Tag: quackery
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.
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?
COVID-19 has exposed the toothlessness of state medical boards
A report in The Washington Post last week revealed just how badly state medical boards have been failing when dealing with physicians spreading COVID-19 misinformation and using quackery to prevent and treat the disease. None of this is anything new, unfortunately. The pandemic has merely stress tested state medical boards, and most have failed because of political choices made long ago.
Ivermectin is now fast becoming the new MMS
A recent VICE story described a Telegram channel devoted to promoting veterinary ivermectin to treat autism. It has echoes of autism quackery going back at least to the use of MMS (a kind of bleach) to "cure" autism by eliminating "parasites."
Quack Quack
Joe Schwarcz's new book Quack Quack is an informative and entertaining look at quackery and pseudoscience past and present. A delightful read.
The appeal of being a medical “apostate”
There has long been a huge appeal in medicine that derives from being an "apostate". Since COVID-19 hit, apostasy has become like a drug among too many doctors, and social media has amplified the popularity of "medical apostates" beyond anything I've seen previously.
Neuroplasticity Nonsense Is Full of Red Flags
Adora Winquist offers advice about neuroplasticity, but hers is not the language of science or reality.
“Censorship” and “thoughtcrime”? Antivaxxers and COVID-19 contrarians attack California AB 2098
One of the oldest tropes favored by quacks of all stripes, including antivaxxers, is to portray any attempt at regulating their quackery as an assault on freedom of speech. It's therefore not surprising that after its passage by the California legislature prominent spreaders of COVID-19 misinformation are labeling AB2098, which seeks clarify and codify the power of the Medical Board of California...
Columbia University finally cuts ties with America’s Quack Dr. Oz
Decades after Dr. Oz pioneered "integrating" quackery into medicine and after many years of promoting diet scams and quackery on a nationally syndicated daily television show, Columbia University appears finally to have had enough and has quietly downgraded his status. What took so long?
FTC targets physicians’ COVID claims with cease-and-desist letters
The FTC recently announced it had issued 20 more cease-and-desist demands to physicians and others claiming their products and services prevent or treat COVID-19 without sufficient scientific backing. Unfortunately, this has not stopped many of the targets from making other bogus health claims.