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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Dr. Aviva Romm: Distancing herself from Goop after defending it

Dr. Aviva Romm, one of Goop’s doctors, tried to distance herself from Goop’s pseudoscience. It didn’t go well.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

Surprise! Relatively small decreases in vaccine uptake can lead to big increases in vaccine-preventable disease!

Whenever vaccine uptake falls to a level below that needed to maintain herd immunity, the risk of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases climbs. It doesn’t take that dramatic of a decline. Here’s a study that shows how a small decrease in vaccine uptake can lead to a large increase in disease.

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Pharma hit squads vs. “holistic healers”: The resurrection

Although it’s not uncommon for there to be conspiracy theories about police shootings, it is unusual for such a conspiracy theory to touch upon topics covered right here on this blog. Sadly, it’s happened in the wake of the police shooting of Justine Damond in Minneapolis.

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Biology Cancer Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Does chemotherapy work? Chemotherapy vs. “spreading” cancer.

Earlier this month, cancer quacks everywhere were touting a study that suggests that chemotherapy administered before breast cancer treatment can stimulate the spread of cancer, pointing to it as evidence that chemotherapy doesn’t work and even makes cancer worse. In reality, the study was far more nuanced. It didn’t show that chemotherapy doesn’t work (quite the contrary) but does point to ways we can make chemotherapy more effective.

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Are Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop winning against skeptics?

The ubiquity of quackery and pseudoscience of the sort epitomized by Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop empire can be depressing if you’re a skeptic. Sometimes it feels as though it’s not worth refuting the nonsense she peddles. But it is. Just maybe not in the way you think.