RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE

"A statement of fact cannot be insolent." The miscellaneous ramblings of a surgeon/scientist on medicine, quackery, science, and pseudoscience (and anything else that interests him).

Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bioethics Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Remind me never to get on Brian Deer’s bad side

Post author By Orac
Post date January 6, 2007
113 Comments on Remind me never to get on Brian Deer’s bad side

Before I move on to other topics, I can’t resist one last comment about the corrupt and sleazy Andrew Wakefield, the man who, with the help of heaping piles of cash from lawyers, almost singlehandedly produced a scare over the possibility that the MMR vaccine causes autism so large that vaccination rates in the U.K. fell precipitously, leading to massive misery due to a resurgence of the diseases prevented by the MMR vaccine and at least one death. Brian Deer, as you may know, is the journalist who exposed the disgusting underbelly of Wakefield’s activities and who also broke the story of just how much money Wakefield and his cronies had accepted from lawyers beginning before his 1998 journal article that caused the MMR scare was ever published.

Now, Brian Deer asks the question about Jackie Fletcher, the woman who runs JABS, the anti-MMR group from the northwest of England: Did she know about the dough?

A very good question, don’t you think? Anyone want to guess what the answer probably is?

The most amusing part of Deer’s article is his takedown of anti-mercury crusader Erik Nanstiel. Remind me never to get on Brian Deer’s bad side. Deer could teach Orac a thing or two about insolence.

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By Orac

Orac is the nom de blog of a humble surgeon/scientist who has an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his copious verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few probably will. That surgeon is otherwise known as David Gorski.

That this particular surgeon has chosen his nom de blog based on a rather cranky and arrogant computer shaped like a clear box of blinking lights that he originally encountered when he became a fan of a 35 year old British SF television show whose special effects were renowned for their BBC/Doctor Who-style low budget look, but whose stories nonetheless resulted in some of the best, most innovative science fiction ever televised, should tell you nearly all that you need to know about Orac. (That, and the length of the preceding sentence.)

DISCLAIMER:: The various written meanderings here are the opinions of Orac and Orac alone, written on his own time. They should never be construed as representing the opinions of any other person or entity, especially Orac's cancer center, department of surgery, medical school, or university. Also note that Orac is nonpartisan; he is more than willing to criticize the statements of anyone, regardless of of political leanings, if that anyone advocates pseudoscience or quackery. Finally, medical commentary is not to be construed in any way as medical advice.

To contact Orac: [email protected]

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