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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Politics

Kevin Barry, you magnificent bastard, I read your antivaccine book!

Kevin Barry wrote a book featuring the transcripts of the “CDC Whistleblower’s” conversations with Brian Hooker as evidence that there’s a conspiracy at the CDC to hide scientific evidence that vaccines cause autism. Well, I read Barry’s book, and it is incredibly thin gruel indeed.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics

“CDC whistleblower” William Thompson appears to have turned antivaccine

Here we go yet again. I’m half tempted to use a YouTube clip of Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in The Godfather, Part 3, where he says, “Just when I thought I was out…they pull me back in.” I’ll restrain myself this time. Instead, I’ll just tell you what I’m talking about, which is the […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Biology Complementary and alternative medicine Quackery Science

No, the CDC did not just apologize and admit that this year’s flu vaccine doesn’t work, part 2

It looks like this year’s going to be a bad flu season. Hard as it is for me to believe, it was only five weeks ago when I discussed an announcement by the CDC that this year’s flu vaccine would likely be less effective because it isn’t a good match for the influenza strains in […]

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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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Biology Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Better late than never: Conspiracy theories about the CDC and Ebola

Medical conspiracy theories tend to involve “someone” hiding something from the public. I like to refer to this as the fallacy of “secret knowledge.” That “someone” hiding the “secret knowledge” is usually the government, big pharma, or other ill-defined nefarious forces. The “secret knowledge” being hidden comes invariably in one of two flavors. Either “they” […]