"A statement of fact cannot be insolent." The miscellaneous ramblings of a surgeon/scientist on medicine, quackery, science, and pseudoscience (and anything else that interests him).

Tag: Andrew Wakefield

Thanks for the measles yet again, Andy

Post author By Orac
Post date May 1, 2017
258 Comments on Thanks for the measles yet again, Andy

Yet another population is learning why you shouldn’t trust Andrew Wakefield. There is a large Somali immigrant population in Minnesota, and unfortunately they’ve been targeted by antivaxers. As a result, their MMR uptake has plummeted, and now they’re in the midst of another measles outbreak. Andrew Wakefield screws yet another group.

Tags Andrew Wakefield, antivaccine, Autism, immigrant, Minnesota, Somali, vaccine

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

What makes a physician become an antivaxer? (Part 2)

Post author By Orac
Post date April 21, 2017
49 Comments on What makes a physician become an antivaxer? (Part 2)

Orac contemplates a reason why doctors become antivaccine that he missed the last time he discussed this topic.

Tags Andrew Wakefield, antivaccine, cancer, Dunning-Kruger effect, Stanislaw Burzynski, vaccine

Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

Tomorrow, antivaxers march on Washington, and, boy, are they excited!

Post author By Orac
Post date March 30, 2017
236 Comments on Tomorrow, antivaxers march on Washington, and, boy, are they excited!

This is the banner that antivaxers will be marching under. Why is it that they always try to conflate "freedom" with the ability to let disease run rampant?

Antivaxers are marching on Washington tomorrow, as they did in 2008. The cast is different (other than Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Barbara Loe Fisher), but the dangerous pseudoscientific is the same.