Category: Politics and Regulation
Trump’s new CDC Director is very pro-vaccine, but was she also at one time a quack?
On Friday, Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Tom Price announced the appointment of Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald to head the CDC. Reassuringly, her record as Georgia Public Health Commissioner was pro-vaccine and relatively non-ideological. Not so reassuringly, a news report yesterday found that before entering public service she was peddling anti-aging quackery at her private practice. Where will her balance fall now...
Chiropractic clinical training with pediatric patients or complicated cases: slim to none
Chiropractors may never have seen a pediatric patient or a complicated medical case in clinical training, yet they are allowed to go into practice with no age limits on who they see and few on the conditions they treat.
“Chronic Lyme” VIP Daniel Cameron disciplined by New York medical authorities
"Chronic Lyme" guru Daniel Cameron, MD, has been put on 3-year probation by New York medical authorities. Will fellow "Lyme literate" doctors take note?
What naturopaths really want
Naturopaths want the same scope of practice as MDs and DOs, allowing them to make important medico-legal judgments that put life, liberty and property at risk.
When Drugs Cost Too Much
Our ability to develop new drugs is fast outstripping our ability to pay for them; some are exorbitantly expensive and not very effective. Funds are limited, and as a society we need to have a serious discussion about how they are to be allocated.
A closer look at generic drugs
In the struggle to contain growing healthcare costs, generic drugs have the potential to save millions. What gives us confidence they are equivalent to brand-name drugs?
Medical marijuana as the new herbalism, part 5: Turning herbalism into science-based medicine
There’s a new clinical trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine showing a beneficial effect due to cannabidiol, a chemical isolated from marijuana, on drug-resistant seizures due to Dravet syndrome. Although there are a fair number of caveats, this is how you begin to turn the herbalism that characterizes medical marijuana advocacy into science-based medicine.
Healthcare reform should ditch mandated coverage of CAM providers
Forced insurance coverage of chiropractic, naturopathic, and acupuncture services is not consistent with the goals of either the ACA or the AHCA. Whatever happens to Obamacare in the U.S. Senate, Section 2706 of the ACA should be repealed.
Is the FDA embracing quackery? A draft proposal recommends that doctors learn about acupuncture and chiropractic for pain management.
Chiropractors and acupuncturists have lobbied for a greater role in treating pain. They might well have won it. Last week, the FDA released proposed changes Wednesday to its blueprint on educating health care providers about treating pain, which now recommend that doctors learn about chiropractic care and acupuncture as therapies that might help patients avoid opioids. There's still time to stop this.
Make measles great again: A case study of the politicization of school vaccine requirements in Michigan
Protecting our children through school vaccine requirements has long had strong bipartisan support. Unfortunately, the antivaccine movement has had success linking "vaccine choice" with "freedom" and "parental rights", leading to a surge of right wing antivaccine activism that has undermined that bipartisan consensus. Two bills under consideration by the Michigan legislature represent a microcosm of what is going on in much of...