Results for: right to try

Another antivaccine zombie meme: polio vaccine and SV40 and cancer, oh, my!

The Internet has produced a revolution with respect to information. Now, people anywhere, any time, can find almost any information that they want, as long as they have a connection to the global network and aren’t unfortunate enough to live in a country that heavily censors the Internet connections coming in. In addition, anyone any time can put his or her opinion...

/ September 9, 2013

CAM practitioners as primary care providers under the Affordable Care Act: Part 2

In the last post, we took another look at Section 2607 of the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits “discrimination” against licensed CAM practitioners by insurers, and how chiropractors are continuing their PR campaign to rebrand themselves as primary care physicians. This time, we review a recent white paper by the Academic Consortium of Complementary and Alternative Healthcare, an organization that might be seen as CAM’s...

/ September 5, 2013

The future of “integrative medicine” is too close for comfort

I was the other day. I’ve been on vacation this week (staycation, actually, as I stayed at home and didn’t go on any trips); so you would think it would take a lot to depress me. Unfortunately, today is the last day of that vacation; so the thought of diving back into the fray trying to fund my lab. It didn’t help...

/ September 2, 2013

Sharyl Attkisson and CBS News: An epic fail in reporting on the murder of autistic teen Alex Spourdalakis

An antivaccine reporter strikes again The damaged done by the antivaccine movement is primarily in how it frightens parents out of vaccinating using classic denialist tactics of spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD). Indeed, as has been pointed out many times before, antivaccinationists are often proud of their success in discouraging parents from vaccinating, with one leader of the antivaccine movement even...

/ September 2, 2013

Danger Zones of Parental Vaccine Refusal

Back in 2009 I wrote a story entitled, “The New Plague”, about my experiences as a pediatrician with the frightening trend of parental vaccine refusal in New York City. In that post I discussed some of the complex social factors contributing to this phenomenon, and some of the common vaccine myths to which many parents fall prey. I recommend that you read that...

/ September 1, 2013

Chiropractic Practice Building: A Doctor’s Confession and the Report of Findings

“I’ve got to get this off my chest!” “Dear chiropractic practitioner, Confessions are tough…Real tough. They are painful, awful things. But, sometimes a confession can set the record straight, and I want to give credit where credit is due. Before I talk about my confession though, let me say a few other things first. You may want to sit down. You know,...

/ August 30, 2013

The Trojan Horse called Integrative Medicine arrives at another medical school

Medicine is a collaborative practice. Hospitals are the best example, where dozens of different health professionals work cooperatively, sharing responsibilities for patient care. Teamwork is essential, and that’s why health professionals obtain a large part of their education on the job, in teaching (academic) hospitals. The only way that all of these different professions are able to work together effectively is that...

/ August 29, 2013

Preventing autism? Not so fast, Dr. Mumper…

Dug the Dog strikes again, as he did three weeks ago. I had a couple of ideas for a post this week, but none of them were time-sensitive or timely. Then, over the weekend, I saw a post on the antivaccine crank blog Age of Autism by Dan “Where are the Autistic Amish” Olmsted entitled Weekly Wrap: Another Medical Practice with a...

/ August 26, 2013

Survey Says… Infectious Disease Docs and CAM

Surveys are evidently a popular way to get a paper published. Put “complementary alternative medicine survey” into Pubmed and get 2,353 hits. I would have trouble coming up with a hundred groups about whom I would be interested in their use of SCAMs, but I tend to be a lumper rather than a splitter. But if you want to know about SCAM...

/ August 23, 2013

CAM practitioners as primary care providers under the Affordable Care Act: Part 1

Section 2706 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 300gg-5) of the Affordable Care Act (the “ACA” or “Obamacare”) prevents “discrimination” against any health care provider acting within the scope of his or her state license. The provision, supported by the American Chiropractic Association and other CAM practitioners, was inserted, without a hearing, under the leadership of Sen. Tom Harkin. Sec. 2706 is of concern to...

/ August 22, 2013