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Cancer Medicine Quackery Religion

How is it that cancer quack Stanislaw Burzynski is still grifting in 2023?

This year, cancer quack Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski turned 80. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to be slowing down charging patients with advanced cancer huge sums for false hope.

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Medicine Naturopathy Politics Religion Science

What do licensing naturopaths and banning abortion have in common?

The Supreme Court’s striking down Roe v. Wade and the subsequent abortion bans it enabled remind me very much of naturopathic licensure laws. They’re both based on pseudoscience and ideology.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Religion

Antivaxxers, COVID-19 vaccines, and “fetal cells”: Everything old is new again

Antivaxxers are raising the specter of “fetal cells” being used in COVID-19 vaccines. In the age of the pandemic, everything old is new again!

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Religion

Michigan Senate Bill 1055: Antivaccine fear mongering masquerading as “informed consent” about “fetal parts” in vaccines

Antivaxers frequently try to appeal to antiabortion activists by claiming “fetal parts” are used in vaccines. In Michigan, they’re trying to enshrine such deceptive efforts into law in Michigan Senate Bill 1055, which would mandate “informed consent” regarding vaccines for which fetal cell lines are used to grow the virus. In reality, this would be misinformed consent and a strategy to frighten parents out of vaccinating.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bioethics Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

How “aborted fetal cells” contributed to vaccines preventing billions of cases of disease and many million deaths

Antiabortion antivaccine activists like to claim that “aborted fetal cells” in vaccines mean that vaccines are contaminated products of evil. In reality, there are no “aborted fetal cells” in vaccines. A cell line derived from an aborted fetus in 1962 did, however, lead to huge advances in vaccine technology and the prevention of many millions of deaths worldwide.