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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine

How “they” view “us” (briefly revisited)

Yesterday, I wrote about how “they” view “us,” the “they” being believers in dubious medicine, pseudoscience, and outright quackery. As examples, I used believers in the unsupported claims of “brave maverick” cancer doctor Stanislaw Burzynski and antivaccine activists who are utterly convinced, against all science and evidence, that vaccines caused their children’s autism. I pointed […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine

A simultaneously sympathetic and unsympathetic commentary on an antivaccine screed

The false idea that vaccines somehow cause or contribute to autism has been a common theme on this blog, and I’ve spent considerable verbiage discussing why anyone would think that vaccines are in any way associated with autism when the science is quite clear that they are not. If there’s one thing I’ve been consistent […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

The price of antivaccine fanaticism, 2013 edition

That the myth that vaccines cause autism is indeed nothing more than a myth, a phantom, a delusion unsupported by science is no longer in doubt. In fact, it’s been many years now since it was last taken seriously by real scientists and physicians, as opposed to crank scientists and physicians, who are still selling […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Quackery Religion

Alternative medicine as religion, one more time

A couple of days ago, I did one of my usual bits of pontification about alternative medicine, this time around pointing out how religion facilitates the magical thinking that undergirds so much pseudoscientific medicine and how the belief systems that underlie so so much of alternative medicine resembel the belief systems that underlie religion. However, […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine

The annals of “I’m not anti-vaccine,” part 10: Titanic, Oklahoma City, or the Holocaust?

It’s not infrequent that I come under fire from antivaccinationists for, ironically enough, calling them antivaccinationists. “Oh, no,” they protest, “I’m not antivaccine. How dare you call me that? I’m actually a vaccine safety advocate.” Of course, when you probe more closely and ask a few questions, almost inevitably you’ll find that in reality they […]