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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine History Holocaust denial Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Antivaxers supported President-Elect Donald Trump. Now they want him to satisfy their demands.

If you’re a skeptic dedicated to promoting science and reason, these are scary times. My country, the United States of America, just unexpectedly elected a racist, misogynistic, conspiracy-mongering, scientific ignoramus (who, by the way, is rabidly antivaccine) as its next President thanks to the political relic known as the Electoral College. In actuality, Hillary Clinton […]

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Clinical trials Medicine Politics

The “health freedom” legislative agenda for 2015 and beyond

Now that we’re solidly into 2015, it’s a good time to check in on what the legislative priorities are going to be among various advocates of quackery and “health freedom” (but I repeat myself). There’s a new Republican Congress, and a lot of chairmanships are going to be reshuffled, with various legislators finding themselves in […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Pseudoscience Quackery

The Nobel Disease strikes again: Luc Montagnier goes full antivax, with a little help from Henri Joyeux

“Nobel disease” is a term designed to describe whatever it is that drives some Nobel laureates to embrace pseudoscience or quackery later in their careers. One of its most prominent victims, Luc Montagnier, co-discoverer of the AIDS virus, recently demonstrated that he’s still suffering from Nobel disease when he laid down a barrage of antivaccine pseudoscience in Paris earlier this month.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

Surprise! Relatively small decreases in vaccine uptake can lead to big increases in vaccine-preventable disease!

Whenever vaccine uptake falls to a level below that needed to maintain herd immunity, the risk of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases climbs. It doesn’t take that dramatic of a decline. Here’s a study that shows how a small decrease in vaccine uptake can lead to a large increase in disease.

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

SB 277 works. Period. No wonder antivaxers hate it.

The numbers are in. SB 277, the new California law banning nonmedical exemptions, works. Vaccine uptake is up, and personal belief exemptions are down dramatically.