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Editorial Note:  We have run previous posts on mefloquine (Lariam) - the The Strange History of Lariam and Lariam Hell  and quinoline anti-microbial, as well as on a different group of anti-microbials  - the fluoroquinolones - but a lot of their problems overlap.  More to the point, those with Mefloquine problems have faced difficulties from Roche that so many others taking … [Read more...] about Quinism Foundation

Editorial Note: Its an Irish custom to offer one for the road.  Having finished the trilogy on Outsourcing Fascism, here's one for the road. A little over two years ago I wrote two posts - Little Red Riding Hood and Little Red Stethoscope that give me pleasure today - but also make me worry about Alzheimer's figuring that I've rarely hit those heights since. My warm … [Read more...] about Reds Under the Bed: the New McCarthyism

Editorial Note:  This is part three in a sequence of posts that began with Outsourcing Fascism and continued last week with Not Our Nomination.  Our Nomination The RxISK nomination for the SAS JM Prize is Lisa Rosenbaum from the Brigham and Women's hospital in Boston. Dr Rosenbaum has courageously stood up for the mainstream of science on a range of fronts including moral … [Read more...] about Celebrity Science

Editorial Note: This post continues from Outsourcing Fascism.  For more on James Coyne, see Rolf Harris to James Coyne.   Coyne was the perfect candidate for a Sense about Science JM Prize until a few years ago.  He was the first to wade in and rubbish anyone who might have thought there was something wrong with a medication.  His dark past had not come to light.  But … [Read more...] about Not the 2018 Sense about Science JM Prize Nominee

  In 2017 the Sense about Science (SAS) John Maddox (JM) Prize was awarded to to Riko Muranaka for her efforts to counter apparent misinformation about the HPV vaccine. MedWatcher Japan are the group who have helped raise the profile of concerns about the HPV vaccine in Japan. When it comes to tackling the adverse effects of treatments, there is no more … [Read more...] about Outsourcing Fascism

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads; And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap, Had just … [Read more...] about The Night Before Christmas and The Nights After

Its the end of October when every Irish person going back millennia  gets taken over by Halloween - not just the Celts, those who come and stay get bitten too, as Bram Stoker could tell you. So there will be a series of 4 posts to mark the occasion, starting next week, previewed here.  These fit closely with the RxISX Prize posts and should be read in conjunction with … [Read more...] about If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler… Trick or Treat?

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a pretty harrowing movie.  In brief a new SS Kommandant and his family come to a camp.  The Kommandant seems like a reasonable man.  His family seem very normal. His son makes friends with a boy behind the wire. They ultimately create a hole in the fence between them and get to spend time together.  Finally the Boy in the Striped Pajamas is … [Read more...] about It Couldn’t Happen Here: Consent to “Treatment”

Over on RxISK, we have launched a RxISK Prize.  The hope is to find an answer to the debilitating disorders of Post SSRI Sexual Dysfunction, PSSD, Post-Finasteride Syndrome, PFS, and Post Retinoid Sexual Dysfunction (PRSD). Please check this out and pass the word on to any pharmacologist, physiologist, endocrinologist, biologist, electrical engineer, doctor, herbalist, and … [Read more...] about RxISK Prize

                   Editorial Note: When I raised the specter of the Science Media Center and Sense about Science recently, some of the Americans I knew fell about laughing, figuring we are still a long way off being as censored as the US of A is. After calming down, one of them Johanna Ryan wrote this post. In June 2014 the BMJ published a study by Lu et al supposedly of … [Read more...] about Alt Medicine