Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Quackery

The problem of nonmedical exemptions from school vaccine mandates is getting worse

It’s feast or famine in the ol’ blogging world, and right now it’s such a feast that I can’t decide what to blog about. For instance, there are at least two studies and a letter that I wouldn’t mind blogging about just in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine alone. Then […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Entertainment/culture Television

Journalists of the future make a vaccine documentary

The broadcast class at Carlsbad High School decided to make a documentary about vaccines. Unfortunately for them, antivaxers didn’t like that. Even high school students aren’t off-limits for antivax attacks,

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism

Fear and loathing and vaccines

As hard as it is for me to believe when I look back at it, I’ve been writing about the antivaccine movement now for more than seven years here on this blog and combatting it online for at least a decade now. I like to think that over the years my response has evolved somewhat. […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine

Respecting parental concerns versus pandering to antivaccine fears

In common colloquial usage, there is a term known as “gaydar.” Basically, it’s the ability some people claim to have that allows them to identify people who are gay. Whether gaydar actually exists or not, I don’t know, but I claim to have an ability that’s similar. That ability is the ability to sniff out […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

Andrew Wakefield appeals?

On the antivaccine front, this year began with antivaccine hero Andrew Wakefield filing suit against investigative reporter Brian Deer, the BMJ, and Fiona Godlee (the editor of BMJ) for libel based on a series that Deer published in the BMJ outlining the evidence for Wakefield’s scientific fraud in his (in)famous 1998 Lancet case series. This […]