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Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Integrative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

Orac basks in the adoration of Gary Null

Orac loves to bask in the adulation of his “fans.” This time around, one of the old men of quackery, Gary Null, has decided that he really, really doesn’t like science-based medicine. That includes Steve Novella, Susan Gerbic, and…Orac.

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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

How is it that in 2018 cancer quack Stanislaw Burzynski is still preying on desperate cancer patients?

In the 1970s, young polish expat and cancer researcher Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski thought he had found a cure for many incurable cancers. He dubbed it antineoplastons (ANPs_. Unfortunately, he left the path of science and started treating patients before he had evidence that ANPs work. Four decades later, without ever having published compelling evidence for anticancer efficacy of ANPs, he’s still luring desperate patients to his clinic. Now he’s set to branch out to quack clinics in Mexico. Why can’t the law stop him?

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Vaccine scientist and advocate Dr. Paul Offit receives a much-deserved award

With the weekend so busy that the cracks were starting to show in Orac’s blogging activity, Orac nearly missed posting. Fortunately, he learned that Dr. Paul Offit received the Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal for his vaccine science and advocacy. Orac is, of course, more than happy to congratulate him.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Pseudoscience Quackery Science

A not-so-Thinking Mom loves a crooked antivaccine “theory” by Forrest Maready

Zoe O’Toole, aka “The Professor” at an antivaccine crank blog known as The Thinking Moms’ Revolution, likes to think she’s figured out this whole science thing. Her falling for “crooked theory,” an impressively daft piece of antivaccine pseudoscience by Forrest Maready, shows her self-delusion on that score.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Jennifer Margulis: Another rising star in the antivaccine movement

I’ve mentioned Dr. Paul Thomas before as a rising star in the antivaccine movement. A month and a half later, it occurs to me that I haven’t given proper due to his co-author, Jennifer Margulis, as an equally prominent rising star in the same crank movement. Here, I rectify that oversight.