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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Politics

Minnesota State Senator Jim Abeler: Stealth antivaccine advocate?

Recently, Sen. Jim Abeler of Minnesota created the MN Autism Council, an advisory panel tasked with advising the legislature on autism policy. A closer look at the story reveals that Sen. Abeler is a chiropractor, two of the members are antivaxers, and one of them was a founding member tasked with forming the council. This is how antivaccine activism is disguised as autism advocacy.

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Antivaccine nonsense Computers and social media Medicine Television

Amazon, Facebook, and other streaming and social media platforms are finally cracking down on antivaccine misinformation

Over the last two weeks, Amazon, YouTube, Facebook, and other social media platforms started to crackdown on the spread of antivaccine misinformation on their services. Will it be enough?

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Medicine Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

Brian Hooker’s antivaccine pseudoscience has risen from the dead to threaten children again

Remember Brian Hooker’s pseudoscience-laden “study” linking the MMR vaccine with autism in African-American boys? It’s back from the dead! Even more hilariously, it’ was published in that rag of a “journal” for all things right wing conspiracy pseudoscience, the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Popular culture Quackery

One Conversation: An antivaccine crankfest adds two more antivaccine cranks

“One Conversation” was originally planned to be a panel discussion between pro- and anti-vaccine advocates. However, as pro-vaccine scientists learned just how disreputable the antivaccine cranks on the panel are, they’ve canceled, leaving an antivaccine crankfest. Yesterday, I learned that this antivaccine confab has added two more cranks, one of whom is a real blast from the past.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery

Michigan Vaccine Freedom Political Action Committee: Promoting antivaccine policies in my state

A childhood friend of mine, who is running for office, forwarded me a questionnaire from the Michigan Vaccine Freedom Political Action Committee. It consisted of questions about whether she would support vaccine “choice” and “freedom.” Unfortunately, antivaccine advocacy groups are becoming more influential. Now they’re trying to lobby like any other lobbying group.