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Clinical trials Medicine Science

Misrepresenting science: Time to look in the mirror

If there’s one thing I’ve been railing about for the last few years, it’s how scientific and medical studies are reported in the lay press. It seems that hardly a week passes without my having to apply a little Insolence, be it Respectful or not-so-Respectful, to some story or another, usually as a result of […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Quackery

Anti-vaccine activist Mark Blaxill pleads for a “sense of civil discourse” about vaccines. My irony meter explodes again.

Over the weekend, I saw a rather fascinating post by Sullivan entitled A Sense of Civil Discourse. The reason I found it so fascinating is because what was quoted in it utterly destroyed my irony meter yet again, leaving it nothing but a molten, gooey mess still bubbling and hissing in my office. Apparently last […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine

What does it mean to be “anti-vaccine”?

What does “anti-vaccine” really mean? Orac attempts to explain.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

J.B. Handley: Attacking the AAP over vaccines…again

I may have taken a break yesterday, but that doesn’t mean I’ve abandoned my mission to make this Vaccine Awareness Week (or, more properly, the Anti-vaccine Movement Awareness Week, dedicated to countering the lies of the anti-vaccine movement). Even though it was good to take a day off, the anti-vaccine movement rarely takes a day […]

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Biology Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Science

The Chicago Tribune, “chronic Lyme disease,” and demands for false balance

During the six years of its existence, one frequent complaint I’ve had on this blog, it’s been about how the press covers various health issues. In particular, it’s depressing to see how often dubious and even outright false health claims, such as the claim that vaccines cause autism, that cell phones or powerlines cause cancer, […]