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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Politics Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Misdirected criticism by someone from whom I would never have expected it

It is with some trepidation and more than a little regret that I begin writing this piece. The reason for my hesitation is that, by doing so, no matter what I say I’ll be inserting myself into what appears to be a disagreement among people all of whom I admire very much. I don’t really […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism History Humor Medicine

You knew it was inevitable…the Wakefield Downfall parody

Clearly, once the allegations of Andrew Wakefield’s fraud, conflicts of interest, and business plans to profit off of his demonization of the MMR came to light, it was only a matter of time before this arrived: NOTE: Apparently the creator of this parody has removed it. I’ve sent an e-mail asking to reconsider.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine

Lamenting Deadly Choices that endanger children

As hard as it is to believe after the pile of poo that was 2010, the year 2011 is starting out rather promisingly, at least from the point of view of science-based medicine. Its beginning has been greeted with the release of two–count ’em, two!–books taking a skeptical, science-based look at vaccines and, in particular, […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

The annals of “I’m not anti-vaccine,” part 4 (End of 2010 edition)

Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. I realize I say these things again and again and again, but they bear repeating because together they are a message that needs to be spread in as clear and unambiguous a form as possible. First, whenever you hear someone say, “I’m not […]

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Autism Bioethics Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

Luc Montagnier: The Nobel disease strikes again

They call it the Nobel disease. Linus Pauling is the prototypical example. A brilliant chemist who won two Nobel Prizes, one for chemistry and the Nobel Peace Prize, in his later years Pauling became convinced that high dose vitamin C was a highly effective treatment for cancer and the common cold and, expanding upon that, […]