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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Entertainment/culture Medicine Television

Another idiotic poll: Do you think vaccines are safe?

A friend of mine sent me a link to one of my hometown news stations because he saw something that irritated him. On the front page, there is a poll of such epic burning stupid that it requires an immediate crash. I may not be P.Z., but I have in some instances overcome my previous […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine

The NVIC Vaccine Ingredient Calculator: A disingenuous deceptive instrument of vaccine fear mongering

Having followed the anti-vaccine movement continuously for nearly six years now, I had come to think that I had seen it all as far as deceptive strategies for frightening parents about vaccines. Obviously, becoming too complacent is foolish, because, as misguided and scientifically ignorant as they are, many of the leaders of the anti-vaccine movement […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine

Vaccine exemptions in California threaten herd immunity

I don’t know if it’s confirmation bias, faulty memory, or if my individual impression is correct, but it seems to me that over the years I’ve been blogging that stories like this one seem to be becoming depressingly more common: Getting inoculated for diseases such as whooping cough and measles used to be a childhood […]

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Medicine

Some excellent questions for medical reporters

Having taken note of my little missive yesterday about New York Times health reporter Tara Parker-Pope and her utter credulity towards the woo that is acupuncture, Dr. R. W. makes an observation: A number of years ago I ran across Science Education in Preparation for the Ministry. The premise of the document, written by pathologist […]

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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

Tara Parker-Pope and the New York Times Well Blog: Acupuncture woo takes over

What the hell is going on with The New York Times‘ health reporting? I’ve had my share of disagreements with the way that the NYT has covered various health issues over the years that I’ve been blogging, but I don’t recall ever having seen it embrace pseudoscience. I can recall being a bit miffed at […]