As a deadly measles outbreak continued to kill children in Samoa, antivaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. wrote to Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi. His deceptive pseudoscientific talking points became the template for antivaxers seeking to deflect blame from themselves.
This week,a ridiculous practice called “perineum sunning” (or “butthole sunning”) went viral on social media and the news. It’s so ridiculous a practice that I have to wonder if social media influencers made up for clicks.
Jami Hepworth is a doctor’s wife. Having dubbed herself the “Skeptical Doctor’s Wife,” she has become an antivaccine activist. Unfortunately, doctor’s wife or not, medicine and science are clearly not her forte. She also doesn’t like laughing emojis directed at her.
Love it or hate it, Wikipedia is a main go-to rough and ready source of information for millions of people. Although I’ve had my problems with Wikipedia and used to ask whether it could provide reliable information on medicine and, in particular, alternative medicine and vaccines, given that anyone can edit it, I now conclude that Wikipedia must be doing OK, at least in these areas. After all, some of the highest profile promoters of alternative and “integrative” medicine hate Wikipedia, to the point of attacking it and concocting conspiracy theories about it.
Acupuncturists have been trying to explain why no anatomic structure corresponds to meridians. Enter the primo vascular system, which circulates electricity in DNA. Or stem cells. Or something.
