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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

No, the CDC did not just apologize and admit that this year’s flu vaccine doesn’t work

If there’s one thing about having a demanding day job, it’s that the cranks usually have the advantage. They can almost always hit first when a news story comes out that they can spin to attack their detested science. On the other hand, it usually ensures that by the time I get home, have dinner, […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Catholic doctors and priests versus the tetanus vaccine in Kenya

Of the many lies and myths about vaccines that stubbornly persist despite all evidence showing them not only to be untrue but to be risibly, pseudoscientifically untrue, among whose number are myths that vaccines cause autism, sudden infant death syndrome, and a syndrome that so resembles shaken baby syndrome (more correctly called abusive head trauma) […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Did the “CDC whistleblower” William W. Thompson apologize to Andrew Wakefield in a text message? A hilarious challenge is issued!

Two months ago, one of the strangest stories ever to be flogged by antivaccine activists was insinuating its way throughout social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and everywhere else, where antivaccine activists were engaged in a frantic effort to get the attention of mainstream media regarding their belief that there was a “CDC whistleblower” who had […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Clinical trials History Medicine Popular culture Science

Antivaccinationists versus Jonas Salk's centennial

One thing that happened this week that I didn’t get around to writing about is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jonas Salk, which was October 28. In the annals of medicine, few people have had as immediate a positive effect as Jonas Salk did when he developed the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV). At […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Just as the H1N1 conspiracy theory machine did in 2009, the Ebola conspiracy theory machine goes into overdrive

Does anyone remember the H1N1 influenza pandemic? As hard as it is to believe, that was five years ago. One thing I remember about the whole thing is just how crazy both the antivaccine movement and conspiracy theorists (but I repeat myself) went over the public health campaigns to vaccinate people against H1N1. It was […]