Category: Health Fraud

2024 Detox Trends To Watch (Out) For

Trends come and go but the popularity of detoxification and cleansing in January is eternal.

/ January 4, 2024
bullshit generation

Misinformation is pervasive, and AI will turbocharge it

Is it possible to refute an infinite amount of AI-generated health misinformation?

/ December 7, 2023
Latent profile analysis

Alternative medicine and antivax: Two crappy tastes that taste crappy together—particularly when among physicians

A recent study reaffirms the high degree of correlation among physicians between antivax views and an embrace of quackery. This is an old finding that needs to be documented periodically and shows why the acceptance of non-science-based treatments by physicians endangers vaccination efforts.

/ October 16, 2023

Health misinformation now has powerful allies

Misinformation and conspiracy theories about health had long been a growing problem before the pandemic, but it took COVID-19 to get the government and researchers to take it seriously. Now, a new report in The Washington Post adds to previous reporting from multiple sources describing how allies of misinformation—and not just health misinformation—are striking back under the guise of defending "free speech."

/ September 25, 2023

Cancer quack Stanislaw Burzynski continues to prey on cancer patients in 2023

This year, cancer quack Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski turned 80. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to be slowing down charging patients with advanced cancer huge sums for false hope.

/ September 18, 2023

Quoth quacks, “The medical consensus has changed before, making my quackery science!”

Brave maverick doctors (i.e., quacks) have long tried to portray themselves as "innovators" challenging an ossified medical consensus for the good of patients. This tradition continues among COVID-19 quacks, in particular the Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance and its founders.

/ August 28, 2023

Examining COVID-19 misinformation propagated by US physicians

A new paper documents COVID-19 medical misinformation shared by US physicians on social media

/ August 17, 2023
Sherri Tenpenny and magnetism

The Ohio State Medical Board has finally suspended the medical license of antivax quack Sherri Tenpenny

Last week, the Ohio State Medical Board suspended the medical license of Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, a longtime antivax quack. The only question is: What took them so long, and why did it take the pandemic for them to act? Also, is there less to this action than meets the eye?

/ August 14, 2023
ABIM Logo

The American Board of Internal Medicine finally acts against two misinformation-spreading doctors

Last week, I wrote about how COVID-19 has exposed the toothlessness of state medical boards. Last week, the American Board of Internal Medicine announced that it was going to permanently revoke the board certifications of two COVID-19 contrarian doctors, Drs. Paul Marik and Pierre Kory. Can medical specialty boards make up for the failure of state medical boards, at least partially?

/ August 7, 2023

What’s really in that sports supplement?

A new analysis of sports supplements shows that you cannot trust the label to tell you what's actually in the bottle.

/ August 3, 2023