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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

The real “evidence of harm”

I haven’t written before about the tragic case of Katie McCarron, the three year old autistic girl whose mother killed her in May 2006. It’s an incredibly sad tale, and others have covered it better. However, the trial started last week, and on Friday there was some testimony that suggests an effect of all the […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Closing the year on a great note: The mercury militia’s “experts” slapped down

What better way to finish off 2007 than to look at a most amusing judicial ruling on the admissibility of some of the favorite “expert” witnesses trotted out to try to demonstrate a link between mercury in vaccines and autism. It was issued on December 21 in the case of Blackwell v. Sigma Aldrich, Inc. […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Superstition ain’t the way

An excellent op-ed article by Michael Fitzpatrick characterizes quite well the hysterical fear based on no evidence that Andrew Wakefield and his accomplices started in the U.K. over the MMR vaccine and the unfounded claim that it causes autism and bowel disorders: The rise of a combination of extreme scepticism towards established sources of authority […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Bill Maher: Antivaccination wingnut

Vacation time! While Orac is off to London recharging his circuits and contemplating the linguistic tricks of limericks and jokes or the glory of black holes, he’s rerunning some old stuff from his original Blogspot blog. This particular post first appeared on December 19, 2005. I don’t know if Bill Maher is still an antivax […]

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Medicine Science Skepticism/critical thinking

The Enemies of Reason, part 2: The Irrational Health Service (with a review)

Thanks to Blake, I now have The Enemies of Reason, Part 2: My review of this episode is below the fold. I managed to BitTorrent the episode and watch it on my laptop on my flight back from Chicago last night. If you don’t want to be influenced by my opinion before watching, watch the […]