Edzard Ernst

Are we experiencing an epidemic of violence and abuse?

Edzard — Wed, 06 May 2026 07:50:21 +0000

Violence and abuse are no longer confined to the margins of society; they have permeated workplaces, public services, streets, homes, schools, online forums, places of worship, and even political discourse. From retail staff and healthcare workers to religious minorities and women trapped in abusive relationships, aggression has become disturbingly commonplace. The evidence is difficult to […]

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Dame Shirley Porter (1930–2026)

Edzard — Tue, 05 May 2026 14:07:24 +0000

Dame Shirley Porter died on May 2. She passed away in Herzliya, Israel, where she had spent much of her time since the early 2000s. Dame Shirley had been the former leader of Westminster City Council and a dominant figure in 1980s UK municipal politics. Once hailed as the “Iron Lady of the town halls,” her career […]

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Reimbursement of homeopathy in Germany: its days are counted

Edzard — Tue, 05 May 2026 07:52:20 +0000

Despite overwhelming evidence proving that homeopathics are pure placebos, a faction of German healthcare professionals – predominantly people who profit from homeopathy – continues to argue against their removal from statutory insurance. They claim that defunding homeopathy would eliminate vital treatment options, ultimately driving patients toward more expensive conventional interventions. However, from a health economics […]

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Is Nigel Farage a racist and an antisemite?

Edzard — Mon, 04 May 2026 09:18:36 +0000

Recent excesses of antisemitism in the UK and elsewhere prompt me to occasionally deviate from the core subject of this blog. I hope you share my concerns and understand my decision. Nigel Farage had a checkered political career. Currently, he is the Leader of Reform UK. His ascent is marked not least by a tension […]

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Zack Polanski, the Hypnotherapist in UK Politics

Edzard — Sun, 03 May 2026 08:54:26 +0000

Zack Polanski the current Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, previously worked as a professional “cognitive hypnotherapist”. My own assessment of hypnotherapy states that is the use of a trance-like state (hypnosis) for therapeutic purposes. It can be traced back to ancient cultures, but more recently Anton Mesmer (1734–1815) introduced hypnotherapy into […]

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“Alternative Mathematics” According to Donald J. Trump

Edzard — Sat, 02 May 2026 08:13:31 +0000

Recent statements concerning US pharmaceutical pricing have drawn renewed attention to an entirely new horizon in mathematics. The method, associated with remarks by Donald Trump and repeated by several of his sycophants, departs from standard arithmetic in a manner that is rhetorically vigorous but mathematically ridiculous. Percentage change is defined relative to a single, clearly […]

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Switzerland’s Evaluation of Homeopathy: The End of an Endless Loop

Edzard — Fri, 01 May 2026 07:53:13 +0000

Guest post by Udo Endruscheit Two years ago, in a guest post on this blog, I described the long and winding history of homeopathy in Switzerland — a story marked by political expectations, institutional entanglements, and repeated attempts to reconcile a lack of evidence with a desire for legitimacy. I ended that article with the […]

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What’s the science behind acupuncture? – About the recent and most disappointing PANS paper

Edzard — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 06:55:37 +0000

When a top journal like PNAS (Procedings of the Nationsl Academy of Science) publishes an article entitled “What’s the science behind acupuncture?“, I must take notice. Here is my take on the (sadly disappointing) effort: My very short summary of the paper (I do encourange my readers to read it in full) The article starts […]

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UK doctor permanently struck off the medical register for using dangerous quackery

Edzard — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 08:32:18 +0000

I am quite fond of garlic, but not as a cancer therapy. Dr. Mohsen Ali, a former doctor whose UK medical license was revoked by the General Medical Council (GMC) in January 2015, has been permanently struck off the medical register following a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) investigation into his running of an illegal clinic. […]

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Trump just fired all sitting members of the National Science Board

Edzard — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 07:34:41 +0000

Trump’s anti-science stance is well-known. What we did not know is how far he might venture in this direction. On Friday, April 24, 2026, the Trump administration took the unprecedented step of firing all sitting members of the National Science Board (NSB). This body acts as the governing board for the National Science Foundation (NSF) […]

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