Ben Goldacre: bad science kills

Here’s Ben “Bad Science” Goldacre presenting on how non-evidence-based medicine (that is, woo), can actually, no fooling, kill you and thousands of your friends.

Ben’s book, oddly enough titled Bad Science, is great as well, and I highly recommend it. There’s a chapter he had to take out due to litigation by a guy named Mathias Rath, who says vitamins can cure AIDS. Yes, you read that correctly. Ben posted that chapter on his website, and it may be one of the most important things ever written in the area of critical thinking. Lack of proper treatment for AIDS kills hundreds of thousands of people in Africa alone. Hundreds of thousands.

When people like Ben win, lives are saved. The more people who know about him, the better. He’s a true hero of skepticism.

Some bad science can make you laugh, and some kills