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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics

A canary in the coal mine? Or a bird pining for the fjords?

Why is it that so many bloggable items tend to pop up right before holidays? Whatever the reason, whether my perception that this is the case is accurate or simply the result of confirmation bias on my part, last Friday a little tidbit of popped up that seriously tempted me to blog about it. But […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine

Expelled!, anti-vaccine style, 2011 edition (continued)

Today’s a holiday here in the U.S. You’d think that I’d be taking it easy, but, sadly, thanks to the insatiable needs of the NIH grant monster, today, as I was doing most of the day Saturday and part of the day yesterday, will be working on grants; that is, when I don’t take a […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine

Expelled!, anti-vaccine style, 2011 edition

It’s happened again. Remember how I’ve said time and time again that the anti-vaccine movement is very much like a religion, a cult even? One of the key attributes of religion is an intolerance for heretics, apostates, and unbelievers. The usual approach to unbelievers is either to try to convert them and then, failing that, […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Quackery

The 2011 measles outbreak and vaccines in Nature

I was debating what to blog about last night, and it wasn’t easy. We’re in the midst of yet another embarrassment of riches, as far as topics relevant to this blog go. Then I noticed something that I considered to be quite appropriate, given that we are now right in the middle of the yearly […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Autism One: The yearly anti-vaccine quackfest begins

It’s that time of year again! No, I’m not referring to the unofficial start of summer here in the U.S., namely the Memorial Day holiday, although that is fast approaching. In fact, it’s only five days away. No, I’m referring to something that, beginning today, will blight my favorite metro area (Chicago) for the next […]