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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

Ad hominem and harassment: How antivaccine activists work

For some reason, I was really beat last night, and, given that this weekend is a holiday for a large proportion of the country (if, perhaps, not for a large proportion of my readership), I don’t feel too bad about slacking off a bit by mentioning a couple of short bits that I wanted to […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Politics Popular culture Quackery

Chili’s gets burned by an antivaccine group posing as an “autism advocacy” group

Here I am, sitting on the balcony of my hotel room in sunny San Diego, as I get ready to head over to the 2014 meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). The sun is rising over the mountains, and the only sound I hear is that of running water in the swimming […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Politics Skepticism/critical thinking

The antivaccine movement resurrects the zombie that is the “autism epidemic” (2014 edition)

As I just mentioned a week ago, there used to be a time when I dreaded Autism Awareness Month, which begins tomorrow. The reason was simple. Several years ago to perhaps as recently as three years ago, I could always count on a flurry of stories about autism towards the end of March and the […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

In which reporters are lectured by a fake "media expert" and "autism advocate"

After the last couple of days of depressing posts about the utter failure of the FDA to do its job protecting cancer patients from the likes of Stanislaw burzynski, it’s time to move on. Unfortunately, the first thing that caught my eye as I sat down to blog last night not only fried my irony […]

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

Acid flashbacks to antivaccine conspiracy theories from nine years ago

I’m home. Oh, wait. No. Well, I’m back. Yes, the grant has been submitted, and I’m ready to get back to my hobby of science, skepticism, and, when necessary, laying down some Insolence, both Respectful and not-so-Respectful. And, it figures, too. While I was distracted with meatspace concerns, such as trying to keep my lab […]