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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine Quackery

The Chicago Tribune: Telling it like it is about the antivaccine autism “biomed” movement

There are times when I look back, and I can’t believe I’ve been at it this long. It’s not just the blogging, the fifth anniversary of which is rapidly approaching for me. Hard as it is to believe, not only have I become a “venerable” medical and skeptical blogger, but there are actually a lot […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

The anti-vaccine “biomed” movement: Hijacking legitimate scientific research

As hard as I find it to believe, the fifth anniversary of this blog is fast approaching. When I started this whole endeavor, it was more or less on a whim that struck me on a cold, dreary, gray Saturday in December, and I had no idea that five years later I’d still be at […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Pseudoscience Science Skepticism/critical thinking

The anti-vaccine movement shows just how low it can go

I debated whether or not to blog about this. The reason is that I suspect that gathering a lot of attention and controversy is exactly what Generation Rescue wanted when it posted what I’m about to blog about. On the other hand, no matter how low my opinion is of the principals who run Generation […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

Suppression of speech through legal intimidation, anti-vaccine edition: Barbara Loe Fisher sues Dr. Paul Offit, Amy Wallace, and Condé Nast for libel

In general, one of the biggest differences between those defending science-based medicine and those defending pseudoscience, quackery, and anti-science is that science inculcates in its adherents a culture of free and open debate. In marked contrast, those advocating pseudoscience tend to cultivate cultures of the echo chamber. Examples abound and include discussion forums devoted to […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

The price exacted by the anti-vaccine movement

As 2009 ended and 2010 began, I made a vow to myself to try to diversify the topics covered on this blog. Part of that vow was to try to avoid writing about vaccines and the anti-vaccine movement for more than a couple of days in a row. Unfortunately, even in the middle its very […]