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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Politics Popular culture Quackery

Chili’s gets burned by an antivaccine group posing as an “autism advocacy” group

Here I am, sitting on the balcony of my hotel room in sunny San Diego, as I get ready to head over to the 2014 meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). The sun is rising over the mountains, and the only sound I hear is that of running water in the swimming […]

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Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Popular culture Quackery

Bleach Enema Karaoke

Long day in the OR yesterday. By the time I got home, believe it or not, I was too beat to deliver one of my characteristic rants full of Insolence and science that my readers all know and love (well, mostly love). Consequently, today’s a perfect day for a quickie. (No, not that kind of […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

An antivaccine “Thinker” calls for a boycott

There is a perception that strikes me as common enough to be considered “common wisdom” that antivaccine views are much more common on the “left” of the political spectrum than they are on the “right.” I’ve discussed on multiple occasions how this perceived common wisdom is almost certainly wrong, or at least so incomplete as […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Tactics and tropes of the antivaccine movement (2014 edition)

With very few exceptions, antivaccinationists labor under the delusion that they are not antivaccine. The reason is simple. Deep down, at some level, even the most dedicated antivaccine advocate knows that society quite rightly views it as a bad thing to be against a preventative intervention that has arguably saved more lives than any other […]

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Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Get out the popcorn! This internecine war among antivaccinationists is getting interesting (part 5)

There’s a general rule that whenever you see two enemies fighting with each other that you should generally just let them. Of course, some might argue, as Gandalf did about Saruman and Sauron, that the winner of the fight would emerge stronger and free of doubt, making him harder to conquer. Fortunately, I don’t think […]