Tag: Ohio
More COVID More Measles?
There are a number of potential problems children are facing that are related to the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, not the least of which is a rise in vaccine hesitancy and even anti-vaccine belief.
“Integrative medicine” advocates: Co-opting the opioid crisis to promote funding for acupuncture by Medicaid
The opioid epidemic is a serious public health crisis in the U.S., and new tools and treatments to deal with chronic pain are urgently needed. Unfortunately, where public health officials see a crisis, advocates of "integrating" quackery with science-based medicine see an opportunity. In this case, promoters of pseudomedicine are taking advantage of the opioid crisis to persuade state Medicaid systems to...
Pseudoscience sneaks into Ohio guidelines for non-drug pain treatment
Ohio recently issued Acute Pain Prescribing Guidelines as part of an effort to reduce the epidemic of opioid abuse and death from overdose. They were drafted under the auspices of the Governor’s Cabinet Opiate Action Team (GCOAT), assisted by medical organizations and other groups. The guidelines include recommendations for non-pharmacologic treatment, a typical feature of pain treatment guidelines and a worthy effort...
Sarah Hershberger: “Health freedom” and parental rights vs. child welfare
One of the more depressing topics that I regularly write about on this blog includes of analyses of news stories of children with cancer whose parents decided to stop science-based treatment (usually the chemotherapy) and use quackery instead. There are, of course, variations on this theme, but these stories take form that generally resembles this outline: A child is diagnosed with a...