Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine

Legal thuggery, antivaccine edition, part 2: An interesting connection

The plot thickens. Earlier, I discussed how disgraced, struck-off anti-vaccine physician Dr. Andrew Wakefield, deciding that being humiliated once by the courts in a libel action wasn’t enough, has apparently decided to have another bite at the apple. Given that he was so thoroughly humiliated in the notoriously plaintiff-friendly (for libel cases, at least) British […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Biology Complementary and alternative medicine Evolution Medicine Physics Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

HuffPo now has a science section, and I remain skeptical that it changes anything.

It’s no secret that I’ve been highly critical of The Huffington Post, at least of its approach to science and medicine. In fact, it was a mere three weeks after Arianna Huffington launched her blog back in 2005 that I noticed something very distressing about it, namely that it had recruited someone who would later […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

The antivaccine crankosphere rallies around its hero, and Brian Deer strikes back

When I wrote last week about the latest legal thuggery against an opponent of antivaccine pseudoscience, this time by hero of the antivaccine movement, who sued investigative reporter Brian Deer for defamation, there was one thing about the case that confused me, one aspect that didn’t add up to me. Part of it was why […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Politics

Now Andy Wakefield will prevail in his libel suit against Brian Deer because John Walker-Smith won his appeal? Not so fast there, pardner…

I don’t know what it is about the beginning of a year. I don’t know if it’s confirmation bias or real, but it sure seems that something big happens early every year in the antivaccine world. Consider. As I pointed out back in February 2009, in rapid succession Brian Deer reported that Andrew Wakefield had […]

Categories
Autism Medicine Quackery

Camel’s milk: The cure-all that cures autism, too?

The Autism File bills itself as a magazine dealing with all aspects of autism. In reality, it’s basically a crank magazine dedicated to autism biomedical quackery plus a generous helping of antivaccine fear mongering. In fact, this passage should tell you all you need to know about the publication: Autism File is a lifestyle guide […]