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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Measles is more dangerous than we thought, and vaccines are as safe as we thought

As hard as it is to believe, it’s been nearly two years since the infamous Disneyland measles outbreak, which occurred after the holidays in 2014. It was an outbreak whose spread was facilitated by unvaccinated children and that had far-reaching implications. For one thing, in its wake, California passed SB 277, a law eliminating nonmedical […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Movies Politics Quackery

Andrew Wakefield and the Tribeca Film Festival: Criticism of a bad decision ≠ “censorship”

Ever since I mentioned on Tuesday that the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival had taken a massive dump on reality and science by selecting for screening Andrew Wakefield’s antivaccine propaganda “documentary,” Vaxxed: From Cover-up to Catastrophe, dedicated to the so-called “CDC whistleblower,” the topic has taken over, as topics sometimes tend to do here. In response […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Movies

Raging Bullsh*t, part 2: J. B. Handley enters the fray to defend Robert De Niro’s antivaccine stylings

Robert De Niro facilitated the acceptance of VAXXED, an antivaccine propaganda film disguised as a documentary made by Andrew Wakefield and Del Bigtree. In the aftermath, J.B. Handley enters the fray, and Wakefield throws everyone under the bus.

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Popular culture Quackery

Will 2017 be the antivaccine year?

With the election of one of their own to the White House, antivaxers feel emboldened. They think that Donald Trump is sympathetic to their cause, and they have reasons to belief that. Will 2017 be the “tipping point,” the year the antivaccine movement clearly becomes ascendant?

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Religion Science Skepticism/critical thinking

When the next big outbreaks happen, they’ll probably happen in Texas

Back in the day, I used to write posts with titles like When the outbreaks occur, they’ll start in California. I even wrote a followup, When the outbreaks occur, they’ll start in California, 2014 edition. The reason, of course, was that California was one of the epicenters of vaccine hesitancy as well as the home […]