Denialism

Author: MarkH

  • Live forever!

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    MarkH
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    Look, whether you like it or not, you can’t live forever. I bring this up because there is always a new book or new add purporting to have “the answer” to long life and good health, which never includes modern, evidence-based medicine. Still, perhaps some of these books contains good advice. Or not. Let me…

  • Open thread—troll anmesty

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    MarkH
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    The recent uptick in troll traffic here and at Orac’s place got me thinking. Many of the trolls have been making unsophisticated attacks on the truth without actually stating a hypothesis. And that got me thinking even more. If they could only state their questions properly, there would be some useful fodder for discussion. There…

  • DrPal, tell us more about HPV and cancer

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    MarkH
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    OK, if you insist. This comes with the usual caveat directed at scientists that I know this is oversimplified, but I wish to reach the largest audience possible. Feel free to correct my mistakes, but please don’t bother me about oversimplification. So here’s the deal. Several decades ago, it became scientifically fashionable to believe that…

  • 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!

  • 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…