Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Entertainment/culture Humor Medicine Music

The Refusers: Proving Orac’s corollary to Poe’s Law

Over the last week or so, I’ve been a bit–shall we say?–dismissive of claims by anti-vaccinationists when they insist that, really, truly, honestly, they aren’t “anti-vaccine,” usually with a wounded, indignant, self-righteous tone. Either that, or they make like the Black Knight in Monty Python and The Holy Grail by demanding the surrender of the […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

A response is needed: Matt Lauer to interview Andrew Wakefield Monday morning

Andrew Wakefield’s back, and he’s sure trying to come back big. I knew when I last wrote about his utter humiliation and disrepute that he wouldn’t stay away for long. In fact, he stayed away longer than I thought–a whole three months. Unfortunately, though, he appears to be on a full media blitz to try […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Quackery

“Interesting times,” thanks to a confluence of anti-vaccine pseudoscience

An old Chinese combined proverb and curse is said to be, “May you live in interesting times.” Certainly, with respect to vaccines, the last few years have been “interesting times.” Unfortunately, this week times are about to get a lot more “interesting” as the Autism One quackfest descends upon Chicago beginning today. Featuring prominently in […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Politics Quackery

Andrew Wakefield: Struck off!

It’s been a long time comin’ It’s goin’ to be a Long Time Gone. And it appears to be a long, appears to be a long, appears to be a long time, yes, a long, long, long ,long time before the dawn. – from “Long Time Gone” by Crosby, Stills & Nash Oh, happy day! […]

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine

Is the anti-vaccine movement fizzling?

After a week of some of the most amazing anti-vaccine craziness that I’ve seen in quite a while, a week that started with anti-vaccine hero Andrew Wakefield’s name being struck off the list of licensed medical practitioners in the U.K. During the entire week, there was (and is ongoing) an anti-vaccine crank conference known as […]