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Antivaccine nonsense Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

The anti-vaccine movement, cranks, and “pseudo-expertise”

Over the last week or so, I’ve been confronted full bore with cranks, staring down the barrel, if you will, of a crank shotgun, one barrel being the anti-vaccine movement in general (with J.B. Handley and his misogyny being the buckshot, so to speak) and the other being Suzanne Somers and her despicable cancer quackery. […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine

Has Desiree Jennings’ VAERS report been found?

The other day, I wrote about an unfortunate young woman named Desiree Jennings, who claimed to have had a rare neurological disorder known as dystonia as a complication of being vaccinated for seasonal flu, when it appears that her condition is likely to have at least a strong psychogenic component and is unlikely to be […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Entertainment/culture Medicine Music Religion

Another celebrity anti-vaccine moron: Billy Corgan

Oh, hell. I actually used to like Smashing Pumpkins back in the 1990s. Unfortunately, its leader, Billy Corgan, has just revealed himself to be as medically ignorant as Jenny McCarthy in a recent blog post: If you follow some of the links I have been supplying as of late, you’ll notice many are focused on […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Popular culture Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking Television

Blogging Suzanne Somers Knockout, part 1: How cancer testimonials mislead

Be afraid. Be very, very afraid. After a prolonged wait, it’s finally here: Yes, my promotional copy of Suzanne Somers new book Knockout: Interviews with Doctors Who Are Curing Cancer–And How to Prevent Getting It in the First Place. (The Dalek was included because, well, I was just feeling perverse when I took this picture.) […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Politics

On why misogynists shouldn’t mess with the Goddess…

…Isis shows us why by calling out the anti-vaccine movement in general and J.B. Handley in particular, for sexist attacks on Amy Wallace, who wrote the excellent article for WIRED about how the anti-vaccine movement endangers public health. True, I did e-mail her for advice in letting feminist bloggers know about this nastiness, being interested […]