Results for: "health freedom movement"
Trouble in (MAHA) paradise?
Even as President Donald Trump is inaugurated today and his pick for HHS Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. prepares to face confirmation hearings, there is trouble in "make America healthy" paradise.
Donald Trump won. Now what for science-based federal health policy?
Last week, Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris and will return to the White House in January. What does this mean for science-based federal health policy? Hint: Nothing good. Just like the rest of the government, the worst people are likely to be in charge of health and science policy.
RFK Jr. declares MAHA war against the FDA
In a post on X/Twitter, antivaxxer turned Trump supporter Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. declared MAHA war on the FDA, should Trump be elected. What would this actually mean in practice?
COVID-19 has exposed the toothlessness of state medical boards
A report in The Washington Post last week revealed just how badly state medical boards have been failing when dealing with physicians spreading COVID-19 misinformation and using quackery to prevent and treat the disease. None of this is anything new, unfortunately. The pandemic has merely stress tested state medical boards, and most have failed because of political choices made long ago.
Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump. Now what for science-based medicine?
In 2016 and 2020, scientists expressed surprise and alarm at the results of the Presidential election. In 2016 it was alarm that someone as antiscience as Donald Trump was elected, and in 2020 it was over how close the election was, given Trump's dismal record on science, medicine, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Are scientists out of touch? And now what, for federal...
The false hope of “right-to-try” metastasizes to Michigan
State "right-to-try" bills are springing up like kudzu all over the US. Their advocates promise that they will save lives by allowing terminally ill patients access to experimental therapeutics, when in fact they are highly unlikely to do any such thing given that the federal government, not the states, controls drug approval. In reality, right-to-try laws are a cruel sham that will...
The Compassionate Freedom of Choice Act: Ill-advised “right to try” goes federal
Not too long ago, I expressed alarm at a series of bills that were popping up like so much kudzu in various state legislatures, namely “right to try” bills. Both Jann Bellamy and I warned that these bills gave a false illusion of hope to patients with terminal illnesses. Basically, these laws claim to grant the “right” of patients with terminal illnesses...
2013 Legislative Review: placenta take out
It’s official in Oregon now. You can take your placenta, along with your new baby, home from the hospital. This was already a practice among the CAM set but apparently new mothers were running afoul of laws designed to protect us from bio-hazards. New legislation exempts “the removal from a health care facility . . . of a placenta by a postpartum...
Dr. Google and Mr. Hyde
These days, it seems that everyone uses Google to find information on health, diseases, and treatments. Unfortunately, the algorithms used by Google for search tend to value popularity over high quality information, leading to quack websites sometimes showing up high in its results. So how can a consumer find reliable health information on the Internet?
The Free Speech About Science Act (H.R. 1364), “health freedom,” and misinformed consent
“Health freedom.” It’s a battle cry frequently used by supporters of “alternative” medicine against what they perceive to be persecution by the medical and scientific establishment that uses the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, and other federal agencies charged with regulating pharmaceuticals, food, cosmetics, and medical devices in order to protect the public against fraud, adulterated food, and quackery....