oracknows | August 7, 2010Here's some sheer awesomeness in the form of an explanation of germ theory denialism:
The only thing I would disagree with is the conclusion at the end that germ theory denialists are not much of a threat. In fact, germ theory denialism, usually softer germ theory denialism, such as the kind that says a healthy body can can fight off any bacteria or virus (the implication being that germs can cause disease only if there is some problem in the body) is a major strain of "thought" (if you can call it that) in anti-vaccine circles. In fact, it's a major strain of "thought" driving many forms…
oracknows | August 6, 2010If there's one aspect of medical education that I consider to be paramount, at least when it comes to understanding how to analyze and apply all the evidence, both basic science and clinical, it's a firm grounding in the scientific method. I advocate science-based medicine (SBM), which is what evidence-based medicine (EBM) should be. SBM tries to overcome the shortcomings of EBM by taking into account all the evidence, both scientific and clinical, in deciding what therapies work, what therapies don't work, and why. To recap, a major part of our thesis is that EBM, although a step forward…
oracknows | August 5, 2010I hate science press releases.
Well, not exactly. I hate science press releases that hype a study beyond its importance. I hate it even more when the investigators who published the study make statements not justified by the study and use the study as a jumping off point to speculate wildly. True, it's not always the fault of the investigators, particularly if they don't have much experience dealing with the press, but all too often scientists fall prey to the tendency to gab glibly and give the reporter what he or she wants: Pithy, juicy quotes that relate the results to what the reporter…
oracknows | August 4, 2010I haven't really taken much note of Andrew Wakefield in a while, and in general that's a very good thing indeed. However, I found out recently that somehow I missed this gem from around the time of Autism One:
That's right. I thought it was pretty bad that Andy Wakefield had appeared on Coast to Coast AM with George Noory, that all night conspiracy/UFO/paranormal radio show that's been so popular here in the U.S. for many years. It turns out that I missed an even worse one: Wakefield showing up on Alex Jones' even more looney conspiracy show, PrisonPlanet.tv. This is the same guy who…
oracknows | August 4, 2010Of all the bizarre forms of antivaccine autism quackery, one of the strangest has to be Mark and David Geier's "Lupron protocol." I've written about it many times, dating back to 2006 and, more recently, when the Chicago Tribune provided the first coverage I'm aware of of the Geiers' quackery in a major newspaper, thanks to Trine Tsouderos. If you want the details, feel free to click on the links, but I'll boil it down for purposes of this post.
Basically, the father-and-son team of autism woo-meisters who operate out of the basement of the father's Silver Spring, MD house, Mark and David…
oracknows | August 3, 2010Continuing on the theme for today, I can't resist posting this little news report from Seattle that came up in my newsfeed:
It kind of ruins the placebo effect to be left lying around after hours with a bunch of needles sticking in your back, doesn't it?
oracknows | August 3, 2010One of the things that disturbs me the most about where medicine is going is the infiltration of quackery into academic medicine. So prevalent is this unfortunate phenomenon that Doctor RW even coined a truly apt term for it: Quackademic medicine. In essence, pseudoscientific and even prescientific ideas are rapidly being "integrated" with science-based medicine, or, as I tend to view it, quackery is being "integrated" with scientific medicine, to the gradual erosion of scientific standards in medicine. No quackery is too quacky, it seems. Even homeopathy and naturopathy can seemingly find…
oracknows | August 2, 2010...Scientopia, a new science blogging collective that just opened shop today.
You'll note that several of its founding members are refugees from right here at Sb, including White Coat Underground, Good Math, Bad Math, Adventures in Ethics and Science, The Questionable Authority, This Scientific Life, and Thus Spake Zuska. There are also several other intriguing-looking blogs there with which I'm not familiar. I might have to check them out.
Hmmm. The entire collective looks rather promising...
oracknows | August 2, 2010About six months ago, I applied my usual brand of not-so-Respectful Insolence to what I termed unforgivable medical errors. These are errors that are so obviously harmful and lethal that there is no excuse for not putting systems into place to prevent them or so egregiously careless that there is, quite simply, no excuse for them to occur. As I mentioned before, there are a handful of such "unforgivable" errors in surgery. Although not all surgeons would necessarily agree on the specific identities of all of them, there are some upon which nearly all surgeons would agree. Examples such as…
oracknows | July 31, 2010Two days ago, I posted my utter contempt for the idea of a science section in that cesspit of pseudsocience, New Age woo, and quackery, The Huffington Post. Part of the reason for my scoffing at the very idea that a science section in HuffPo would not rapidly degenerate into yet another outlet for more of the same.
Another aspect of the HuffPo culture that is utter anathema to good science blogging is its culture of deleting critical comments. There's even been a whole blog, Banned from HuffPo, dedicated to discussing and publicizing HuffPo's offenses against free speech. The blogger, Red Dog…
oracknows | July 30, 2010A couple of days ago, I expressed my amusement at an e-mail sent to me by someone named "Carol." The amusement came primarily from the subject matter in the e-mail, which described something called a "biophoton ionizer," whatever that is. Knowing, as I do, how prevalent water woo is (after all, what is homeopathy but the grand daddy of all water woo?), I was naturally curious about what the heck a "biophoton ionizer" is. After all, what's the difference between a regular photon and a "biophoton"? What is the characteristic of the photon that makes it "bio," if you know what I mean. I was sure…
oracknows | July 29, 2010I've been a staunch defender of the ethical use of animals in research over the years. However, one area of animal research that I've always thought should be held to the highest standard is primate research. If there's one area of animal research that requires the most justification, it's research using primates as animal models. And, no, I'm not talking about Laura Hewitson's and Andy Wakefield's unethical abuse of primates.
Sometimes, however, there is the ethical use of primates. For example, the use of primates was instrumental in justifying a clinical trial of whether a microbicidal gel…
oracknows | July 29, 2010Funny how everything old is new again, isn't it?
Yes, if there's one thing I've learned over nearly six years of blogging, it's that, sooner or later, everything is recycled, and I do mean everything. At least, that was the thought going through my mind when I came across PZ's discussion of a clueless wonder who appears to be advocating a science section in that cesspit of anti-vaccine quackery and quantum woo, The Huffington Post, whose proclivities for pseudoscience have led its activities to be characterized as a war on medical science. It's actually more than just a war on medical science…
oracknows | July 28, 2010Nancy Snyderman isn't helping. At least, she wasn't helping yesterday.
Don't get me wrong. I like the fact that NBC's Chief Medical Editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman is a staunch defender of vaccination. She's one of the rare talking head doctors on TV who pulls no punches when going after the anti-vaccine movement, so much so that the big macher of the anti-vaccine movement and head of the anti-vaccine crank blog Age of Autism J.B. Handley has referred to her as a "NBC's pharma-whore in residence." Let's just put it this way: Anyone whom J.B. detests and labels with a term like that can't be all…
oracknows | July 28, 2010One of the odd things about blogging is the e-mail. True, I don't get anything near the quantity, quality, or sheer weirdness of the e-mail that, for example, PZ Myers, gets, but I do get my share. Some of it's praise; a lot of it ends up being rants against my being "close-minded" or excessively harsh on quackery; occasionally I get the odd rant about religion; and sometimes I get something that's just plain weird. In this latter category, very, very occasionally I get e-mails that show that the person sending it either doesn't have a clue or sent the e-mail to the wrong person.
Enter "Carol…
oracknows | July 27, 2010About three weeks ago, fresh after having experienced my own attack by anti-vaccine activists who tried to get me fired, I noticed that Doctors Data was doing what cranks and crank organizations can't resist doing when they face scientific criticism, namely to lash out. Such lashing out can take many forms. In my case, as I mentioned, the cranks were the anti-vaccine loons at Age of Autism, and the attack consisted of an e-mail campaign against me to the board of directors of my university. To Dr. Barrett, who, thanks to his many more years taking on medical pseudoscience than I, is far more…
oracknows | July 26, 2010On Friday, I noted an e-mail circulating around the Internet in which disgraced University of Kentucky chemist and card-carrying general in the mercury militia, Boyd Haley, announced that he was suspending sales of his industrial chelator turned "antioxidant dietary supplement" OSR#1. Now, true to form, Trine Tsouderos at the Chicago Tribune has noticed and published a story on Haley's decision, Controversial supplement to come off shelves:
Pharmacies are halting sales of OSR#1, a compound marketed as a dietary supplement to parents of children with autism, six weeks after the U.S. Food and…
oracknows | July 26, 2010Note: Parts of this post have appeared elsewhere, but not in this form.
If there's one aspect of so-called "alternative medicine" and "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) is that its practitioners tout as being a huge advantage over what they often refer to sneeringly as "conventional" or "scientific" medicine is that -- or so its practitioners claim -- alt-med treats the "whole patient," that it's "wholistic" in a way that the evil reductionist "Western" science-based medicine can't be. Supposedly, we reductionistic, unimaginative physicians only focus on disease and ignore the "…
oracknows | July 25, 2010Here's something for the more creative types out there at The Examining Room of Dr. Charles:
The first annual Charles Prize for Poetry will be awarded to the writer who submits for consideration the most outstanding poem within the context of health and medicine.
Open to everyone (patients, doctors, nurses, students, etc.).
Entries should be related to experiencing, practicing, or reflecting upon a medical, scientific, or health-related matter.
The winner will be selected by a panel of three judges, including me. These other judges may or may not be Nobel Laureates, you never know.
Is…
oracknows | July 25, 2010Longtime readers know that I'm a bit of a World War II buff. In fact, that's how I ended up developing such a profound interest in Holocaust denial, to the point where I used to write about it rather frequently. I don't write about it as often these days, not so much because I'm not still interested in countering it but rather because I don't routinely come across it in the news as often as I used to.
Be that as it may, I happen to love WWII propaganda posters. American, British, Russian, German, I collect digital images of them all, and although my collection is only a couple of hundred…