Where there’s Electromuck, There’s Brass.

24th July, 2007 0

Dr George Carlo is an interesting character. Founder of the Safe Wireless Initiative in the US, he is the leading thinker behind a lot of the concerns about the dangers of mobiles and Wi-Fi. The campaigners in the UK are in lurve with him. Sites like Electrosentivity-UK worship him. Mast Sanity too. And the EM-Radiation Research Trust. What appears to be a common thread in nearly all the electrosensitvity sites [read more…]

Should the NHS pay for Hyena Saliva?

20th July, 2007 19

Homeopathy, paid for by the NHS, is under threat. Millions of pounds of NHS money is pumped into a few Homeopathic hospitals so that patients can have ‘choice’. It is a good thing, choice. The Queen makes this choice. The newspapers promote this stuff. It is natural. No side effects. Health Freedom. Patient Options. Blah Blah Blah. Talking to people with jobs and mortgages and only one cat, I get [read more…]

Quackograms

19th July, 2007 9

Bored Bored Bored. So, I have been doing some anagrams. Here goes… Dr Andrew Wakefield – Flawed Ink Rewarded Dr Gillian McKeith – Kill Charming Diet Electrosensitivity – Risen To Selectivity homeopathic remedy – Here Hypo-Atom Medic Food for the Brain – Brother Of ION Fad Institute of Optimum Nutrition – Nut Into Tummies Tuition Profit Patrick Holford – Fork to Chip Lard Dr George Carlo – Roger Goldacre (shame [read more…]

Broccoli for Brains

17th July, 2007 3

Last Friday, saw Trevor McDonut’s ‘Tonight with’ programme showcase Patrick Holford’s ‘Food for the Brain’ charity and its involvement with a school. The school apparently saw lots of improvements with their children and so will obviously boost the standing of the Food for the Brain charity. And today, we see that Food for the Brain is starting to see itself as an accrediting authority now as it gives its first [read more…]

Absence of Evidence

15th July, 2007 9

The absence of the Bad Science column in yesterday’s Guardian has all the makings of a bigger story than had there actually been a column. Ben Goldacre, writer of the column, has been one of the few voices in the British press that has reliably and careful pointed out the evidence against the assertion that the MMR vaccine causes autism in children. Last Sunday’s appalling story in the Guardian’s sister [read more…]

Autism: If You Can’t Blame MMR, Let’s Try Wi-Fi

10th July, 2007 21

Maybe we are witnessing the death throes of the MMR controversy. The arguments that autism is caused by the triple-jab have been shown to be without merit and only the foaming go on about mercury in vaccines anymore (MMR never had any mercury in it). Andrew Wakefield is scrabbling with his last gasp of PR before his GMC disciplinary meeting. Undoubtley, the die-hard campaigners will see a cover up and [read more…]

Chinese Whispers – MMR and the Press

9th July, 2007 2

Just a few days before Andrew Wakefield appears before the GMC disciplinary body on charges of misconduct, a front page article in the Observer makes fresh claims of links between the MMR vaccine and autism. In a separate interview in the same newspaper, Dr Wakefield says that he ‘told the truth all along’. He rather remarkably compares himself with Vaclav Havel, ‘As Vaclav Havel once said: “Follow the man who [read more…]

Quack Word #20: ‘Iatrogenic’

3rd July, 2007 31

Iatrogenesis is not a concept that is confined to quackery, but like most of the words in my Quack Words series it tends to show up more often than not on quack web sites and so can be a good quackometer word. Iatrogenic illness covers the concept of harm having been done by the healer. Harm could come from many quarters including mistakes in diagnosis or treatment, professional negligence, adverse [read more…]

Lethal Trust

1st July, 2007 14

If you were to believe the Society of Homeopaths, the quacks that were handing out lethal advice to Newsnight investigators about malaria prevention, were just a few rogue and unregistered practitioners and unrepresentative of the profession. Peter Fisher , the Director of the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital (currently funded by the NHS) told the programme that, I’m very angry about it because people are going to get malaria – there [read more…]