Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

Ann Dachel and Sayer Ji inadvertently show that antivax pseudoscience never changes

Ann Dachel of the antivaccine blog Age of Autism and Sayer Ji of GreenMedInfo inadvertently demonstrate how with antivaccine pseudoscience the more things change the more they stay the same.

Categories
Bad science Medicine Politics Popular culture Science

What leads to trust or mistrust of scientists and physicians?

Given all the denial of the science behind vaccines, GMOs, evolution, and climate science, you might think that Americans in general distrust scientists and physicians. It’s actually not true. Trust in scientists and doctors remains high, but there are still areas where mistrust of scientists is a significant problem. What can be done?

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Politics Popular culture

Is the current generation of children the “sickest generation,” as antivaxers claim?

Presidential candidate and New Age self-help guru Marianne Williamson has been repeating a claim that over half of our children have chronic illness and implying that the expansion of the vaccine schedule since the late 1980s is responsible. But is it true? Are over half of our children sick? Is this “the sickest generation”?

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Medicine Politics Popular culture

What ex-antivaxer Kelley Watson-Snyder can teach us

Kelley Watson-Snyder was an antivaxer who has now become a pro-vaccine advocate. We can learn a lot from her story and deconversion.

Categories
Bad science Bioethics Clinical trials

Pay-to-play clinical trials: The HHS Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Human Research Protections (SACHRP) weighs in

The ethics of pay-to-play clinical trials are a minefield. Last week the HHS Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Human Research Protections (SACHRP) stepped into that minefield. Are “pay-to-play” clinical trials ever ethically acceptable?