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Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery

Mao triumphant: The World Health Organization officially embraces traditional Chinese medicine quackery

Seven decades ago, Chairman Mao Zedong began promoting traditional Chinese medicine and its “integration” with science-based medicine. His long game has paid off, and he has triumphed, thanks to WHO, which has formally approved integrating mystical and pseudoscientific TCM codes to the new ICD-11.

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery

The case of Tan Qindong shows that in China traditional Chinese medicine is big pharma

Proponents of integrating quackery like most traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) into real medicine portray themselves as underdogs being persecuted by big pharma and the FDA. In China, however, the case of Tan Qindong shows that in China TCM is big pharma.

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Complementary and alternative medicine Integrative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

The World Health Organization: Integrating quackery into the ICD-11

ICD-10 is a standardized system of alphanumeric codes for diagnoses maintained by the World Health Organization used throughout the world for billing, epidemiology, research, and cataloging causes of death. Its successor, ICD-11, is nearing completion, and unfortunately appears to be taking the “integration” of traditional medicine to a whole new level by integrating quack diagnoses with real diagnoses.