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Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Quackery

Why some physicians embrace quackery

And now for something completely different. Yes, it’s about time for that, isn’t it? I’ve probably beat the Tribeca Film Festival story into the ground, even for me, having spent the last week blogging about it. Scratch that. There’s no “probably” about it. I frequently write at length about the quackery that is homeopathy. One […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Movies Quackery

The Tribeca Film Festival drops Andrew Wakefield’s antivaccine conspiracyfest “documentary”

Well, well, well, curiouser and curiouser. Earlier this afternoon on the Tribeca Film Festival page: UPDATE: 3/26/2016 Statement from Robert De Niro, co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival, regarding VAXXED at the Festival: “My intent in screening this film was to provide an opportunity for conversation around an issue that is deeply personal to me […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

When alternative medicine cancer cures fail, it’s always the patient’s fault. Always.

After a trilogy of posts on the lamentably bad decision on the part of the Tribeca Film Festival to screen a pseudoscience- and misinformation-filled documentary by hero to the antivaccine movement, Andrew Wakefield, that is basically one long conspiracy theory, I thought it was time for a change. I had briefly toyed with the idea […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Movies Quackery

What’s going on here? Andrew Wakefield’s antivaccine propaganda film to be screened at the Tribeca Film Festival

When last we left Andrew Wakefield, hero to the antivaccine movement, he was a headliner on the Conspira-Sea Cruise, a cruise filled with conspiracy theorists, crop circle chasers, cranks, quacks, and antivaccine activists. It was a huge come down from his formerly exalted position as chief spokesman and “scientist” for the antivaccine movement, a position […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

“Cat-upuncture”? What did those poor cats ever do to deserve this?

Acupuncture is quackery. As with naturopathy (a medical pseudo-“specialty” that embraces acupuncture and other so-called traditional Chinese medicine), when I write about acupuncture I like to start out with a provocative statement, a statement of—dare I say it?—judgment in order to shock new readers and let them know exactly where I’m coming from. Why I […]