Denialism

Month: August 2008

  • Medscape reversal—Gardasil is great again

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    MarkH
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    Last week, Orac reported on Medscape’s execrable article regarding Gardasil. As a reminder, the article spouted every antivaccination lie imaginable. The link subsequently disappeared, although a poll later appeared that parroted the article’s misinformation. Well, today Medscape has a new Gardasil article. It’s definitely an improvement, but still has some problems…

  • Swag-a-licious

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    MarkH
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    OK, here’s the deal. Seed Media Group, the folks who run this joint, want to give you free stuff. They are taking a reader survey and to encourage you to participate, they are giving away a bunch of cool Apple stuff. The good news is, you guys have been a bunch of losers and haven’t…

  • Galileo, Semmelweis, and YOU!

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    MarkH
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    To wear the mantle of Galileo, it is not enough to be persecuted: you must also be right. –Robert Park I used to spend a lot of time on the websites of Joe Mercola and Gary Null, the most influential medical cranks of the internets (to call them “quacks” would imply that they are real…

  • Privacy Cagematch—DHS vs. HHS

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    MarkH
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    OK, this post gets a big IANAL stamped across it. I don’t know the legal ins and outs here (and I’m not sure if anyone does), but the new announcement by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regarding laptop computers puts physicians and other health care providers in a bit of a spot. HIPAA (the…

  • To NY City

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    MarkH
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    This is meetup weekend for the sciencebloggers and remember, we’re planning to hang out with readers at 2:00 pm on Saturday, August 9, at Social (795 8th Ave). Drop by, say hello, and meet the scibs!

  • Is Obama THE ONE?

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    Chris
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    Is Obama the Antichrist? No, according to Tim LaHaye, co-author of the Left Behind series, who told the Journal that: “The antichrist isn’t going to be an American, so it can’t possibly be Obama. The Bible makes it clear he will be from an obscure place, like Romania,” the 82-year-old author said. Phew! Maybe it’s…

  • The Arrogance of Power—The Corrupt Mayor of Motown

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    MarkH
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    I usually don’t stray into strictly political issues, but today’s action by the Mayor of Detroit has me fuming. I’ve been avoiding blogging on this topic, but Kwame Kilpatrick always has a new criminal exploit fueled by his overwhelming arrogance. His latest idiocy will land him in jail for the night. Here’s the basic story.…

  • Diagnosis–what is the value?

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    MarkH
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    In an earlier post, I wrote about the epistemology (or perhaps ontology—we never really did settle it) of disease. Defining what is disease is sometimes obvious, sometimes not. If you have HIV, you have HIV—a test is positive or negative, treatments are known. If you have high blood pressure, it’s a little trickier. How do…

  • Gardasil idiocy

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    MarkH
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    Orac had a nice takedown of an idiotic piece on Medscape about the Gardasil vaccine. As he reported, the link to the bad article is now dead, perhaps as a result of blograge. Now, on the front page of Medscape is a poll—a poll regarding physician prescribing habits given the “news” about Gardasil: Serious neurologic,…

  • Tangled Bank #111

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    MarkH
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    Welcome to Tangled Bank #111! Today’s entries are presented without comment, but with poetry, a truly remarkable natural, albeit human, phenomenon, or to quote Love and Rockets: You can’t go against natureBecause when you doGo against natureIt’s part of nature too. In the umbra, the tunnel, when the mind went wombtomb, then it was real…