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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Clinical trials Medicine Pseudoscience

Andrew Wakefield 25 years later: Paving the way for FLCCC and COVID quacks

It was 25 years ago last week that Andrew Wakefield launched the modern iteration of the antivaccine movement.In doing so, he laid down a template that antivax quacks today still follow.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine

A blast from the past: Jake Crosby retracts his antivax criticism of an MMR study

One quirk of having blogged so long is that sometimes cranks you’ve blogged about reappear after a long disappearance. So it was when antivax wunderkind Jake Crosby retracted a bogus critique of a study that failed to find a link between MMR vaccines and autism.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience

When new school antivaxxer Steve Kirsch met old school antivaxxer Andrew Wakefield

Steve Kirsch interviewed Andrew Wakefield, demonstrating that there is no distance between “new school” and “old school” antivaxxers anymore. Also, they are antivaccine, with Wakefield saying there is no safe vaccine.

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Antivaccine nonsense Cancer Medicine Quackery

Elle Macpherson’s breast cancer: Another example of how antivax and quackery are inseparable

When last I wrote about Elle Macpherson, she was dating Andrew Wakefield. I now learn that she treated her breast cancer with quackery. One more time, antivax and quackery are inseparable, and portraying the choice of quackery as “brave” is irresponsible.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

“CDC whistleblower” conspiracy theory, resurrected by “new school” antivaxxers

In 2014, Andrew Wakefield unveiled Brian Hooker’s “CDC whistleblower” conspiracy theory featuring William Thompson, a CDC scientist who claimed that a vaccine-autism link was being covered up. Now, Steve Kirsch and other COVID-19 antivaxxers are resurrecting it.