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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Quackery

And now Anne Frank is dragged into the antivaccine picture

I guess that the antivaccinationists didn’t listen to me last time when I suggested that maybe—just maybe—using Holocaust analogies when discussing autism and vaccines is just a wee bit inappropriate, such an overblown analogy that it spreads far more heat than light. At least, Kent Heckenlively didn’t, and, because his invocation of the Nazi card […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine

The “I told you so” fantasy, or: The fallacy of future vindication

Cranks love to fantasize that their ideas will be vindicated in the future. The fantasy almost never becomes reality.

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Anti-Semitism Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine History Hitler Zombie Holocaust Holocaust denial Medicine Quackery World War II

Can antivaccinationists knock it off with the autism Holocaust analogies already?

It’s very clear that many antivaccinationists hate autistic children. The language they use to describe them makes that very clear. Such children are “damaged” (by vaccines, of course); the parents’ real children were “stolen” from them (by vaccines); they are “toxic” (from vaccines); the “light left their eyes” (due to vaccines). Autism is an “epidemic,” […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine

Brian Hooker criticizes a vaccine safety study; hilarity ensues

Last week, the Journal of Pediatrics published a study that did a pretty good job of demolishing a favorite antivaccine trope used to frighten parents. In fact, it’s one of the most effective of antivaccine tropes, as evidenced by a large number of parents who are generally pro-vaccine expressing doubts when asked about this particular […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

“Common sense” that isn’t

“Common sense” is not so common. Actually, that’s not exactly right. What I meant was that what most people think of as “common sense” has little or nothing to do with what science concludes. Evidence talks, “common sense” walks. I saw a fantastic example to illustrate this point on a certain blog that I’ve found […]