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Antivaccine nonsense Bioethics Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

Measles outbreaks and the debate over how far we should go requiring vaccination

Whenever we discuss vaccines and vaccine hesitancy, thanks to Andrew Wakefield the one vaccine that almost always comes up is the MMR, which is the combined measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. In 1998, Wakefield published a case series of cherry-picked patients in which he strongly inferred that the MMR vaccine was associated with autism and “autistic enterocolitis.” Of […]

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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine

A homeopathic “debate” in BMJ?

Homeopathy is quackery. There, I’ve said it for the hundredth or even thousandth time, but I don’t care if it’s repetitive because it can’t be emphasized enough times that homeopathy is The One Quackery To Rule Them All, with the possible exception of reiki and other “energy therapies.” I also find it useful to make […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

“All truth comes from public debate”: A corollary to crank magnetism

Advocates of pseudoscience like antivaxers love public debates. In fact, they think such debates are an excellent way to get at the truth. That’s not how science works.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

Andrew Wakefield wants a “live public televised debate.” Oh, goody.

I want to thank Dan Olmsted, the editor of Age of Autism. I think. Why do I say this? After all, Olmsted is the managing editor of perhaps the most wretched hive of antivaccine scum and quackery that I am aware of. However, he’s actually done me a favor. You see, the other day, the […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Quackery

The “no debate” debate, briefly revisited

Just yesterday, I commented on a typical whine from the antivaccine crew at the crank blog Age of Autism in which Dan Olmsted became indignant over being reminded that science does not support his belief that vaccines cause autism, that they don’t work, and that they are dangerous. Olmsted, clueless as ever about science, viewed […]