Amazon

Whole Foods was purchased by Amazon in 2017. If you thought that would make a difference in the selling of quackery by Whole Foods, you thought wrong. Homeopathy and antivaccine quackery still rule there.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience

Sherri Tenpenny and James Grundvig: Desperately denying that measles kills

Sherri Tenpenny and James Grundvig contort logic into pretzels to deny that low vaccine uptake is responsible for measles outbreaks in Samoa and Congo.

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Bioethics Clinical trials Medicine

Libella Gene Therapeutics: Charging $1 million to participate in a phase 1 trial of anti-aging gene therapy

Libella Gene Therapeutics, LLC made the news last week for announcing a “pay-to-play” trial of its telomerase-based anti-aging gene therapy. What was shocking about the announcement was not that it was a “pay-to-play” trial, given that such trials have become all too common, but rather the price of enrollment: $1 million. Worse, the trial is being conducted in Colombia; the therapy doesn’t have the greatest preclinical justification; and it’s a phase 1 trial, which means it is only trial of safety, not efficacy. How can unethical and scientifically dubious trials like this be stopped?

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Bad science Biology Clinical trials Medicine Quackery

The Lung Institute and the stem cell hard sell

The Lung Institute is more evidence that all for-profit stem cell clinics are predatory clinics selling snake oil. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. OF. THEM. If there’s an exception, I haven’t found it yet.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery

Antivaxxer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. writes to Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi about measles in the middle of an outbreak

As a deadly measles outbreak continued to kill children in Samoa, antivaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. wrote to Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi. His deceptive pseudoscientific talking points became the template for antivaxers seeking to deflect blame from themselves.