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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Entertainment/culture Medicine Music

The Refusers prove Orac’s corollary of Poe’s law once again

Remember The Refusers? They’re the antivaccine band with the recycled classic rock sound lacking a shred of originality or chops that flooded the blogosphere with their crazy in the form of Clash wanna be songs like Vaccine Gestapo, which inspired Surly Amy to make me a Vaccine Gestapo pendant to wear at TAM a couple […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

The nonsense that is “Vaccine Injury Awareness Month”

Normally, these days I greet the month of October with a mixture of anticipation and dread. The anticipation stems from October’s position as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Now that somehow I’ve managed to have a variety of responsibilities with respect to how breast cancer is managed at our cancer institute, suddenly I find that I’m […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine

Anti-vaccine grande dame Barbara Loe Fisher cries “intimidation”

A couple of weeks ago, I sounded the alarm regarding a highly deceptive public service announcement/infomercial being run on some Delta Airlines flights, courtesy of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC). That’s the organization founded by the grand dame of the anti-vaccine movement, Barbara Loe Fisher, who features prominently in the PSA. I call this […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Entertainment/culture Medicine Movies

Anti-vaccine propaganda lands in New York City this weekend

“The Greater Good” is what I like to call an antivaccine propaganda film masquerading as a documentary. And, yes, it’s full of antivaccine misinformation.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Motivated reasoning and the anti-vaccine movement

One theme that I keep revisiting again and again is not so much a question of the science behind medical therapies (although certainly I do discuss that issue arguably more than any other) but rather a question of why. Why is it that so many people cling so tenaciously to pseudoscience, quackery, and, frequently, conspiracy […]