Denialism Blog

Denialism Blog

  • Denialists' harvest—the AIDS body count in South Africa

    As a physician, few things frustrate and sadden me as much as preventable deaths. I see it all the time—the guy who kept putting off his colonoscopy and was later diagnosed with metastatic colon cancer, the woman who put off coming to the doctor with her breast lump until it broke through her skin, the heart patient who couldn’t stop smoking. They all haunt me. But what if the ghosts were numbered in the hundreds of thousands rather than dozens?

    That’s what it must be like to be Thabo Mbeki, that is if he has a conscience. It may (or may not) be bad “framing” to call someone a “denialist” but a new study seems to say that whatever you call it, denialism kills. When government leaders allow themselves to be duped by denialists murderers non-acceptors of truth sickfuckdenialistbastards….Damn it, I’m sticking with “denialist”. When government leaders allow denialists to guide their public health policies, people die, apparently in large numbers. I’ll have to leave it to my epidemiology colleagues to evaluate the quality of the study (which on my read looks OK), but even if it’s off by one order of magnitude, the results are horrifying.
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  • Cranks cry persecution, Nisbet listens

    Ever since we began writing here about denialism we’ve emphasized a few critical points about dealing with anti-science. For one, denialists aren’t interested in legitimate debate – they are not honest brokers and the tactics they use exist to artificially extend discussion of settled scientific issues. Second, one of the most time-honored traditions of cranks is claiming persecution in response to rejection of their nonsense. Take for a recent example Coby’s exposure of the “environmentalists want to jail global warming denialists” myth. You don’t need to do anything to make a crank cry persecution, if they have to they’ll just make up some persecutory event or tale.

    So, I don’t have a lot of tears to shed for global warming denialists who insist they are being falsely compared to holocaust deniers. In that they use the same tactics as holocaust deniers to create the false appearance of debate, they are the same, true, but the comparison largely ends there. Unlike holocaust deniers their ideological motivations are different. And, of course, any reasonable person realizes that holocaust denial has not made the use of the term “denial” itself an assertion of antisemitism. If a doctor confronts an alcoholic about their denial of their alcoholism, they’re not suggesting they hate Jewish people too. When a psychiatrist tells their patient they’re in denial, that’s hardly comparing them to the Nazis. When we say a public figure has issued a denial of some scandal, we’re not suggesting they advocate a new holocaust. And finally, when we suggest any number of other people are denying reality, whether it be holocaust denial, evolution denial, HIV/AIDS denial, etc., the point is clear that we are referring to their methods more than their motives which are necessarily varied. It should also be clear that holocaust denial has not ruined the word deny or denial or denier for any number of other applications – this is just another example of denialists claiming persecution after being called on their BS.

    Nisbet disagrees, and he sides with Timothy Ball of all people who is very upset that he’s being called a “denier” in this PRI segment. Cry me a river. Bizarrely Nisbet suggests that in this radio segment he is so persuasive that we will never use the word “denier” again. I disagree, and it sounds like the reporter, Jason Margolis, disagrees as well:

    The relevant section follows (forgive transcription errors):
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  • Link love, shameless promotion edition

    ResearchBlogging.orgIf you’re not yet familiar with researchblogging.org, you need to click the picture. It’s a blog-aggregator that pulls together posts about peer-reviewed research, and since the intersection of published research and blogging is getting a lot of play lately, this is a must-see.

    In addition, Dave Munger is launching a new forum to discuss research blogging where yours truly will be a janitor moderator.

    Next, I’ve started a new forum for the discussion of many of the issues seen in this space, at Science-Based Medicine, and any other interesting issues that come up. It’s set for moderated registration, as is the research bloggging forum, which simply means go there, register, and very shortly you will be in business, and you can have a few other places to waste your time online.

    And speaking of Science-Based Medicine, I’ve loved this blog since it debuted, and I very fortunate to have been invited as a regular over there. You should be reading it regularly. It’s good for the brain.

    Finally, ScienceOnline09 is fast approaching, and I will be moderating a session on beginning blogging and on anonymity online (along with Abel). If you are coming, or just interested in the topic, stop by the wiki and leave suggestions.

    That is all.

  • NCCAM: the not-even-wrong agency

    The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is a government agency tasked with (among other things), “[exploring] complementary and alternative healing practices in the context of rigorous science.” In this space we have talked about NCCAM quite a bit, but I have to admit that I don’t think about them very much. The other day, though, I was reading though JAMA and I came across a study funded by the agency. The study, which showed that Ginkgo does not prevent Alzheimer’s-type dementia, was pretty good, so I cruised on over to NCCAM’s website to see what else they’ve been up to.

    A quick glance at NCCAM’s front page:

      “Ginkgo Evaluation of Memory (GEM) Study Fails To Show Benefit in Preventing Dementia in the Elderly”
      “CAM and Hepatitis C: A Focus on Herbal Supplements ‘No CAM treatment has yet been proven effective for treating hepatitis C or its complications.’”
      “Selenium and Vitamin E in Prostate Cancer Prevention Study, ‘selenium and vitamin E supplements, taken either alone or together, did not prevent prostate cancer.’”

    It seems that NCCAM is finding out something we already strongly suspected: improbable medical claims are usually wrong. Since that’s not how they see things, and since I don’t believe that there is such a thing as alternative medicine, I was curious how they defined CAM.
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  • The stupidest internal NIH memo ever – or why I can't wait for the new administration

    One of the great things about science is that it is open, international, and celebrates the free exchange of ideas. However, during the last 8 years we’ve seen some odd things at the National Institutes of Health – the premier governmental scientific institution in the world. The paranoia of the current administration has filtered down and contaminated day to day operations of what is essentially an academic health sciences campus.

    For example, for some bizarre reason they decided to erect a 10 foot high iron fence around the entire campus:
    i-52526dcc20f19ca4bf1fcda1370592de-NIH fence.jpg
    And at the entrances every car is searched, every day. And why? What makes the NIH campus different from any other medical campus in the country? We all work with the same radioactive isotopes, etc. They have a higher level infectious disease research lab which if you were really worried about could be fenced in rather than fencing in the entire 300 acre campus. What is the reason for this excess of security?

    I happen to think there is no good reason and that the NIH security is run by paranoid idiots. The best evidence I have of this is a recent memo I’ve obtained that was sent to Health and Human Services employees about foreign visitors from the Deputy Secretary. Here is the relevant section:

    i-7946a972cb4ab6b390962193dc8cb05c-NIH memo.jpg

    Really? Now if an NIH investigator wants to bring a foreign speaker in to give a talk, not only can they not plug in their thumbdrives in the lecture hall computer to upload their powerpoint for fear of espionage, but they have to be followed into the bathroom too? Could you imagine? You invite some bigwig foreign scientist – like say any of this year’s Nobel Laureates in medicine – and when they have to make a pit stop you’d be forced to follow them in the bathroom for fear they’ll steal our lucky charms.

    I hope in the next administration the first thing they do is tear down that stupid fence and treat the NIH like any other academic medical campus, and find whoever wrote this stupid memo and fire them. This type of paranoid security obsessiveness is uneccessary and counterproductive to the free exchange of ideas science needs in order to be open, international and collaborative.

  • What does your health insurance cover?

    For many Americans, it’s open enrollment time, the period your employer give you to make changes in your health insurance coverage. You may not understand your insurance very well, but you have to understand this one important fact: your health care providers know even less about your insurance than you do. Most doctor’s offices have a sign that says something like, “Your insurance is your business.” There is know way for your doctor’s office to know all the details of all the different insurance plans.

    Each state has different rules, and each part of the country differs in what kind of health plans predominate. In some areas, non-coverage is so common that it almost doesn’t matter what you know, other than the location of a free clinic. But for those of you looking at new or existing health plans, you must read through the documentation, especially the summaries that tell you what is and isn’t covered.

    For example, many plans cover a yearly preventative physical. Many do not. If you don’t tell your doctor whether or not preventative services are covered, you may end up with an unexpected bill. Preventative physicals are often covered without a co-pay, but most other visits do have a co-pay.

    Your plan will include a glossary, but some terms deserve special attention.
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  • Ginkgo does not prevent dementia, or "I can't remember what NCCAM is good for"

    ResearchBlogging.orgHere’s a question for you: is there, or should there be, any difference between studies of “alternative” and non-alternative medicine? I’ve argued before that there is no such thing as alternative medicine. So why do we need a separate agency to study “alternative” medicine? The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine seems to be just such an agency. For example, the latest study of Gingko biloba for the prevention of dementia could have been funded by other agencies, such as NIMH. Why NCCAM?

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  • Skeptics' Circle #One Hundred!!100!!!

    The big anniversary edition is up at Orac’s place! Don’t miss it!!!11!!

  • Se Habla "woo-woo"

    So, America is changing. We have an African American president. The Latino population continues to grow. How can the alternative medicine community adjust to this demographic shift? What are they to do?

    I’m glad you asked! It turns out that immigrants are palomas ripe for the plucking. Now, we’ve talked about the ethics of alternative medicine, and how “meaning well” is not exculpatory. If you promote quackery, it’s wrong, even if you believe your own drivel.

    One of the worst types of drivel is naturopathy. This “specialty” advertises itself as “medicine-plus”, but really it’s “healing-minus”: minus the evidence, minus the training, minus intelligent thought.

    It should be no surprise that recent immigrants, who may have low educational levels, especially in English, and have less access to the health care system financially, culturally, and linguistically should be ripe targets.

    And targeting these vulnerable individuals is a naturopathic “doctor” in Connecticut.

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  • And now for something completely different

    I’m trying a new thing. I think it would be nice to have a place where medical professionals, and those who wish to see how those professionals are thinking, can have frank discussions about medicine, altmed, etc. In support of this, I’ve created a new forum. The idea is to enhance discussions about medicine, medical ethics, and related issues, and enable people to start their own topic that might not have shown up on the blogs.

    I’m hoping that the discussion can compliment what is already happening right here.

    The catch is that I’m going to have a more aggressive moderation policy than I would be comfortable with here. Trolling, abusive behavior, etc. will be verbotten. Anyway, it’s super beta, so feel free to come by and check it out.