Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

More evidence that anti-vaccine beliefs kill

Vaccines save lives. In fact, they arguably save more lives than any other medical intervention devised by human beings. Unfortunately, the converse is also true. Anti-vaccine beliefs and the vaccine refusal that results from them kill. They leave children vulnerable to preventable diseases, and, sadly, here’s yet more evidence that this is true: At least […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Politics

Anti-vaccine activism, not autism activism

Remember how I said that I was trying to take it easy this week? I still am, but there’s something bugging me enough to draw me out of my grant-induced cocoon for a little while in order to pontificate on it in the not-so-Respectfully Insolent way that I am so often wont to do. True, […]

Categories
Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Science

The revenge of cell phones and cancer strikes back yet again in the never-ending controversy…

NOTE: Orac is on semi-vacation this week, trying very hard to recharge his Tarial cells. Actually, although he is at home, he is spending much of his time in his Sanctum Sanctorum (i.e., his home office) working on an R01 for the February submission cycle. Given that the week between Christmas and New Years Day […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Movies Music Popular culture Quackery Television

When celebrities promote pseudoscience and quackery…

If there’s one thing that’s irritated the crap out of me ever since I entered the medical field, it’s celebrities with more fame than brains or sense touting various health remedies. Of late, three such celebrities have spread more misinformation and quackery than the rest of the second tier combined. Truly, together, they are the […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics

Crank magnetism at a young age: Anti-vaccine “resistance” and 9/11 Truth

If there’s one thing that irritates me about the anti-vaccine movement, it’s the utter disingenuousness of the movement. How often do we hear the claim from anti-vaccine loons that “we’re not ‘anti-vaccine’; we’re ‘pro-safe vaccine’”? I’ve tried to pin such people down time and time again to answer just what it would take in terms […]