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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

“Piltdown” medicine: Andrew Wakefield’s scientific fraud was worse than previously thought

Pity poor Andrew Wakefield. 2010 was a terrible year for him, and 2011 is starting out almost as bad. In February 2010, the General Medical Council in the U.K. recommended that Wakefield be stripped of his license to practice medicine in the U.K. because of scientific misconduct related to his infamous 1998 case series published […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine

Lamenting Deadly Choices that endanger children

As hard as it is to believe after the pile of poo that was 2010, the year 2011 is starting out rather promisingly, at least from the point of view of science-based medicine. Its beginning has been greeted with the release of two–count ’em, two!–books taking a skeptical, science-based look at vaccines and, in particular, […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Humor Medicine

Introducing…the Pestilence League of America

You know, I think I agree with ZDoggMD. The anti-vaccine movement has become so successful that perhaps it needs its own movie franchise to show its heroic resistance against vaccines: It’s round about time we in the medical community recognized the heroic efforts of those who would warn us against the horrible dangers of vaccinations. […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

The annals of “I’m not anti-vaccine,” part 4 (End of 2010 edition)

Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. I realize I say these things again and again and again, but they bear repeating because together they are a message that needs to be spread in as clear and unambiguous a form as possible. First, whenever you hear someone say, “I’m not […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Entertainment/culture Medicine Movies Music Popular culture Quackery Television

Once more into the anti-vaccine fray in the theaters…

File this under another “better late (as in after Christmas) than never.” Remember Elyse Anders? Remember how she successfully rallied skeptical activists to try to put the kibosh on an effort by the anti-vaccine group SafeMinds to infiltrate theaters with their commercials desguised as public service announcements over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend? Remember how she […]