[p2p-research] The Huffington Post: a clearing house of alt-med nonsense

[Michel Bauwens]

good advice: " go to your doctor, a board-certified and science-based
doctor"

all homeopaths, at least in Europe, are,

Michel

On Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 2:17 AM, Ryan <rlanham1963 at gmail.com> wrote:

> More vaccine and homeopathy mayhem...
>
>
>
> Sent to you by Ryan via Google Reader:
>
>
> The Huffington Post: a clearing house of alt-med nonsense<http://skepticblog.org/2009/09/30/the-huffington-post-a-clearing-house-of-alt-med-nonsense/>
> via Skepticblog <http://skepticblog.org/> by Phil Plait on 9/29/09
>
> I used to write for the Huffington Post, an online news and blog
> collective. It was started by Arianna Huffington during the Bush Era as a
> response to all the far-right online media. I didn’t agree with a lot of
> what was on there — I am more centrist — but at the time I thought it was
> necessary.
>
> Then they started to promote far-left New Age nonsense, and when it came to
> vaccinations, HuffPo started posting all kinds of opinions that amounted to
> nothing more than out-and-out health threats. While they do sometimes post a
> counter-argument, it’s still almost all alt-med, all the time.
>
> Here’s the latest: a doctor named Frank Lipman is telling people not to
> get vaccinated against Swine Flu<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-frank-lipman/swine-flu-what-to-do_b_286245.html>.
> Instead he says you should wash your hands a lot, eat well, and take
> homeopathic medicine.
>
> Yes, seriously. And he does it while spouting quite a few of the standard
> antivax memes, like the flu won’t be that bad (maybe he should consult with
> Dr. Joe Albietz, who I’m sure would disagree<http://twitter.com/Jalbietz/statuses/4367477539>)
> and my favorite, we don’t know how well the vaccine will work. In fact, the
> vaccine for Swine Flu is based on many decades of research on how vaccines
> are produced, and will certainly work better than Dr. Lipman’s homeopathic
> "medicine" which we know is just plain old water, and totally useless. I’ll
> note that on his own site he promotes acupuncture and chiropractic, too.
>
> It’s the peddling of antivax rhetoric like this that drove me from HuffPo,
> and I’ve let them know why. I was a minor cog there, so I know it made no
> difference… and the proof is that they still post articles promoting
> procedures known to be useless. In fact, it’s worse than that, since
> someone might try the homeopathic water rather than get actual treatment<http://www.theage.com.au/national/spray-for-tga-over-homeopaths-20090924-g4pt.html>
> .
>
> So, as always, don’t listen to people like Lipman, or even to me when it
> comes to this stuff. Instead, go to your doctor, a board-certified and
> science-based doctor, and ask them about the H1N1 swine flu, and see if they
> recommend getting the shot. And yes, as soon as it’s available here I’ll get
> vaccinated, as will my wife and daughter. We talked to a real doctor about
> it, and we understand the threat of H1N1, and we understand what vaccines
> do.
>
> *Originally posted on the Bad Astronomy blog<http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/09/28/huffpo-still-pushing-antivax-nonsense/>.
> Tip o’ the syringe to Dan Gilbert <http://www.rationalitynow.com> and Richard
> Saunders <http://www.skeptics.com.au/>. Note added after I wrote this: Mike’s
> Weekly Skeptical Rant<http://mikesweeklyskepticrant.blogspot.com/2009/09/dr-frank-lipman-at-huffpo-fail.html>has also weighed in on Lipman, and
> Salon.com<http://www.salon.com/env/vital_signs/2009/07/30/huffington_post/index.html>has an article excoriating HuffPo as well.
> *
>
>
>
> Things you can do from here:
>
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>
>
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