2012: Outrageous attacks on science
By Julia Belluz - Friday, December 14, 2012 - 0 Comments
Slaven Vlasic/Getty
The year 2012 brought with it many opportunities for wielding a big, debunking stick and pointing it towards outrageous attacks on science. From the Science-ish archives, to be read with a festive beverage, here are the worst offenders from 2012:
1. DR. OZ, FAITH HEALER
Though he may have started out as one of America’s most-trusted MDs after earning a seal of approval from none other than Oprah Winfrey, the medical community has long known that Dr. Mehmet Oz can be a font of pseudoscience. This year, when he was in Toronto to give a motivational lecture about the “biology of blubber,” I had a chance to sit-down with Oz and grill him about his use of medical evidence. In particular, when asked about his promotion of raspberry ketones for weight loss—a dubious supplement—he said it was “an example of where I’m trying to give you hope.” Needless to say, he didn’t pass the evidence test. I’m pretty sure I was the only reporter in the room he didn’t hug that day.
Related link: Dr. Oz, faith healer
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Protesters demand affordable AIDS drugs
By Mitchel Raphael - Friday, October 8, 2010 at 3:52 PM - 0 Comments
Protesters hit the Hill to push MPs to pass Bill C-39. This bill would…
Protesters hit the Hill to push MPs to pass Bill C-39. This bill would make it easier for generic drug companies to produce affordable AIDS medications for the developing world.
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Paul Wells for a Day: Liveblogging the eternal patent wars at the Industry committee
By kadyomalley - Thursday, May 8, 2008 at 12:19 PM - 0 Comments
11:06:21 AM …
From Legal and Constitutional Affairs to Industry, senate reform to science and11:06:21 AM
From Legal and Constitutional Affairs to Industry, senate reform to science and technology, and East to West – Block, that is: This is a culture shock in more ways than one. The room is bigger, brighter and full of familiar faces. But it does not, alas, have a cookie buffet, which is a Senate innovation I wish the Commons would consider adopting.By a stroke of luck – clearly, the committee gods are smiling on me – the clash of patent and generic medicine titans was slightly delayed by procedural bickering, so I didn’t miss anything. Although I will if I don’t start paying attention to the presentation.
11:10:07 AM
First witness: Bioniche, a publicly-traded drug company and a member of Team Brand Name Medicine (Death to Generics!). The representative – whose name I didn’t catch – describes her company’s latest venture in glowing, near religious terms. It’s a cattle vaccine against e. coli and, apparently, it will do wonderful things for the beef sector while keeping Canadians safe. Continue…
