Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Detoxifying fashionably

How many times have I read or heard from believers in “alternative” medicine that some disease or other is caused by “toxins”? I honestly can’t remember, but in alt-world, no matter what the disease or condition under discussion is, there’s a good chance that sooner or later it will be linked to “toxins.” It doesn’t […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Entertainment/culture Humor Medicine Music Science

The antivaccine band The Refusers: Back from the dead

Whenever I call an anti-vaccine activist “anti-vaccine,” frequently there will be an indignant response along the lines of either, “I’m not ‘anti-vaccine’; I’m pro-safe vaccine” or “I’m not ‘anti-vaccine’; I’m a vaccine safety activist.” (This latter retort is a favorite of Barbara Loe Fisher.) Another favorite retort is, “I’m not ‘anti-vaccine’; I’m for ‘informed consent’” […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Dr. Jay Gordon: No vaccines needed, just quit eating cheese and ice cream

I’m currently in Las Vegas at The Amazing Meeting. Believe it or not, I was even on a panel! While I’m gone, I’ll probably manage to do a new post or two, but, in the meantime, while I’m away communing with fellow skeptics at TAM7, I’ll be reposting some Classic Insolence from the month of […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

It’s so cute when anti-vaxers try to discuss epidemiology…

The anti-vaccine movement is nothing if not plastic. It “evolves” very rapidly in response to selective pressures applied to it in the form of science refuting its key beliefs. For instance, when multiple studies looking at the MMR vaccine and autism failed to confirm the myth that the MMR causes autism or “autistic enterocolitis,” most […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Evolution Medicine Pseudoscience Science Skepticism/critical thinking

In which Orac defends Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum…

I realize that I’m possibly stepping into proverbial lion’s den with this one, but a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do. As you may recall, former ScienceBlogs bloggers Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum (and current Discover Magazine bloggers) recently released a book called Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future. […]