Tag: cancer quackery

Dr. Rashid Buttar

When an antivax physician “dies suddenly”: The case of Dr. Rashid Buttar

Last month, Dr. Rashid Buttar, a prominent antivax "integrative medicine" practitioner, died suddenly. Because he hadn't been vaccinated, antivaxxers struggled mightily to reconcile his death with their conspiracy theory about COVID-19 vaccines killing thousands "suddenly." It turns out, however, that that Dr. Buttar had not been a well man since 2016 and was as much a victim of quackery as his patients...

/ June 19, 2023
Substack

Substack: Where quacks and antivaxxers all go now

With social media companies like Twitter and Facebook/Meta deplatforming those spreading misinformation, COVID-19 quacks, antivaxxers, and conspiracy theorists are flocking to Substack, where they can monetize their misinformation while Substack profits.

/ January 10, 2022

Avemar: Wheat Germ for Cancer

Avemar is fermented wheat germ. It is claimed to be an effective addition to conventional cancer treatment. The evidence is lacking.

/ August 31, 2021
Amazon Prime

Combatting dangerous quackery and antivaccine misinformation on streaming services and social media

Last week, Amazon began removing antivaccine videos from Amazon Prime. Last month, YouTube announced that it was demonetizing antivaccine videos, and Facebook stated that it would be taking action to de-emphasize antivaccine pages in its searched. These are all good first tentative steps, but the problem of quackery on streaming platforms and social media goes way beyond just antivaccine content. Making it...

/ March 4, 2019

Bad Documentary Review: Cancer Can Be Killed

Cancer Can Be Killed is a conspiracy thriller masquerading as a documentary. Don't watch it.

/ August 31, 2018

Naturopathic Cancer Quackery

Naturopaths treat cancer with an array of implausible concoctions that are not based on clinical science, and then defend themselves with cease and desist letters.

/ September 6, 2017

Corrigendum. The Week in Review for 05/14/2017.

The week in review. Measles cases climb in Minnesota; Texas is jealous. Koala and rabbit abuse. FDA suggesting pseudo-medicine? And more.

/ May 14, 2017

Corrigendum. The Week in Review for 04/30/2017

Stroke from chiropractic. Measles in Minnesota. Fraudulent methodologies? How do your remove homeopathy from a product? Acuwhatever. And more.

/ April 30, 2017

Don’t drink hair bleach

Hydrogen peroxide is consumed and injected in alternative medicine practices as a sort of "cure all". Is there any evidence to back this up? And how safe is it to inject or consume?

/ January 14, 2016

Chemotherapy doesn’t work? Not so fast…

A favorite claim made by cancer quacks (and quacks of all varieties, actually) is that chemotherapy doesn't work. One variant of this claim is what I call the "2% gambit." Basically, this gambit claims that chemotherapy is only 2% effective. Not surprisingly, the evidence backing up the "2% gambit" is a highly flawed study, as is the evidence used by quacks to...

/ September 12, 2011