Roland Düringer – a comedian who has entered politics and spreads all kinds of conspiracy theories;
Krebszentrum Brüggen-Bracht – the alternative cancer clinic of Heilpraktiker Klaus Ross, where at least three patients died recently after receiving fatal injections that have stirred up controversy.
The website www.zentrum-der-gesundheit.de receives the Golden Board Lifetime Achievement Award (Goldenes Brett fürs Lebenswerk).
The annually awarded Golden Board honours “the most bizarre, most outrageous, brashest pseudoscientific nonsense contribution of the year in German-speaking countries.” This year’s winner will be presented on 11 October in Vienna, Austria.
The Dutch Society against Quackery, Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij (VtdK), will hold its annual symposium on 1 October 2016 at De Nieuwe Liefde in Amsterdam. This year, the conference will focus on the tax-exempt status of many alternative therapists, which might lead to the promotion of quackery, and giving it undue legitimacy.
Speakers:
– Prof. dr. René van der Paardt, professor in excise taxes at Erasmus University Rotterdam
– Dr. Cees Renckens, honorary chair of the VtdK and emeritus gynaecologist
– Mr. Saskia Huizer, tax advisor, specialises in VAT, Rotterdam
The symposium will start with the presentation of the Master Quack Award to whoever promoted quackery the most this year in the Netherlands (read here who were nominated). Also, the Bruinsma Brothers Medal will be awarded to Henk van Gerven, MP for the Socialist Party, who has a long record of questioning and criticising dubious medical practices both within regular medicine as well as numerous alternative therapies.
Entrance fees are high for non-members; they are recommended to join the Society, or go along with a member as an introducee.
The Dutch Society against Quackery, Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij (VtdK), has awarded the 2016 Bruinsma Brothers Medal to Member of Parliament Henk van Gerven (Socialist Party). The Society praises him for his long record of fighting dubious medical practices:
Henk van Gerven in 2012. (Bas Stoffelsen / SP CC-BY-SA 4.0)
Van Gerven’s Socialist Party (SP) has revealed itself as a party that doesn’t just combat abuses in regular medicine, but also deals with quackery in our country. Unlike other parties, the SP has consistently denounced all unproven therapies. The party’s parliamentary questions about non-regular medicine, first by Agnes Kant, and in the last ten years by former GP Henk van Gerven, are numerous. The jury ruled that both were very well aware of the dangers of such types of medicine.
Van Gerven will be presented with the award during the upcoming VtdK Symposium on 1 October in Amsterdam.
The Bruinsma Brothers Medal (Gebroeders Bruinsma Erepenning) was introduced at the occasion of the VtdK’s 125th anniversary. The name refers to the brothers Gerard and Vitus Bruinsma, who founded the Society in 1880, making it the oldest skeptical organisation in the world.
Dutch Defence Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert is a nominee.
During its 1 October symposium, the Dutch Society against Quackery, Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij, will announce who has won this year’s Master Quack Award (Meester Kackadorisprijs). Nominated are:
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, Minister of Defence Military personnel has, without their knowledge, been given a health insurance, where alternative care has been included in basic care.
Dutch Royal Society for Veterinary Medicine (KNMvD) The organisation lets alternatively operating vets, united in the Study Group for Complementarily Operating Vets, practice freely. Nominated for the third time.
André Rouvoet, chair of VEKTIS VEKTIS registers alternative healthcare providers, which they require in order to be eligible for compensation by health insurance companies. According to the Society, VEKTIS’ assessment procedure is a farce.
Huub Savelkoul, professor at Wageningen University Nominated for a second time, this year for his cooperation to a course on ‘orthomolecular dietetics’.
The prize is meant for the institute, person or enterprise that has contributed most to the spread of quackery in the Netherlands last year by means of act, word or writing. On skeptical blog KloptDatWel.nl, you can vote for whom you think should receive the 2016 ironic award until Friday 16:00 CET.
The Dutch Health Council (Gezondheidsraad) is letting babies and their parents down in the fight against rotavirus, medical experts say. While all surrounding countries have adopted a vaccination policy against the diarrhoeal disease, that annually kills up to half a million young children around the world, the Netherlands are yet to develop an immunisation programme.
In 2010, the Health Council, which advises the government on medical matters, actually held a majority vote in favour of adopting the rota vaccine, but it wasn’t carried out. The minority, who held that the consequences weren’t severe enough and the project too expensive, had their way. Emeritus professor in child medicine Ronald de Groot adds that ‘there are fears of rising opposition to vaccination in society. But you simply need to inform people well. (…) [Since 2010] we’ve added to the record dozens of dead children and thousands of hospitalisations that could have been prevented.’
The Dutch Society against Quackery, Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij (VtdK), will hold its annual symposium on 1 October 2016 at 
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