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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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Bad science Biology Clinical trials Medicine Science Skepticism/critical thinking

SBM versus ivermectin and other implausible treatments

Another large randomized controlled trial for ivermectin showed no efficacy for the early treatment of COVID-19. This is not a surprise to science-based medicine advocates. Here’s why the story of ivermectin shows that SBM isn’t just for “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) —and never was.

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Clinical trials Medicine Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Here we go again: Is evidence-based medicine an “illusion”?

Every so few years, someone writes in a reputable journal that evidence-based medicine is corrupt or an “illusion.” Here we go again, this time in The BMJ, and antivaxxers are going wild.

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Bad science Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Popular culture

These days, ivermectin reminds me of acupuncture

As high-quality evidence increasingly and resoundingly shows that ivermectin does not work against COVID-19, advocates are doing what acupuncture advocates do: Turning to lower quality “positive” studies to claim incorrectly that their favorite ineffective treatment actually does “work.”

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Antivaccine nonsense Computers and social media Medicine Politics Popular culture

Defeat The Mandates: Green Our Vaccines reconstituted for COVID-19

A month ago, Dr. Robert Malone announced the “Defeat the Mandates” rally on Joe Rogan’s podcast, to be held this Sunday. I sensed many echoes of Jenny McCarthy’s 2008 “Green Our Vaccines” rally, although what’s different is even more disturbing than the antivaccine misinformation that’s the same.