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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

The Wall Street Journal Health Blog: What’s a factor of a thousand if it gets in the way of a good story?

The stupid continues to metastasize. I wrote yesterday about a truly bad and irresponsible hit piece on Paul Offit and the American Academy of Pediatrics written by the anti-vaccinationist sympathizer Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News. Since I’ve already rehashed what was so bad about it, I won’t go on about it. However, it appears that […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Germ theory denialism and antivaccination myths on Medscape

I’ve lamented time and time again how much woo has managed to infiltrate academic medicine, even to the point where prestigious medical schools such as Harvard and Yale have fallen under its sway. I’ve even gone so far as to lament that resistance is futile when it comes to the rising tide of woo threatening […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine

Why, Medscape, why? Or: Gardasil is hunky-dory except when antivaccinationists say it’s not.

THWOMP! THWOMP! THWOMP! TWHOMP! THWOMP! TWHOMP! That’s the sound of me hitting my head against the table. Hard. What provoked this reaction in me is Medscape, specifically an article that my blog bud PalMD turned me on to. That the article, entitled HPV Vaccine Deemed Safe and Effective, Despite Reports of Adverse Events, seems to […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

Oh, noes! Obama’s sending men in black to vaccinate your children!

If there’s one characteristic of the anti-vaccine movement that helps define them as true cranks, it’s a streak of conspiracy theory mania. It’s not too much of an exaggeration when I wonder if they think that the Lizard Men have taken over the government, the CDC, and the American Academy of Pediatrics in order to […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Biology Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Evolution Intelligent design/creationism Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking Television

Bill Maher and “anti-science”

Last week, I expressed my surprise and dismay that the Atheist Alliance International chose Bill Maher for the Richard Dawkins Award. I was dismayed because Maher has championed pseudoscience, including dangerous antivaccine nonsense, germ theory denialism complete with repeating myths about Louis Pasteur supposedly recanting on his deathbed, a href=”http://oracknows.blogspot.com/2005/12/bill-maher-anti-vax-wingnut.html”>hostility towards “Western medicine” and an […]