Orac talks about sparring with alternative medicine supporters

“Unfortunately there are extreme alties out there for whom conventional medicine can do no good and alternative medicine can, it seems, do no ill. It is not just in the field of autism, either. I simply used this recent event to illustrate my point because it is fresh in my mind and because Kev documented similar, albeit somewhat less extreme, reactions from parents on the Evidence of Harm discussion lists. Similarly, some alties like to go on and on about the number of people who die as a result of complications of coronary artery bypass operations while at the same time extolling the supposed virtues of another bogus use of chelation therapy, for cardiovascular disease. Another example I could have used that is not related to chelation therapy is the way that many die-hard alties defend quacks like Hulda Clark, who charge large amounts of money for ineffective and sometimes even harmful cancer treatments that can result in catastrophic delays in patients seeking effective cancer treatment, as I described in The Orange Man.

To such people, any death or compliction due to alternative medicine is excusable, but conventional doctors must have utterly perfect results, something no human can achieve.”