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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine

Autism prevalence increases to 1 in 36, and antivaxxers freak out…again

The CDC updated its estimates for the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders. Predictably, antivaxxers blame the increasing prevalence of ASDs reported, particularly in Black children, on “environmental factors,” which is antivax code for, “Vaccines are to blame.”

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Pseudoscience

Another study shows that autism is mainly genetic. Antivaxers go crazy.

This month the largest epidemiological study of its kind was published and concluded, once again, that autism is primarily due to genes and that the environmental component of autism risk is small. Not surprisingly, once again antivaxers didn’t want to hear that message.

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Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Autism clusters and "toxins"

Time to get back to business after yesterday’s festivities. One of the items of Gospel Truth among the “autism biomed” movement, which consists of people who fervently believe that autism is caused by some sort of external “toxin,” infection, or vaccines and that subjecting children to various forms of quackery designed either to “detoxify” or […]

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Medicine Politics Science

Disingenuous responses to straightforward questions

In yesterday’s post, in which I discussed the President’s Cancer Panel report on environmental toxins and cancer, I criticized one of the reactions to it, specifically that of the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH), even referencing a truly hilarious Daily Show clip in which Jeff Stier, Associate Director of ACSH didn’t exactly come […]

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Cancer Medicine Politics

The President’s Cancer Panel steps into it

I’m a bit of an odd bird in the world of cancer. No, it’s not because I run a snarky skeptical blog that routinely deconstructs the nonsense that alt-med practitioners sprew far and wide, nor is it because I’ve developed a middling level of popularity that shocks me from time to time. Nor is it […]