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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Quackery

Channeling P.Z.: Crash this poll on vaccines and autism

In the wake of Matt Lauer’s interview with Andrew Wakefield, there’s a new poll up at the TODAYMoms website: Do you think vaccines are related to autism? Andrew Wakefield, who touched off an international controversy by claiming a possible link between the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine and autism, has lost his medical license, but […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Quackery

“Interesting times,” thanks to a confluence of anti-vaccine pseudoscience

An old Chinese combined proverb and curse is said to be, “May you live in interesting times.” Certainly, with respect to vaccines, the last few years have been “interesting times.” Unfortunately, this week times are about to get a lot more “interesting” as the Autism One quackfest descends upon Chicago beginning today. Featuring prominently in […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Politics

A confluence of the anti-vaccine and “health freedom” movements at AutismOne in Chicago

One of the biggest examples of either self-delusion or lying that emanates from the anti-vaccine movement is the oh-so-pious and indignant denials that inevitably follow from its members and leaders whenever someone like me has the temerity to point out that they are, in fact, anti-vaccine. The disingenuously angry denials usually take a form something […]

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Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Harnessing the generosity of kind-hearted strangers to pay for woo

Thanks to the number of people without medical insurance, desperate patients are holding fundraisers to pay for their medical care. Increasingly, they are also increasingly turning to the Internet to raise money through crowdfunding. Unfortunately, there is a dark side to crowdfunding. Patients are also turning to it to raise money to pay for quackery.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Popular culture Television

Poor, poor pitiful me: Jenny McCarthy and Dr. Jay Gordon after The Vaccine War

Sometimes, when it comes to the anti-vaccine movement, I feel as though I’m bipolar. There are times when I’m incredibly depressed that pseudoscience and fear mongering are winning out, leaving our children vulnerable to infectious diseases not seen in decades and believing that it’s only a matter of time before we start seeing really major […]