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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

The beginning of a very, very bad year for antivaccinationists

One thing that’s become apparent to me so far in 2009 is that, while 2008 was the year of the antivaccinationist, 2009 is already shaping up to be a very bad year for antivaccinationists. A very bad year indeed, and this is a very, very good thing–if it can be sustained. But first, let’s take […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM): Your Tax Dollars at Work

What’s an advocate of evidence- and science-based medicine to think about the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, better known by its abbrevation NCCAM? As I’ve pointed out before, I used to be somewhat of a supporter of NCCAM. I really did, back when I was more naïve and idealistic. Indeed, as I mentioned […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Quackery Television

Andrew Wakefield: Worst person in the world

I’m not as big a fan of Keith Olbermann as I used to be. Indeed, sometimes he strikes me as the liberal version of Rush Limbaugh, not to mention a blowhard. However, occasionally, he still has it, and when he’s on, no one skewers the dishonest better than he does. For instance, after a media […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Blogging Complementary and alternative medicine Computers and social media Entertainment/culture Medicine Quackery

Another failure of the memory hole, thanks to the Internet

Poor Jeni Barnett. You remember Jeni Barnett, don’t you? She’s the U.K. radio host whose ill-informed rants against vaccines Ben Goldacre exposed so gloriously last week. Unfortunately, the price Ben paid consisted of threats of legal action for “copyright infringement” in the form of his having posted audio of the relevant segment of Barnett’s show. […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Friday Woo Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Sepsis is not caused by bacterial infection?

Sometimes I come across something so bizarre, so utterly wrong, that my mind reels in confusion and amazement, not to mention horror, that anyone can actually think or write something something like it. In fact, for a moment I considered offering up this one bit of horrifically inspired craziness up as an installment of Your […]