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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

Let’s do some real science for a change! The NCCAM Strategic Plan 2011-2015

I’ve made no secret about the fact that I am not a fan of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). I consider it a useless, redundant center within the National Institutes of Health because it does nothing that could’t be done as well or better in the institutes and centers of the […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

A commenter takes me to task for being mean to Andrew Wakefield

It’s been pointed out to me that our old pal David Kirby, perhaps the cleverest antivaccine propagandist out there, is back at (where else?) The Huffington Post (a.k.a. HuffPo) asking why The Autism-Vaccine Debate: Why It Won’t Go Away (short answer: because opportunists like Kirby have teamed with believers in pseudoscience to keep fanning the […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

A proposal: An anti-Schopenhauer response to anti-vaccine cranks

There’s a quote attributed to philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer that is much beloved of cranks: All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. I hate this quote with a bloody passion. Actually, that’s not quite true. Rather, I find it rather amusing […]

Categories
Bioethics Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Another teen endangered by “alternative medicine,” part 2

Judge Orders Surgery For Teen Wrestler: MyFoxPHILLY.com I have to be honest here. I don’t know for sure what I think of the latest developments in the Mazeratti Mitchell case. As you may recall from a couple of days ago, Mazeratti Mitchell is a 16 year old wrestler in Philadelphia who suffered a spinal cord […]

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Humor Religion

Benny Hinn: Dark Lord of the Sith

Let’s face it. This week has just been one of those weeks, and it’s not over yet. A little silly break is in order: There, I fell better now. Consider this a Thursday open thread. I haven’t had an open thread in a while, and when things get busy enough it’s a time-honored way of […]