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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics

Transmission gambit: An old antivax trope is resurrected

Recently, antivaxxers were all over social media after Tucker Carlson touted a “revelation” that the phase 3 clinical trial used to support licensure of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine didn’t examine its ability to block transmission as meaning that its inability to block transmission had been “covered up”. It wasn’t, and antivaxxers are ignoring everything we’ve learned over the last two years to make the claim that vaccines “don’t prevent transmission”.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Clinical trials Medicine Politics Popular culture

Can we trust the CDC and FDA any more?

Since the COVID-19 pandemic reached the US, increasing concern has been expressed about the politicization of the CDC and FDA due to pressure from the Trump administration to downplay the severity of the pandemic and push out treatments and a vaccine as fast as possible, potentially at the expense of safety. This has led me to a disturbing question: Can I trust the CDC and FDA any more?

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Bad science Clinical trials Medicine Politics Popular culture Skepticism/critical thinking

The FDA’s emergency use authorization of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19: Dangerous politics, not science

Yesterday, the FDA issued emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroqine and chloroquine to treat COVID-19. Politics, not science, is why.

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Autism Bioethics Cancer Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Integrative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

dōTERRA Center for Integrative Oncology: St. Elizabeth Healthcare sells out to an MLM company hawking essential oils

St. Elizabeth Healthcare in Cincinnati recently accepted $5 million from dōTERRA, an MLM company selling essential oils based on dubious claims. This is most definitely not a good look.

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Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Burzynski’s old lawyer Richard Jaffe throws a quack stem cell clinic under the bus

Richard Jaffe was Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski’s lawyer. For nearly two decades, Jaffe defended this cancer quack from the FDA, Texas Medical Board, and the government in the name of “health freedom” and even invented Burzynski’s business model of having over 70 clinical trials open that allow him to treat any cancer patient he wants. More recently, he’s been a defender of for-profit quack stem cell clinics. Last week, he shocked me by finding one stem cell clinic so quacky that he thinks the government should shut it down, even going so far as to use criminal prosecution if necessary. Basically, he’s willing to throw one quack stem cell clinic under the bus, so that others can continue to profit.