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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Quackery

A well-deserved honor is bestowed

Congratulations are in order. Earlier this week, someone whom I admire has received a well-deserved honor: The IOM announced the names of 65 new members and five foreign associates today in conjunction with its 41st annual meeting. Election to the IOM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine

Brian Deer strikes again: More evidence of the worthlessness of Andrew Wakefield’s “research”

I had been wondering why the anti-vaccine crank blog Age of Autism had been gearing up the slime machine against Brian Deer lately. For example, former UPI reporter turned vaccine/autism cran Dan Olmsted has been attacking the BMJ. As you recall, the BMGpublished Brian Deer’s latest revelations earlier this year when he quite pithily and […]

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Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

HIV/AIDS denialism versus science

As a skeptic and a blogger, my main interest has evolved to be the discussion of science-based medicine and how one can identify what in medicine is and is not based in science. Part of the reason for this is because of my general interest in skepticism dating back to my discovery that there actually […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Quackery

Compare and contrast

I’ve spent nearly seven years and an enormous amount of verbiage writing about the difference between pseudoscience and science, between cranks and skeptics, between denialists and scientists. Along the way, I’ve identified a number of factors common to cranks and denialists. For example, two of the most prominent characteristics are a tendency to cherry pick […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

A survey administered by a German anti-vaccine homeopath backfires spectacularly

Sometimes I feel a little bit guilty when I’m writing a post deconstructing anti-vaccine nonsense, “alternative medicine” quackery, or some other form of pseudoscience. This guilt usually derives when I end up picking a target that’s just too easy, a study that’s just so mind-numbingly, brain-meltingly awful that it’s not much of a challenge, even […]