Rachelle’s Reviews > Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks > Status Update

“The greatest problem of all is dumbing down. Everything in the media is robbed of any scientific meat in a desperate bid to seduce an imaginary mass that aren’t interested. […] Unmediated access to niche expertise is the future.”

“Big Pharma isn’t frightened for its profits because popular opinion turned against MMR. If they have any sense, these companies are relieved that the public is obsessed with MMR, and thus distracted from the other far more complex and real issues connected with the pharmaceutical business and it’s inadequate regulation.”

“if MMR still scares you, then so should everything in medicine, and indeed many of the everyday lifestyle risk exposures you encounter. Because there are a huge number of things that are far less well researched, with a far lower level of certainty about their safety. The question would still remain of why you were so focused on MMR.”

“When someone presents his scientific findings about GM potatoes causing cancer in rats […] on ITV’s World in Action, rather than in an academic journal, there’s something fishy going on.”

Asperger’s “widespread use has allowed us all to feel that we can participate in the wonder and mystery of autism […] Except […] in most cases genuine autism is a pervasive developmental disorder. And most people with autism don’t write quirky books about their odd take on the world that reveal so much to us about our conventions and social morays in a charmingly plain and unselfconscious narrative style”

“Asperger’s Syndrome, or Autism Spectrum Disorder, is being applied to an increasingly large number of people. And children or adults who might previously have been considered quirky now frequently have their personalities medicalized with suggestions that they have traits of Asperger’s. Its growth as a pseudo diagnostic category has taken on similar proportions to mild dyslexia…”

“Concocting a health scare is attractive, because it gives the appearance of challenging power and authority, but with none of the work, and none of the litigation risk if you’re wrong.”

“You cannot find your hypothesis in your results.”

“Patients are so much more easily misled by drug company advertising than doctors that the budget for direct to consumer advertising in America has risen twice as fast as the budget for addressing doctors directly.”

“There is essentially no difference between the vitamin industry and the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.”