Deflecting Criticism 1 – Legal Threats

So you’ve got some sweet deal going – might be alternative medicine, might be hi-fi tweaks. Whatever it is, some twat of a journalist or blogger is pointing out holes in your scientific arguments and suggesting that your product is not as good as you say. This could be a threat to your income stream. What do you do?

The GMC Owes Stuart Jones An Apology

If anyone ever wondered why ‘Jonas’ chose to make his complaint about Dr. Sarah Myhill to the GMC ‘anonymously’, then they are now being answered by the extemist wing of the CFS/ME activist movement.

Reprisal

There has been a complaint made about one Stuart Jones to the Health Professions Council alleging that he “Made disparaging and/or misleading comments on the website forum, ‘Bad Science’ about Dr XY*.” I understand that Stuart Jones post on the Bad Science forums as ‘Jonas’. I do not recall him making any “disparaging or misleading” comments about any doctor. However, he did raise some concerns with the GMC about some of the content of one Dr. Myhill’s website, and discussed this complaint on Bad Science.

Daily Mail Versus the HPV Vaccine – Again

The Daily Mail appears to be attempting to undermine the HPV vaccine program by means of an anecdote and the post hoc fallacy.

The Abuses of Chelation Therapy

Chelation therapy is a method of ridding the body of toxic elements such as lead and mercury. It is a valid method that is misused by certain CAM practitioners.

Hair Analysis & Metal Poisoning

In my last post I discussed the CAM contention that metal poisoning is common and the scientific inaccuracies peddled, such as the claim that mercury poisoning causes autism. Once you have been sold on the fear, you naturally want to check whether you yourself are poisoned. CAM practitioners recommend hair analysis for this. Unfortunately.

Heavy Metal Poisoning

There seems to be a commonly held view in alt-med circles that many ills are due to heavy metal poisoning. It will probably not surprise many readers of this blog that Natural News pushes this view. There is a lot to look at on that page; in this post I’ll confine myself to examining the claims about the consequences of metal poisoning.