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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Religion

Quoth Richard Dawkins: “I am proud to have presented the [AAI] award to Bill Maher”

It just so happens that I was up quite late last night doing–what else?–writing yet another grant application (well, two actually). Even though the grants aren’t due until Wednesday, Tuesday happens to be my operating room day, meaning I need to get this done and buried by tomorrow afternoon at the latest. In any case, […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine

The reverse pharma shill gambit applied to Age of Autism?

It’s a common tactic of suuporters of alternative medicine or other pseudoscience related to medicine to try to smear defenders of medical science as being hopelessly in the thrall of pharmaceutical companies, or, as they like to call it, “big pharma.” For example, the anti-vaccine movement in general, and Generation Rescue in particular, love to […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Popular culture Television

Poor, poor pitiful me: Jenny McCarthy and Dr. Jay Gordon after The Vaccine War

Sometimes, when it comes to the anti-vaccine movement, I feel as though I’m bipolar. There are times when I’m incredibly depressed that pseudoscience and fear mongering are winning out, leaving our children vulnerable to infectious diseases not seen in decades and believing that it’s only a matter of time before we start seeing really major […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Quackery

Why hard core antivaccinationists will never be convinced that vaccines don’t cause autism

People who have read my review of FRONTLINE’s The Vaccine War may have noticed that the comments have featured someone who may or may not be a concern troll but is definitely at the very least very naive about the anti-vaccine movement. This commenter thinks that being harsh in my assessment of anti-vaccinationists will never […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Entertainment/culture Medicine Popular culture Quackery Television

The Vaccine War: Telling it (mostly) like it is about the anti-vaccine movement

Yesterday, I expressed concern about a FRONTLINE episode that was scheduled to air tonight entitled The Vaccine War (which, by the time you read this, should be available for online viewing in case you missed it). My concern was that there was going to be a heapin’ helpin’ of false balance, based on the promotional […]