Why do cranks favor ad hominem attacks over scientific arguments? They work!
Cranks, quacks, and pseudoscientists favor ad hominem attacks against scientists over arguments based in science. Unfortunately, new research suggests that ad hominem attacks against scientists making a scientific claim can be as effective as attacks based on science and evidence. The post Why do cranks favor <em>ad hominem</em> attacks over scientific arguments? They work! appeared first on RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - February 15, 2018 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Popular culture Science ad hominem featured GMO psychology vaccines Source Type: blogs

Out for signatures: A California ballot initiative by Cheriel Jensen that sounds as though it were written by Mike Adams
Last week, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla approved a ballot initiative to collect signatures that would, if passed, reverse school vaccine mandates, ban GMOs, and demonize chemicals. It sounds like something Mike Adams would have written. Fortunately, 365,880 signatures of registered voters are needed, which makes it unlikely that this will pass. The post Out for signatures: A California ballot initiative by Cheriel Jensen that sounds as though it were written by Mike Adams appeared first on RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - February 14, 2018 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Medicine News of the Weird Politics Popular culture Pseudoscience California California Clean Environment Cheriel Jensen featured genetically modified organisms GMO SB 277 vaccines Source Type: blogs

Quackery and “ wellness ” : The case of David and Collet Stephan and their son Ezekiel
David and Collet Stephan stand convicted of not having provided their son Ezekiel with essential medical care, which led to his death from meningitis. None of this stopped the "wellness" industry from featuring David as a speaker at its expos; that is, until it started causing bad publicity. When that happened, Stephan was unceremoniously dumped. But the quackery in "wellness" remains unchanged. The post Quackery and “wellness”: The case of David and Collet Stephan and their son Ezekiel appeared first on RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - February 13, 2018 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Integrative medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery Collet Stephan David Stephan EMEmpowerPlus Ezekiel Stephan featured Health and Wellness Expos of Canada naturop Source Type: blogs

Death by Gardasil? Not so fast … (2018 edition)
There is a type of “vaccine injury” story promoted by the antivaccine movement that is particularly pernicious, a narrative I call “death by Gardasil.” The stories, which use tenuous connections between vaccination against HPV to prevent cervical cancer and the unexpected death of a teen or young adult, are always tragic, and you can’t help but feel incredible empathy for the parents. However, none of these stories constitute compelling evidence that Gardasil kills young people. Basically, antivaxers exploit the grief of these parents and their understandable desire to find a cause for their child’s demise to d...
Source: Respectful Insolence - February 12, 2018 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Antivaccine nonsense Cancer Medicine Movies Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking Annabelle Morin Cervarix Chloe Brookes-Holder Christina Tarsell Christopher Shaw Colton Berrett featured Gardasil hpv human pap Source Type: blogs

James Lyons-Weiler and Leslie Manookian are still battling for the title of Most Antivaccine Crank
Yesterday's crank fight continues, as James Lyons-Weiler, antivax warrior and founder of the Institute for Pure and Applied Knowledge, stung by Leslie Manookian's attack painting him as insufficiently antivaccine and even a tool of the vaccine-industrial complex, strikes back. Hilarity ensues as he battles Manookian for the title of Most Antivaccine Crank in the World. The post James Lyons-Weiler and Leslie Manookian are still battling for the title of Most Antivaccine Crank appeared first on RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - February 9, 2018 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Cancer Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery biomarkers computational biology crankfest featured genomics Institute for Pure and Applied Knowledge James Lyons-Weiler Leslie Manookian vaccines Source Type: blogs

Get out the popcorn! Leslie Manookian attacks fellow antivaxer James Lyons-Weiler
I always love a good crank fight, and we seem to be witnessing an entertaining one, as Leslie Manookian attacks fellow antivaxer James Lyons-Weiler for not being antivaccine enough. Get out the popcorn! The post Get out the popcorn! Leslie Manookian attacks fellow antivaxer James Lyons-Weiler appeared first on RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - February 8, 2018 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking featured James Lyons-Weiler Leslie Manookian quackery The Greater Good vaccines Source Type: blogs

The Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health: Exaggerating the evidence for acupuncture to make it appear to be more than an elaborate placebo
The Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health is a group dedicated to promoting "integrative medicine" in medical academia that has, unfortunately, been very successful over the last two decades. Recently, it published a report that promotes acupuncture as a tool to combat the opioid epidemic Let's just put it this way. The ACIMH exaggerates the evidence rather obviously. The post The Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health: Exaggerating the evidence for acupuncture to make it appear to be more than an elaborate placebo appeared first on RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - February 7, 2018 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Complementary and alternative medicine Integrative medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health acupuncture Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Source Type: blogs

No, antivaccine quack Mark Geier has not been exonerated, but the Maryland Board of Physicians appears to have screwed up
Autism quack Dr. Mark Geier recently won a $2.5 million judgment against the Maryland Board of Physicians for having violated his medical privacy by including the name of a drug he was taking in a public cease-and-decist order. Antivaxers are trying to spin this as some sort of vindication of his antivaccine quackery. Make no mistake, the board appears to have screwed up, but that has nothing to do with whether its revocation of Geier's medical license was justified. The post No, antivaccine quack Mark Geier has not been exonerated, but the Maryland Board of Physicians appears to have screwed up appeared first on RESPECTFU...
Source: Respectful Insolence - February 6, 2018 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery chemical castration David Geier featured Lupron Mark Geier mercury testosterone thimerosal vaccines Source Type: blogs

Who cares what celebrities think about vaccines?
Parents Magazine published an article in which it listed what various celebrity moms think of vaccines. Unfortunately, it was an example of false equivalence. Indeed, it was one of the worst examples of false equivalence I've ever seen. The post Who cares what celebrities think about vaccines? appeared first on RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - February 5, 2018 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Movies Popular culture Television Jenny McCarthy Kirsten Bell Kristin Cavallari mayim bialik quackery vaccines Source Type: blogs

More naturopathic propaganda claiming lifestyle interventions as their own and adding quackery
Naturopaths claim that they are the best at preventing heart disease because of their skill in using "natural" treatments. In reality, what they do is to fuse reasonable lifestyle recommendations with pure quackery. The post More naturopathic propaganda claiming lifestyle interventions as their own and adding quackery appeared first on RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - February 2, 2018 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Medicine Naturopathy Quackery atherosclerosis featured heart disease propaganda pseudoscience Source Type: blogs

Quackademic medicine triumphant (yet again): A defense of acupuncture on the Harvard Health Blog that misses the point
If you want yet another piece of evidence that quackademic medicine, where once science-based medical schools embrace quackery, is triumphant, is needed, look no further than a fallacy-filled blog post on the Harvard Health Blog in defense of acupuncture. The post Quackademic medicine triumphant (yet again): A defense of acupuncture on the Harvard Health Blog that misses the point appeared first on RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - February 1, 2018 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Clinical trials Integrative medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking acupuncture acupuncture points Carolyn Bernstein featured Harvard Health Blog Harvard Medical School Helene Langevin quackademic medicine Source Type: blogs

In Goop Health: An even quackier quackfest of dangerous misinformation than expected
Science advocate and Goop critic Dr. Jen Gunter managed to infiltrate Gwyneth Paltrow's quackfest In Goop Health by hiding in plain sight. (Actually, she just bought a ticket and attended.) What she found was a wretched hive of scum and quackery, plus a psychic who claims that death is not real. In addition to the nonsense, there was a dark side, as well,with quacks promoting the idea that you can cure cancer with thought alone and don't need medication to treat depression. The post In Goop Health: An even quackier quackfest of dangerous misinformation than expected appeared first on RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - January 30, 2018 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Integrative medicine Movies Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery Anita Moorjani cold reading Covetton House Drew Barrymore Eben Alexander featured Goop Gwyneth Paltr Source Type: blogs

More on the funding of acupuncture quackery by Medicaid
A few weeks ago, I described how acupuncture advocates appeared to have successfully snookered the Ohio Medicaid program into funding the quackery that is acupuncture for Medicaid recipients. Now, they're poised to go beyond Ohio The post More on the funding of acupuncture quackery by Medicaid appeared first on RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - January 29, 2018 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Clinical trials Integrative medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery acupuncture featured Medicaid Ohio Oregon Vermont Source Type: blogs

Stephen Colbert sells out to Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop
Almost alone among celebrities, Stephen Colbert used to ruthlessly (and justifiably) mock Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle brand Goop on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. So eyebrows were raised (at least mine were) when it was learned that Paltrow would be a guest on The Late Show. During a bout of insomnia last night I saw the episode and had time to write about it. Her appearance was worse than I expected, a veritable puff piece promoting her her quackiest In Goop Health, where a featured speaker is a rabidly antivaccine doctor named Kelly Brogan. The post Stephen Colbert sells out to Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop appeared firs...
Source: Respectful Insolence - January 26, 2018 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Quackery Television conscious uncoupling Covetton House featured Goop Gwyneth Paltrow in Goop Health Jade Eggs Late Show with Stephen Colbert Source Type: blogs

In which my state senator Patrick Colbeck goes pretty much full antivaccine
In Michigan, we have succeeded in decreasing the rate of nonmedical exemptions by requiring parents requesting them to attend an educational session before they can claim such exemptions. Unfortunately, my state senator, Patrick Colbeck, thinks this is a bad idea and has revealed himself to be, if not antivaccine, antivaccine-sympathetic. The post In which my state senator Patrick Colbeck goes pretty much full antivaccine appeared first on RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE. (Source: Respectful Insolence)
Source: Respectful Insolence - January 25, 2018 Category: Surgery Authors: Orac Tags: Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics featured Michigan nonmedical exemptions Patrick Colbeck vaccines Source Type: blogs