The Truth About Vaccines: Mercury

November 16, 2009

Following my posts about the introduction to The Truth About Vaccines and the first chapter of the book, on vaccines and autism, here is a post about Dr Richard Halvorsen’s chapter on mercury in vaccines.

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The Powerful Placebo

November 13, 2009

I sometimes hear (or read) about the “power of placebo” – there are academic papers that examine the placebo effect, there is a book titled “The Powerful Placebo: From Ancient Priest to Modern Physician“, and there are news stories about the power of placebo (there is this recent article, for example, that refers to “the magical power of placebo” in reference to $25 necklaces popular with some sportsmen).

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Shoot The Messenger: When Evidence And Policy Clash

October 30, 2009

The BBC is reporting that home secretary Alan Johnson has sacked Professor David Nutt, head of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. Read the rest of this entry »


Curry can cure cancer, say scientists

October 28, 2009

Well, according to the headline in today’s Metro article they do. The Sun went for “Curry is a ‘cure for cancer’“, while the BBC were slightly more restrained – settling for “Curry spice ‘kills cancer cells’” – as were the Daily Mirror (with “Curry ‘kills cancer cells’ and other health benefits of the nation’s favourite dish“). Did scientists claim that “curry can cure cancer” as the Metro claims? Is curry a cure for cancer, as the Sun tell us? Read the rest of this entry »


Dr Briffa on Athletic Ancients

October 23, 2009

While browsing Dr John Briffa’s blog today, I stumbled upon this recent post. [Backup here: http://backupurl.com/6u8x3z.] Brilliantly, Briffa’s post seems to be based entirely upon a Daily Mail article. No references to research are given and the only source he links to is the Mail. Read the rest of this entry »


The Truth About Vaccines: Vaccines And Autism

October 14, 2009

Part two of my series of posts on Dr Richard Halvorsen’s book focuses on the chapter on vaccines and autism (subtitled “Autism, Allergy, and Auto-immune Diseases“). Read the rest of this entry »


Halvorsen: The Truth About Vaccines

October 8, 2009

Introduction: Liking & Similarity, a Form of the ‘Sceptic’ Gambit, and Spin

This is my first post about Richard Halvorsen’s book. There may be further posts if I can maintain my enthusiasm for writing about Dr Halvorsen’s view of vaccination as I continue to read about it. Read the rest of this entry »


Dangerous Nonsense In The Sunday Express

October 4, 2009

Following the Daily Express’s spectacularly misleadingly-headlined article on the death of Natalie Morton (PARENTS’ REVOLT AFTER GIRL DIES IN CANCER JAB HORROR – a headline written, believe it or not, after it became apparent from a preliminary post mortem that Natalie Morton had actually suffered from an underlying health problem), the Sunday Express have surpassed themselves by writing a new article on the HPV vaccine. This article, despite being written after further facts on the sad death of Natalie Morton were made available, is headlined JAB ‘AS DEADLY AS THE CANCER’.* Read the rest of this entry »


Daily Mail Articles On Vaccination

October 1, 2009

Following my recent post on the Daily Mail’s vaccine article by Dr Richard Halvorsen that served as my opening gambit as I try my hand at guest blogging over at Lay Science, I thought I’d blog my correspondence with the Daily Mail over their articles on vaccination. Read the rest of this entry »


Conventional And Alternative Journals

September 28, 2009

While there are conventional journals that will publish research on alternative medicine, some researchers into alternative medicine seem to prefer to publish their research in alternative journals. Some time ago, I spotted something rather interesting when reading up on food supplement research. It involved two reviews – one published in a conventional journal, and one in an alternative journal. Here are the PDFs: Annals Internal Med EPO review and AltMed EPO review. Read the rest of this entry »