There has been a flurry of activity on Nature Network in recent weeks concerning the reaction of practitioners in CAM to criticism in the printed media. This of course includes the libel action taken by the British Chiropractic Association against Simon Singh. This libel action is on the content of an article that was originally published in the Guardian and the BCA have chosen to sue Simon and not the Guardian. With that background out of the way, I would like to point readers towards the following Mortarboard Blogpost in the Education Guardian, which asks the very appropriate question considering the teaching of CAM in UK universities. What I find interesting is not so much the blogpost/article but that the comments on the post are uniformly against CAM having any academic credentials. So maybe there is hope for science based medicine if the Guardian readers (an allegedly gullible bunch) think this way.
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Title to be Announced by Brian Derby
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CAM in the Guardian
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- Wednesday, 10 Jun e 2009 - 13:11 UTC
Last updated: Wednesday, 10 Jun 2009 - 13:11 UTC
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Comments
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Good to read this news, Brian.
Another thing that is interesting is the reaction of the McTimoney Chiropractic Association to the above-mentioned libel action. (Some information about the MCA currently cached here for the moment.)
It has been to tell all its members to follow its example and take down entire websites, in fear of being targeted in return for false advertising:
But taking down websites is not instantaneous, and many are archived here.
HT: The Quackometer.
Oi! I’m a Gruaniad reader and I resent being labeled “allegedly gullible”. I’m going to sue! [etc.]
Oh, sorry, did I say that out loud?
Interesting about the targeting of chiropractic websites, Heather. Could this be the end of chiropractic practice (hm, there must be a better way of putting that) in the UK? Somehow I think not.
There’s nothing ‘allegedly’ about you, is there, Richard?
Well, I’d like to think it was an indication of rationality among Grauniad readers, but there are only a very few responses…
…While if you want to see irrationality in full bore, check out the 600-reply thread following this Observer article about compulsory MMR vaccination by Catherine Bennett, which I just linked to from Henry’s related thread.
@Austin – Maybe Education Gnuraiad readers are slightly more rational than the general herd. It is certainly true that comments on most Guardian blogs have a certain crazed feel about them.
Not only the Grauniad, to be fair (present company and NN excepted, of course!).
Just got a press release from Elsevier, which starts thus:
“Beijing, China, 10 June 2009. Elsevier, the world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced the launch of the online version of the Chinese Journal of Natural Medicines (CJNM). Established in 2003, the Chinese Journal of Natural Medicines is now available for the first time in English on ScienceDirect.
This peer-reviewed journal is for pharmaceutical and medical scientists interested in the advancement of traditional Chinese medicines, and publishes papers on a broad spectrum of bioactive natural products, leading compounds and materials derived from traditional Chinese medicines.” Continued here.