Media stories about people with cancer seeking controversial cures are unwittingly bolstering unscientific and potentially harmful treatments, says Michael Marshall
Sep 12 2018
BMJ publishes Good Thinking’s cancer fundraising investigation
The BMJ today published the results of a year-long investigation by Good Thinking into crowdfunding appeals for ineffective cancer treatments. As part of the investigation, Good Thinking searched fundraising sites such as JustGiving and GoFundMe, looking for appeals from UK patients which referenced unproven or disproven cancer treatments, and identifying where these treatments were being …
Sep 12 2018
Regulator removes osteopath from register following our complaint against misleading claims
The General Osteopathic Council has found Nicholas Handoll guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and has directed that his name be removed from the Register of Osteopaths. We reported Handoll to the GOsC in November 2015, highlighting misleading advertising claims regarding paediatric conditions. A webpage entitled “Infants and Children” stated: Osteopaths are first-contact practitioners, trained to …
Sep 11 2018
Latest Top-Top Set Maths Results
Over the last 2 years, we have had 4 schools taking part in the Top-Top Set Maths Project. In 2016/17 these schools ran a Year 7 class, which grew into a Y8 class for 2017/18, and a new Y7 class joined. One way to measure the impact of the Top-Top Set Maths Project (TTSMP) is …
Sep 06 2018
Who Wants to Be a Mathematician returns for 2018/19
Registration for the 2018/19 competition has now closed, but below is some information on the contest. Are you looking for a chance for all your sixth form mathematicians to take part in an international competition? Are you keen to reward and showcase your best maths students — and the chance to share the winning contestant’s …
Sep 02 2018
eBay removes fake cancer ‘zapper’ treatments from sale (The Telegraph)
Online auction site eBay has been selling quack cancer cures that involve “zapping” patients with electricity. The Sunday Telegraph found that more than 30 different cancer zapper devices were being sold through eBay, priced at up to £299. One seller in Northern Ireland had been selling the devices for over a year.
Aug 10 2018
Circular Reasoning: The Rise of Flat Earth Belief
Over the past few years, I’ve given almost 100 free talks to skeptics in the pub groups, humanists, students, conferences, degree courses and comedy festivals – including my talks: Adventures in pseudoscience – a fun journey through almost a decade of my skeptical activism and investigations Diluting NHS Homeopathy until it’s just a memory – a …
Aug 07 2018
NHS Bristol ends funding for homeopathy, ending all homeopathy commissioning in England
Today, CCGs in the Bristol area became the latest and final NHS England CCGs to end the commissioning of homeopathic remedies, marking a significant victory in our long-running campaign to challenge NHS spending on the pseudoscientific treatment. Michael Marshall, Project Director of the Good Thinking Society, said: “We are very pleased to see the Bristol …
Aug 04 2018
Facebook found to be promoting ‘dangerous’ homemade cancer cures (The Telegraph)
Health campaigners have criticised Facebook after a Sunday Telegraph investigation found that the social network has been promoting dangerous homemade cancer “cures” more prominently than information from charities including Cancer Research UK. Vulnerable people desperately searching on Facebook for information about cancer treatments are shown a series of groups which included adverts and discussion about …
Jul 21 2018
Universities unwittingly funding videos from discredited doctor Andrew Wakefield (The Times)
British universities have funded anti-vaccination videos through adverts on YouTube channels linked to the discredited former doctor Andrew Wakefield. King’s College London, the University of East Anglia and De Montfort University are among advertisers on videos such as Legally blind from the MMR vaccine. They appear on the Vaxxed TV channel, a spin-off from a film …
