Michael Marshall – Project Director Co-founder of the Merseyside Skeptics Society and co-organiser of the QED skeptical conference, 'Marsh' was the project leader and figurehead of the 10:23 Campaign, aimed at raising public awareness of homeopathy - resulting in international coverage and worldwide skeptical involvement. With a background in marketing and communications, his skeptical activism has included testing psychic claims, trialling sports performance wristbands, interviewing proponents of alternative beliefs and exposing the influences of PR in journalism.
Michael Marshall
Author's posts
Jul 20 2018
Cancer deaths higher among users of alternative therapies (The Times)
Cancer patients who turn to complementary medicine are more likely to die, according to new research. Therapies such as homeopathy, traditional Chinese medicine and specialised diets should only be used alongside conventional treatments, but experts warned some patients saw them as replacements.
Jul 03 2018
Does Ireland need dedicated body to fight pseudoscience? (The Irish Times)
Last March, the Spanish Organisation of Medical Colleges created what they called “an observatory against pseudosciences, pseudotherapies, intrusion (the practice of a profession by an unauthorised person) and health sects”. On the observatory website, they describe a number of alternative therapies and elaborate on the lack of scientific evidence showing any efficacy for them in …
Jun 25 2018
Why is Bristol’s NHS wasting thousands on ‘hocus pocus’ cures? (Bristol Post)
Winter may be over but things are still far from rosy. Overstretched staff are still battling to deliver the level of care they wish to while battling the effect of austerity and government spending cuts. Why is it then, against this background of overstretched Bristol hospitals and desperately overworked doctors and nurses, that Bristol NHS bosses continue …
Jun 19 2018
Tech giants are making millions from ‘quack’ diet apps for cancer (The Times)
Hundreds of thousands of people in Britain have downloaded apps through Google and Apple that market themselves with unproven claims to treat cancer and other diseases. Among the most popular examples are those that promote “ketogenic diets” with the suggestion that they are effective in fighting cancer, even though there have been no clinical trials …
Jun 11 2018
Good Thinking Supporters June 2018 Newsletter
June 2018 Newsletter: Homeopaths’ legal challenge to NHS England fails, Flat Earth conference reports, and Marsh to speak at NECSS in New York
Jun 11 2018
Insight: Terminal diagnosis for homeopathy (The Scotsman)
Lawyer Mary McGowan was horrified when she was first referred to the Centre for Integrative Care (formerly known as Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital); she had been ill for several years with conventional medicine doing little to alleviate her symptoms or even provide a diagnosis, but she was still wary of the alternative treatments on offer.
Jun 05 2018
Homeopaths’ legal challenge to NHS England fails
Today, the British Homeopathic Association lost their legal case against NHS England, with the judge dismissing all four parts of their case. The BHA had sought to overturn NHS England’s announcement in November 2017 of new guidance which advises GP’s not to prescribe homeopathic remedies. Michael Marshall, Project Director of the Good Thinking Society, said …
May 11 2018
Why We Should Listen to Flat Earth Believers (Even Though They’re Completely Wrong)
It’s easy to attribute the recent resurgence in belief that the world is flat to stupidity or gullibility – indeed, physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson writes Flat Earthers off as proof that the educational system has failed. But while it might rightly be labelled ridiculous, belief in the Flat Earth does not exist in a vacuum. People …
May 04 2018
If ever something deserved to be called barking mad it’s this rabid dog saliva ‘remedy’ (The Mirror)
Homeopathic healers insist remedy is safe and contains no rabies virus.
May 02 2018
The universe is an egg and the moon isn’t real: notes from a Flat Earth conference (The Guardian)
Michael Marshall attended the UK’s annual gathering of people who share the unshakeable belief that the Earth is flat.
