Blog Profile / Respectful Insolence
| URL : | http://scienceblogs.com/insolence | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Health | |
| Posts on Regator: | 1957 | |
| Posts / Week: | 7.6 | |
| Archived Since: | June 8, 2008 | |
Blog Post Archive
At the AACR
Blogging might be a little sketchy for the next couple of days, because I'm at the American Association for Cancer Research Meeting (AACR) in Chicago, all to to imbibe the latest and greatest in cancer research. I'm sure I'll manageShow More Summary
The antivaccine movement resurrects the zombie that is the "autism epidemic"
If there's one thing that I've learned that I can always--and I do mean always--rely on from the antivaccine movement, it's that its members will always be all over any new study regarding vaccines and/or autism in an effort to preemptively put their pseudoscientific spin on the results. Show More Summary
"Opposing views": Cancer quackery versus...HIV/AIDS denialism
Since when did Opposing Views become NaturalNews.com? Anyone who's read this blog for a while knows that NaturalNews.com is one of the wretchedest hives of scum and quackery anywhere on the Internet, surpassing even The Huffington Post. Show More Summary
Acupuncture: Not an "essential health benefit" in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
This week, the Supreme Court is hearing a case that can only be described as historic. Any of you out there (in the U.S. anyway; I realize that my readership is international) who have paid even a passing attention to the news can'tShow More Summary
Dr. Bob Sears vs. Seth Mnookin: Measles outbreaks, AB 2109, and lacking the courage of one's convictions
It would appear that Dr. Bob Sears, author of The Vaccine Book, is in the news again. Specifically, he's brought himself back into the spotlight by publishing in that wretched hive of scum and quackery, The Huffington Post, a fallacy-filled...Show More Summary
Another case of chemotherapy refusal for pediatric cancer
As sometimes happens, last week I let myself get tied up writing multiple posts about a single topic, namely the promotion of an antivaccine movie by a school board president in California, apparently as part of an attempt to influence...Show More Summary
California Bill AB 2109: Real informed consent versus antivaccine misinformed consent
I've discussed the concept of "misinformed consent" multiple times before. Quacks in general, particularly the "health freedom" movement proclaim their dedication to "informed consent." "All we're asking for," they will say, "is informed consent." The antivaccine movement in particular demands "informed consent" about vaccines. Show More Summary
The promotion of an antivaccine propaganda movie continues apace
I'll give the Canary Party credit for one thing, if credit you can consider it. It's persistent in its promotion of antivaccine pseudoscience. Somehow, someone at Current TV decided that it would be a good idea to show an utterly unbalanced,...Show More Summary
Another defense of The Greater Good from the San Ramon Valley Unified School District
San Ramon, we have a problem. The other day, I laid some not-so-Respectful Insolence on a clueless school board president in San Ramon Valley, California, named Greg Marvel. What merited a heapin' helpin' of what Orac does so well was...Show More Summary
6 New Age cures that are (mostly) as full of crap as you think
Sometimes you find good skepticism in strange places. One example of this has been Cracked.com. Normally, Cracked.com is a humor site based on the magazine that I used to read sometimes back in 1970s. Unfortunately, the magazine folded several years ago, but the website lives on. Show More Summary
A school board president abuses his position to promote an antivaccine movie
A science-based blogger's work is never done, apparently. I'll show you what I mean in a minute. But first, I just have to make a simple observation. Pseudoscience, be it quackery, evolution denial, denial of anthropogenic global warming, antivaccine nonsense, or other forms of pseudoscience, apparently never dies. Show More Summary
Patient satisfaction versus quality of care, round two
About a month ago, I wrote about a study that looked at metrics of patient satisfaction and compared them to hard outcomes often used to evaluate quality of care, including frequency of emergency room usage, frequency of hospitalization, and overall mortality. Show More Summary
Camel's milk: The cure-all that cures autism, too?
The Autism File bills itself as a magazine dealing with all aspects of autism. In reality, it's basically a crank magazine dedicated to autism biomedical quackery plus a generous helping of antivaccine fear mongering. In fact, this passage...Show More Summary
Fighting the "acid" of negative (e)motions?
If there's one quack who both amuses and appalls me at the same time, it's Robert O. Young. You remember Robert O. Young, don't you? He's the guy who thinks that all disease is caused by excess acid. I've written about him quite a few times over the last several years. Show More Summary
Beware! Vaccines will sap and impurity your precious bodily DNA!
There are quite a few reasons why I blog. After all, to crank out between 500 and 3,000 words a day, with an average of somewhere around 1,500 by my reckoning) takes quite a commitment. One of the main reasons that I do this is to combat...Show More Summary
"Patient-centered care" vs. CAM in the New England Journal of Medicine
"Patient-centered care." It's the new buzzword in patient care. Personally, I find the term mor ethan a little Orwellian in that it can mean so many things. Basically, it's a lot like Humpty Dumpty when he says to Alice, "When I useShow More Summary
Andy Wakefield will prevail in his libel suit against Brian Deer because John Walker-Smith won his appeal? Not so fast there, pardner...
I don't know what it is about the beginning of a year. I don't know if it's confirmation bias or real, but it sure seems that something big happens early every year in the antivaccine world. Consider. As I pointed out back in February...Show More Summary
In which Orac takes advantage of his readership to help him answer a question
Having a reasonably popular blog is a cool thing because at times I can do things like what I'm about to do. I'd like to start the week off with a little bit of crowdsourcing. Earlier this week, a reader wrote to me at my not-so-super-secret...Show More Summary
Age of Autism's Anne Dachel takes on Bill Moyers over vaccines. Hilarity ensues.
Thanks to the partying and backslapping going on in the antivaccine movement over the reversal of the decision of the British General Medical Council to strike Professor John Walker-Smith off of the medical record, after a brief absence vaccines are back on the agenda of this blog. Show More Summary
Andy Wakefield exonerated because John Walker-Smith won his appeal? Not so fast there, partner...
I sense a disturbance in the antivaccine crankosphere. Actually, maybe "disturbance" is the wrong word. Unabashed whooping it up is closer to correct. High-fiving is perhaps a better term. Or maybe partying like it's 2005. The question, of course, is what is the inciting event was that sparked such widespread rejoicing in the antivaccine world. Show More Summary